On a recent visit to China, I was impressed by how well the urban Chinese seem to be faring. While I’m aware that life in Beijing and Shanghai is not representative of how everyone in China lives, it’s remarkable that a growing number of people have enough expendable income to eat in restaurants and purchase consumer goods. I was surprised by the modern and well-developed infrastructure – new railroads and highways, bright train stations and stunning, futuristic airports. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Investment in Africa
African Private Equity on the Rise
In many ways, private equity (PE) firms are uniquely designed to deal with investment climates in emerging markets like Africa. They provide much-needed capital for moderately risky ventures and the management capabilities needed to make the companies grow. African PE firms are helping to enhance the investment climate for non-traditional sectors like green technology, telecommunications, and private healthcare systems. And while private equity is still only an emerging development paradigm (PE in Africa currently constitutes less than 6% of global PE deals), much can be done to support its expansion on the continent. Continue reading
Congress Daily – Reaction to McDermott Bill Harsh, Muted
By Peter Cohn
Congress Daily
November 20, 2009
African nations and domestic textile interests wasted no time slamming the first serious legislative attempt in the 111th Congress to overhaul U.S. trade preferences, while Bangladesh, a key player on the opposite side of the debate, was lukewarm. Continue reading
Africa Health News September-October 2009
President Kagame calls for strong health leadership- Leaders discuss secure supply chains
- Alliance launched to eliminate malaria deaths
- Kenya to benefit from private equity health investments
- New drug targets sleeping sickness
- New public-private partnership to improve blood collection safety
- African nations seek accreditation for medical laboratories
- GSK to make a large investment in AIDS drugs for Africa
- WHO proposes preparedness response to H1N1 flu pandemic
- Leaders in Health: Dr Gunther Faber, CEO, the Healthstore Foundation
- Tanzanian anti-malarial bed net plant to expand production
Investment in Ghana: Capitalizing on Our Opportunities
During discussions with business and industry leaders at last month’s UN General Assembly in New York, Ghanaian President John Atta Mills and Trade Minister Hannah Tetteh both reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to encouraging foreign direct investment, especially in agro-industry. Minister Tetteh specifically cited Cargill’s investment in a $100 million cocoa processing plant in Tema – which was officially opened in November of 2008 – as the type of investment that the government will support and encourage. A plant like this adds value to Ghana’s cocoa beans locally by processing them into export-grade cocoa powders, which creates more jobs in Ghana and a higher price for the product than if Ghana simply exported raw beans. Continue reading
West Africa’s Regional Economic Integration
Last week, Accra hosted the Ghana-Togo-Benin-Nigeria Business Summit to explore ways to boost investment and trade between our four countries. In a speech read on his behalf, President Faure Gnassingbé of Togo expressed my exact sentiments on regional economic integration. He urged businessmen in these countries and other West African states to stop seeing challenges to cross-border business as obstacles, but instead as opportunities. These trials should be an impetus for us to define appropriate measures for facilitating business, investment and trade. Continue reading
A Tale of Two Mines
by Daniel Morris
One area that politicians, economists, and journalists of all stripes seem to agree is the need for private investment and businesses to flourish in sub-Saharan Africa. Two events this past week in the mining sector – one closing, one opening – affirmed this view. Continue reading
Rosa Whitaker Calls for Expanded AGOA, Stronger Constituency For Africa
Lays out Policy Imperatives for the Obama Administration during annual CBC Conference
Washington, D.C. (September 25, 2009) – At two headline events on US-Africa policy during the Congressional Black Caucus’s Annual Legislative Conference, Rosa Whitaker, President and CEO of the Whitaker Group and the first ever Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa, called on advocates for Africa to reach out to Congress and the Obama Administration in a concerted effort to support several new trade and investment initiatives for the continent. Continue reading
Rwanda and Mauritius: Doing Better Business in Africa
By Meg Dallett
Last week I attended the DC launch of the World Bank and IFC’s Doing Business 2010 report, which annually measures business reforms and ease of doing business around the world. The report ranks countries using ten indicators of how long or arduous it is to do business in those countries – things like starting a business, getting credit, and enforcing contracts – and highlights countries that make progress in any of those areas. Continue reading
UNCTAD Reports $88 Billion Foreign Investment in Africa in 2008
The United Nations Conference on Trade Development (UNCTAD) released its World Investment Report 2009 on September 17, subtitled “Transnational Corporations, Agricultural Production and Development.” The Report finds substantial decreases in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) around the globe due to the recession, but shows impressive pre-recession FDI growth in Africa in 2008 that positions the continent to be a strong investment destination once global economies begin to recover. Continue reading
Debunking Myths About AGOA
Published at allafrica.com – Trade Talk with Rosa Whitaker
by Rosa Whitaker
In the aftermath of the annual AGOA Forum held last month in Nairobi, there has been a chorus of pessimists placing AGOA in the Hall of Shame of failed policy initiatives. They could not be more wrong.
In fact, AGOA is among the most successful US policies towards Africa-especially in terms of a return-on-investment ratio. According to the OECD, over the past 50 years the US has spent well over $325 billion dollars in foreign aid to Africa – yet Africa remains the only region of the world getting poorer. The returns on investments from US aid have been dismal. Continue reading
A Jozi Revival
I’m in Johannesburg this week looking at the South African trade and investment climate. Having first visited Johannesburg in 1995, I had a particular image of what I thought I was going to return to. Then, all the businesses and government offices had abandoned their offices for commercial parks in the northern suburbs. The city skeleton that was left functioned more like an elaborate car park for taxis. Business offices were quickly repurposed to suit the new resident’s needs. Crime and squatting skyrocketed as immigrants, slum dwellers and drug dealers took refuge. Continue reading
Nuclear Power for Energy Security in Africa
by Adanma Osakwe
Due to crippling energy shortages and power blackouts in homes and businesses, African nations are facing the question of energy security. As a result, an increasing number of African countries are taking an interest in the development of nuclear power energy. Continue reading
Will Global Recession Damage US-Africa Trade Ties?
Published at allafrica.com
by Paul Collier and Rosa Whitaker
Writing after last week’s United States-Africa trade forum in Nairobi, Paul Collier and Rosa Whitaker call on both the U.S. and African nations to craft a meaningful strategy to prevent better trade relations from becoming “a casualty of the recession and of the drift towards political expediency and protectionism.”
This week in Nairobi, Kenya, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led a US delegation to the 8th Annual African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. This Forum, a meeting of US and African ministers, business and civil society leaders, was created as part of AGOA — the first comprehensive US trade policy towards Africa. Continue reading
Marketing and Branding for African Exporters
At last week’s 8th Annual AGOA Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, TWG Managing Director Aubrey Hruby joined a distinguished panel of speakers from such organizations as USAID’s West Africa Trade Hub, South African sourcing agent Cool Ideas, and the Kenya ICT Board to address the topic “Development of and Access to AGOA Export Markets.” Continue reading
Towards a True US-Africa Partnership
“If the Obama administration wishes to truly make a difference, it must do so as an equal partner.”
In a bold and compelling op-ed last week, President Kagame of Rwanda, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana, and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal argued that the US needs to approach Africa as a partner, not a benefactor. I commend this piece and hope the Obama administration will take a close look at the approach it is taking to working with Africa. Continue reading
The New Global Reality: Africans Lead the Way at the AGOA Forum
Kenyan PM Odinga addresses the AGOA Forum. Source: KICC, 2009 AGOA 8th Forum.
The world has come to expect strong and dynamic leadership from the Obama administration. In the campaign, they promised to bring change and new ideas to domestic and international policy and to redefine and recalibrate the US’s role in the world. At the 8th Annual AGOA Forum-the annual US-Africa Summit-held this week in Kenya, however, it was the African leaders who broke new ground. Continue reading
African Investment in Africa
By Meg Dallett
After the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported last year that Africa provides the highest rate of return on foreign direct investment (FDI) of any developing region in the world – over 12% – it’s hardly surprising that private investment in Africa is increasing exponentially. In just seven years, FDI to Africa grew by over 550%, skyrocketing from $9.1 billion in 2001 to $60 billion in 2008. Continue reading
Obama in Ghana
Published at allafrica.com – Trade Talk with Rosa Whitaker
by Rosa Whitaker
In Ghana, President Obama made a strong, albeit not new, call for better governance in Africa. I was there and witnessed the extraordinary enthusiasm that met the president and also the ambivalence among Africans about his message.
Why did Mr. Obama not call upon the Russians to embrace better governance when he was there just days before arriving in Accra? Indeed, why had he not delivered a similar message to the people of the Middle East during his historic speech in Cairo in June? Continue reading
Manual Distribution Centers: Market Access and Job Creation
As a strategy for development, “manual distribution centers” are becoming as popular in development sectors as micro-finance was in 2005. A concept pioneered by Coca-Cola, MDCs are independently owned, low-cost operations created to service retail markets where classic distribution models are ineffective and inefficient because of distance or lack of infrastructure. For example, Coca-Cola hires local distributors in Africa to ship their beverages out to less accessible areas, creating jobs and increasing the markets they can reach. In addition to giving people in hard-to-reach parts of the world access to more products, the MDC system integrates local businesspeople into global supply chains, which is a crucial part of turning the opportunities of trade into broad-based prosperity. Continue reading
