UN calls for peace to promote investments

By Vitalis Kimutai in Japan

United Nations is calling on African Countries to promote peace to attract investments and grow its trade with other continents

Speaking on Sunday during a meeting to address issues relating to Private Sector,Trade and Investment as Engines of Development in the ongoing Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Japan, UN attributed the low foreign investments in the continent to unstable peace which scares potential investors.

“There is need for governments, players in the private sector and civil society organisations to enhance peace so as to create a conducive environment for economic development,” said Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General said.

 “Exports from sub Saharan Africa to Europe, Asia and the West is still very minimal in the world and there is need for paradigm shift so as to integrate Africa in the world economies,” he said.

He called on African countries to market their goods and services to other continents and move away from their traditional markets.
“There is a huge potential for private sector investments in Africa and there is need for expansion of the intra-African and international trade,” Kim said.
 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said that the bone marrow of business is lowering costs in order to maximize profits for business to survive.
Museveni noted that African countries through ECOWAS was working on market integration saying there was need to create a market for goods and services from the continent.
“Infrastructural development, especially electricity, rail and water transport needs to be fast tracked so as to create an enabling environment for investors to make profits from their investments,” Museveni said.
He noted that developed countries and donor agencies had focused too much on roads construction in Africa and neglected other areas thus creating an imbalance in infrastructure development.
Adan Mohammed, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Industrialization and Enterprise Development said African businessmen and women have no access to markets for their goods largely because there were physical barriers for movement of goods and services.
Mohammed said governments and donor agencies should stop giving lip services and focus on creating an enabling environment for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) to access markets and spur economic growth in the African continent.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta has clearly stated that legislation will be drafted and enacted by parliament within the shortest time possible for 30 per cent of the government procurement to be done by SMEs without compromising standards,” Mohammed told the meeting.
Mr Joseph Ogutu, the Director of Strategy and Innovation at Safaricom, Kenya said mobile telephone industry was the fastest growing sector in Africa with 750 million handsets having penetrated the market.
Ogutu said there was need for governments to support financial sector players to fund expansion of the sector and that the success case in Kenya should be replicated across the African continent.
“Mobile phone money transfer (M-Pesa) is a huge success in Kenya with those in the informal sector who do not have bank accounts now able to send and receive money wherever they are. This has also spurred growth
of SMEs,” Ogutu noted. Ogutu stated that due to low penetration of laptops in rural areas, the mobile phones were largely used to access the internet which had transformed lives as students are able to study and businessmen have access to trade information.
Mr Yutaka Kase, Chairman of the Committee on Sub-Saharan Africa, (Keidanren) said that labour laws in some African Countries made it difficult for Japanese companies to invest and improve the people’s living standards.
“Issues related to high taxation, laws, complex processes of acquiring visas and work permits are some of the issues that should be addressed by various countries so as to attract investors,”Kase said.
 Kase said, “Tax and investment agreements should be concluded on bilateral between Africa countries and the government of Japan,”