JOHN GROBLER, Windhoek | Saturday
THE United States’ new African Growth and Opportunities Act is expected to generate some controversy at a southern African economic summit in Windhoek next week.
Many of the countries in the region have been excluded by the terms of the new law, say the organisers of the Southern Africa Trade and Investment Summit, which will be attended by leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), financiers and captains of industry.
But at least three of the countries whose top leaders have been invited have been disqualified from the terms of the act, which Washington has touted as a means of halting Africa’s growing economic marginalisation in the trend towards globalisation.
Lesotho and Swaziland have been disqualified for unfair labour practises, while Zimbabwe is currently facing a barrage of sanctions from the United States for its perceived lack of respect for the rule of law.
The conference, organised by the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, hopes to draw foreign investment into the SADC countries, seen as one of the most stable and organised trading blocks in Africa.
But although a recent World Economic Forum competitiveness report on Africa rated Botswana, South Africa and Namibia relatively highly in terms of investor-friendly environments, this has had little impact on direct foreign investment in their economies.
The 2000 UN World Investment Report, released earlier his week, showed that Angola toppped the list for direct foreign investment, with a total of $1.8bn invested largely in its energy sector.
Executive director of the Namibia Investment Centre David Nuyoma said the investment flows into Africa as outlined by the UN report simply defied logic.
Namibia and Botswana, rated respectively as the third and fourth most competitive countries in Africa, failed to attract the kind of foreign investment that war-torn Angola and Sudan did, he pointed out.
This showed that foreign investors still looked at Africa simply as a source of cheap raw material, such as oil and diamonds, he said.
The summit will address topics such as the potential for growth in telecommunications, water supply, tourism, transport infrastructure, energy and mining. – AFP