05/06/08

Welcome to the General Delegation of Private Investment Promotion, Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry and the National Agency for Inward Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development !

We are pleased to announce that the General Delegation of Private Investment Promotion, based in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry, based in Ankara, Turkey and the National Agency for Inward Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development, based in Rome, Italy are new members of WAIPA.  The Association currently covers 156 countries worldwide with 227 agencies.

http://www.waipa.org

WAIPA is currently planning its workshop schedule for 2008. The topics of the workshops are determined through feed-back from WAIPA members. We are looking forward to receiving your proposals. Also, WAIPA members who are interested in hosting such workshops during the year 2008 are kindly requested to indicate this to the WAIPA secretariat, at the following e-mail addresses:karine.campanelli@waipa.org or alexandra.tokareva@waipa.org

The First East African Investment Conference, June 26th to 28th, 2008, Serena Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

The Government of Rwanda, through the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA), in collaboration with the East African Community Secretariat and the Regional Investment Promotion Agencies/Authorities (IPAs) namely; Kenya Investment Centre, Burundi’s Ministry of Planning and Development, Tanzania Investment Centre and the Uganda Investment Authority, is organizing the first ever  East Africa Investment Conference in Kigali, scheduled to take place from June 26th to 28th, 2008 at Serena Hotel, Kigali.

The conference will be officially inaugurated by His Excellency President Paul Kagame, and his Heads of State colleagues from the region. Over 800 leading business executives from the East African region including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Europe, USA and Asia are expected to participate.

The Conference whose theme is “Leveraging the East African Market through Trade and Investment” is designed to showcase the region’s business and investment opportunities and its potential to serve as a commercial platform for servicing the continent since the region has always been perceived as one market. The East African Common market has a population of 120million people and it enables Partner States to apply synergies and take advantage of the economies of scale in creating a strong vibrant single market and investment area. The community’s GDP is USD 44 billion. The Community already has a Customs Union and are negotiating a Common Market expected to be operational in 2011.

Conference deliberations will focus on investment opportunities across Mining, Transport and Infrastructure Development, Energy, Tourism, ICT, Agro-processing, ICT, Broadcasting and telecommunication, Financial Services Sector, Leather goods production, agro-processing and manufacturing.     

This first East African Investment Conference, through plenary sessions and one-on-one meetings will provide excellent opportunities for business networking between regional and foreign investors. As a result, new businesses in the different sectors shall emanate since investors will be looking at a bigger market.

This forum will also provide a platform for the East African countries to deal with the policy issues that arise from the conference.
 
We expect that the forthcoming investment conference leads to increased inflow of foreign and local investments, crafting joint ventures between the regional block and foreign entrepreneurs, increase exports and employment opportunities due to increased investments.

For more information on the conference, please visit www.rwandainvest.com/conference.

Publication

Invest in Ghana: Focus Kumasi, City Investment Guide
We are pleased to announce the release of Invest in Ghana: Focus Kumasi. This investors' Guide can be downloaded from the Millennium Cities Initiative website (http://www.earth.columbia.edu/mci) or the Columbia Program on International Investment website (http://www.cpii.columbia.edu/cpii_new_pubs.php). It was launched in Kumasi on April 18, 2008.
The Guide, the first city investment guide in West Africa, was prepared by the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) in cooperation with the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with the support of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) and the European Business Council for Africa and the Mediterranean (EBCAM) have lent their support to this effort.
To explore further the investment opportunities identified by KPMG and UNIDO, as well as by this Guide, a special Kumasi Investment Day took place in Kumasi, Ghana, on April 18, 2008, organized by the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority, MCI and CPII.  About 100 representatives of local and foreign businesses participated in the event.
Kumasi is Ghana's second largest city and capital of the Ashanti region.  It is an important commercial center. Its location, climate and safety, combined with Ghana's increasing access to foreign markets, make Kumasi attractive to investment in a number of areas. One sector of great potential discussed in the Guide is in the area of cocoa and its processing.  Another concrete opportunity is the production of fruit juice made from different fruit growing in the region.  Furthermore, opportunities were identified in the hotel sector and in retail.  The production of pharmaceuticals has also great potential.  Other areas with potential for investment include agriculture and agro-processing as well as manufacturing.  The Guide outlines these opportunities, as well as relevant matters such as tax and regulatory conditions in Ghana.