Deepening Africa’s Investments:Role of Experience Sharing!

The “2^nd Investing in Africa Forum” in Guangzhou has highlighted the strides of complementarities for shared prosperity within the continent.

As African countries battle to attract viable investments in their drive to journey out of biting underdevelopment, global financiers and other experts where investments have succeeded outstandingly feel the continent stands to gain much were it to share experiences and embrace best practices. Experts from the World Bank, China Development Bank and Guangzhou, in one of China’s most industrious provinces, hold that there is need for innovative investment mechanisms to make the environment increasingly business-friendly.

At the end of a two-day “2^nd Investing in Africa Forum” in China’s business hub, Guangzhou, Guangdong province (September 7-8, 2016), attendees came to a conclusion that the continent needs to upgrade services for investment promotion, be open for mutual cooperation and combat all forms of protectionism for fruitful trade and long-term win-win investments. Over 38 African countries took part in the forum with South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma and Benin’s Head of State, Patrice Talon, leading their respective countries’ delegations.

From Ma Kai, Vice Premier, the State Council China passing through Zhu Xiaodan, Governor of Guangdong Province to the two African leaders, China with her market advantage and technological know-how remains a choice partner for natural resource-rich Africa. Developing infrastructure wherein Africa greatly lags behind and coincidently where China has the funding opening and engineering prowess, they agreed, could bolster the cooperation.

Building human capital, concentrating in areas where the countries and regions have comparative advantages and producing in industrial scale as well as ensuring local processing of what is produced i...