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Regional Integration: Views from Guinea / West Africa. Ramatoulaye Bah Minister of Industry Republic of Guinea. Overview. Why should regional integration for investment be promoted ? What are the major constraints ? What has already been done? Who are the major players ?
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Regional Integration:Views from Guinea / West Africa Ramatoulaye BahMinister of IndustryRepublic of Guinea
Overview • Why should regional integration for investment be promoted? • What are the major constraints? • What has already been done? • Who are the major players? • … and how can Guinea and all of the West African countries benefit?
Major Constraints • Lack of effective coordination of individual members’ investment policies. • Outdated domestic investment codes, and lack of consistency in application. • Political stability risks. • Inadequate / insufficient collaboration and sharing of investment information. • Lack of common, regional investment information and promotion tools.
Major regional players and efforts for regional investment cooperation What has already been done to promote investment at the regional level? • Strong cooperation under several regional schemes to liberalize trade in the ECOWAS region, West African Monetary Zone, etc. • Cooperation on investment matters is less advanced compared to cooperation on trade liberalization and promotion. • Good cooperation on legal harmonization as part of OHADA. What are the major regional players that can easily promote investment in a more sustainable fashion? • ECOWAS, UEMOA, Mano River Union, etc. • Overlap and inconsistencies due to the high amount of regional integration efforts in Africa.
Regional Integration in Africa Source: in the public domain, presented by Wikipedia
Regional Integration in Africa Euler diagram, in the public domain presented by Wikipedia
Opportunities for Guinea and West Africa more broadly • Encourage national governments to think “regional” in certain economic sectors --> sharing infrastructure projects (water, electricity, roads etc.) • Negotiate and implement joint economic programs (South-South collaboration). • Monitor and evaluate progress, to learn from experiences and initiate additional investment projects.
Assistance needed from the World Bank Group • Assist with the formulation and drafting of a policy and regulatory framework to intensify investment integration. • Support on intra-regional cooperation, particularly on information sharing. • Help harmonize investment codes, as well as monetary and fiscal policies of countries in the region. • Assist countries in harmonizing as much as possible their institutional, regulatory and legal frameworks. • Assist countries in structuring due diligence processes to enable them to make strategic investment decisions on an informed basis.