Investment tops agenda of first ICC regional meeting in Africa
Abuja,10 November 2000 - The International Chamber of Commerce will step up efforts to boost private sector development in Africa at its first regional conference in the region on November 20-21.
A key theme of the conference, hosted by ICC Nigeria, will be finding the best investment opportunities in Africa and what types of investment have been the most successful from the viewpoint of multinational companies and local economies alike.
Top executives from leading multinationals, among them Nestle, Shell and Unilever, will be among the speakers at the conference, to be opened with a keynote speech by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The African regional conference is the last major public event of the two-year term of ICC President Adnan Kassar, who has made increased access for developing countries to world markets a main theme of his presidency of the world business organization.
Only a few years ago, ICC was sparsely represented on the African continent, but in recent years it has increased its membership, forming new national committees and adding direct members. Currently, there are ICC members in 27 African countries and more are expected to join next year.
Describing the aims of the Abuja meeting, President Kassar said: "ICC feels a special responsibility towards Africa because private business enterprise
in most of the continent is in a formative stage. We are convinced that the development of a strong and viable private sector will be crucial to greater prosperity for the region."
Underlining the importance of this pioneer African regional meeting of ICC, ICC Vice-President Richard D McCormick, will also be in Abuja, where he is to chair a session on enhancing Africa's trade and investment. Mr McCormick is expected to be the next ICC President. He is former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, U S WEST, Inc. (now part of Qwest Communications), and serves on the boards of several major US companies.
Intrerviewed as preparations for the Abuja conference entered their final stage, Mr Kassar said it was vital for African countries to pursue policies that encouraged foreign direct investment if they were to play a full part in the global economy. "The Abuja conference will examine how FDI can help to jump-start economic growth and provide a sound basis for future economic development."
The ICC regional conference meets a few weeks after the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development noted in its World Investment Report that there was a significant increase in flows of FDI to Africa in 1999, from $8 billion to $10 billion. UNCTAD said that this was in line with the faster growth rate Africa generally experienced during the 1990s, as numerous governments sought to create a more business-friendly environment.
However, these figures need to be seen in perspective. Investments by multinationals into Africa represent only 1.2% of global FDI flows and just 5% of total FDI into all developing countries, so there is a great deal of ground to be made up. Furthermore, in 1999 about 70% of total FDI into Africa was concentrated in just five countries - Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco. All but Angola have ICC national committees.
The Africa regional conference will cover the whole gamut of ICC's activities on behalf of world business - and will be a vehicle for passing international business knowhow to Africa's budding private sector and for international executives to learn about the special needs and priorities of African business.
There will be a special session on electronic commerce and why its future depends on trust. Another will cover ICC's role as the world leader in setting voluntary private sector rules for international trade and the importance of ICC tools for the development of trade in Africa. In a separate session, eminent lawyers will examine the future of commercial arbitration in Africa.
Full programme of ICC Africa regional meeting
ICC African national committees
Business in Africa