Kampala | Thursday
AFRICAN political and business leaders plan to publicise positive aspects of the continent’s investment environment in order to attract investors, they said on Wednesday.
Nine African presidents and captains of industry who met for four days at an international investment conference that ended here on Tuesday called for “more attention to techniques to sell Africa as the new investment destination of the world.”
During the Global 2001 Smart Partnership International Dialogue, the African leaders and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad joined other political and business leaders from Africa and the Caribbean to map out strategies for attracting more investments to the conflict-ridden continent.
The African presidents who attended the conference were Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Omar el-Beshir of Sudan, Festus Mogade of Botswana, Pierre Buyoya of Burundi and Bakili Muluzi of Malawi.
Speaking on Tuesday, Ken Kwaku of the World Bank noted that many African countries have little public or private capacity for identifying competitive sectors and profiling business opportunities.
“African diplomats have little or no capacity regarding economic or business diplomacy and seem more concerned with other issues than procuring business deals,” Kwaku said.
Dialogue participants agreed that while Africa offered high returns on investment, African governments must deliver on promises over the investment climate in order to reduce risks.
Participants also said, in resolutions read out to the press on Wednesday, that African countries will have to maintain growth rates as high as seven percent or higher if they are to bring prosperity and to attract foreign direct investments.
These investments should be a complement as well as a stimulus to domestic investment, they added.
“African countries need to pay more attention to their domestic private sectors and not always expect the foreigners to do what they are not prepared to do for the locals.
“The situation today in most African countries is that actions by the public sector are aimed at attracting the foreign investor, with little concern for local businesses,” the resolutions noted.
“One of the keys to building an effective African private sector is conscious government actions that promote African businesses in the manufacturing and service sectors to act as suppliers to foreign investors,” one resolution read.
Promotion, greater regional integration and creation of regional hubs that can lower the cost of distribution of goods will be keys to enhancing South-South investment, the leaders resolved.
The next dialogue meeting is to be held next year in Malaysia, its main sponsor, and thereafter alternate between Africa and Malaysia. – AFP