Africa attracted 3 percent of last year's international investment, according to a senior South African official quoted in EngineeringNews.com. That's 3 percent of net private capital flows to developing countries, which World Bank Group data showed reached $491 billion in 2005.
What must Africa do to capture more of the private capital looking for sustainable investments around the globe? The official says local promotion agencies should work on expanding investments in the region to the agribusiness and manufacturing sectors. So far, the bulk of investments has gone to resource-rich countries and has bypassed others. And more emphasis should be put on the burgeoning Asian investment in the region.
That would be working in step with local government and global initiatives underway (see Investment Climate Facility for Africa in which IFC is a partner) to help Africa get a bigger slice of the global foreign investments pie.
It's tough. Africa needs to move faster to attract those FDI dollars. I think there is going to be a lot of political pain in doing what needs to be done, even in top performing countries like Ghana. This is a topic I am going to put on my discussion board at www.internationalstrategy.org. Please join us if you are interested.
Posted by: Busk | November 03, 2006 at 02:31 PM