Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations (ECOWAS)

EPAs Negotiations

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
NEWS
6 July 2007
Posted to the web 6 July 2007

By Joseph Coomson

GHANA HAS not yet concluded on its position on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), which is to be signed by the end of this year.

However, the country will adopt the position of the sub-regional body, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the end of the year, the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiative, Mr. Kwadwo Affram Asiedu said yesterday in Accra.

“Government’s position will be what would be decided by ECOWAS,” Mr. Asiedu said.

The Deputy Minister was speaking as the keynote addresser at the launch of ‘All Africa Business Summit’, which comes off in Accra between September 6 and 8 this year.

On Ghana’s part, the Deputy Minister stressed that deliberations were ongoing but more time was needed to for proper scrutiny of the agreements to be made.

“With this upsurge in civil society, more time is needed to study them. “We are handicapped as to sign or not now,” he said.

He was not comfortable with a clause in the agreement, which seeks to lift tariffs. In the event of that, he said Ghana would lose revenue and create unemployment.

Civil society Movements are working to correct the imbalances in the controversial Economic Partnership Agreement currently being negotiated between the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries and the European Union and which is due to be signed in December this year.

According to Oxfam, “The quiet advance of trade and investment agreements between rich and poor countries threatens to deny developing countries a favorable foothold in the global economy.

It stressed that the rules on liberalization of services in Free Trade Agreements has the potential of driving local firms out of business, reduce competition and extend the monopoly power of large companies.

The new rules in the EPA also pose a threat to poor people’s access to essential services. In some free trade agreements developing countries are committing themselves to let foreign investors into public utilities when the sector is opened up to domestic private companies.

The deputy minister then launched the summit.

Earlier, the President of Kingsworld Media Systems, Mr. Gordon Adjei, the organizer of the summit, said the summit would be organized around three key areas.

They are strategies for promoting successful intra-African trade, pulling down trade barriers and showcasing topmost investment attractions in Africa. The AU endorsed summit is to help improve upon the 10 to 12% trade between African countries. In all, 20 African nations, with delegates from the EU bloc, United Kingdom, China and Asia Pacific are participating.

The Chairman for the occasion was the Chief Director of the Ministry of Trade, Mr. Seth Evans Addo.

EU Seeks to Strike a Deal As African Continent Proves Capable

As African Continent Proves Capable, EU Seeks to Strike a Deal

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
NEWS
6 July 2007
Posted to the web 6 July 2007

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is seeking to strike a deal with the African Union (AU) for the common interest of the two continental blocks.

This partnership is not just for political leaders but the core people of Africa, with a broad network of people-to-people contacts between the EU and Africa at all levels.

In effect, it is expected to focus on a new agenda that espouses global issues such as climate change, energy, migration and effective multi-lateralism.

Mr. Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, President of the European Commission (EC) said, “The dialogue between the European Union and Africa Union is central to the new partnership”.

The next six months is thus expected to be critical for the two blocks, as they would seek to establish a partnership that would respond to current and future challenges and prospects as Mr. Mr. Barrosso said what the two blocs have already achieved was a first step towards greater heights.

The EC President made this revelation when he had the opportunity to address the 44 African Heads of States who attended the just ended AU summit in Accra on Tuesday.

For the realization of this dream, a proposal has been put forward to the two blocks to meet bi-annually, alternating between the continents.

The issue of energy is expected to be one of the major issues, which would be on the drawing board to allow Africa and Europe share knowledge and experience develop a common policy and action to address the energy challenges confronting them.

A meeting has thus been scheduled for December 2007 to fashion out ideas towards the realization of this dream and Mr. Barroso said “the scheduled EU-Africa bloc will afford the chance not only to dream together of a better future but to show the political will to achieve it.”

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Group Tops Billion Dollar Mark in Annual Private Sector Investments

AfDB Group Tops Billion Dollar Mark in Annual Private Sector Investments

African Development Bank (Tunis)
NEWS
6 July 2007
Posted to the web 6 July 2007
Tunis
The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has made over a billion dollars in annual private sector investments in Africa for the first time since its founding in 1964. The Bank reached that highpoint following the approval on Thursday by its Board of Directors of two new financing transactions: a Euro 6 million loan to establish the Sahanivotry micro-hydro power station in Madagascar and a Euro 0.6 million equity investment in the microenterprise-oriented Access Bank of Tanzania. With both approvals, the AfDB’s total investments without sovereign guarantees thus far in 2007 amount to $1.01 billion.

The AfDB provides a range of financial products without sovereign guarantees to complement its traditional lending operations to governments with sovereign guarantees. Private sector operations of the Bank Group promote strong environmental, social, and corporate governance standards as well as help African companies achieve international best practices, making them more competitive at home and in the international marketplace.

“Supporting private sector development on the continent is a top priority for the AfDB,” said AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka. “AfDB’s rapid expansion of its non-sovereign operations is demonstrating how the public and private sectors can work together to create opportunities and improve people’s lives. Our position as Africa’s premier financial institution provides us with an opportunity to work with development partners in areas such as infrastructure and access to finance and help lead development in lower income and post-conflict countries.”

The Bank began to undertake private sector operations in 1991 and currently pursues an institution-wide strategy that seeks to identify weaknesses in the investment climate and business-enabling environment in Africa and finance programs to address them, and selectively finance non-sovereign guaranteed projects that can have a strong catalytic and demonstration effect.

“Government commitment to improving the investment climate will largely determine Africa’s future growth and investment opportunities,” according to Mr. Mandla Gantsho, the Bank’s Vice President for Infrastructure, Private Sector, and Regional Integration. “There are still significant challenges ahead, and we are working closely with governments and other development partners to improve the business-enabling environment and to create public-private project structures that attract investment capital, especially in the infrastructure sector.”

In this regard, the AfDB is working to ensure that African governments uphold contractual obligations to private investors, that African governments and communities substantially benefit from private investment, and that all parties respect international standards on environmental sustainability and open and transparent procurement.

“The sharp increase in the AfDB’s non-sovereign operations reflects the burgeoning level of opportunities for financially attractive public-private partnerships in a broad range of sectors. The development impact that increased private investment can have in Africa is stronger than ever,” said Tim Turner, AfDB Director for Private Sector Operations.

For future non-sovereign guaranteed investments in Africa, the AfDB will focus on public-private partnerships in the financial sector including microfinance, infrastructure, extractive industries, manufacturing, agribusiness and services, with special emphasis on projects that promote regional integration. The AfDB works in close collaboration with other development partners and its private sector operations are presently benefiting from special financial assistance from the government of Japan, which has joined the AfDB to establish the Enhanced Private Sector for Africa (EPSA) Initiative.

Chinese Firm Clinches Two-Third Addis Ababa Road Projects

Chinese Firm Clinches Two-Third of City’s 967mln Birr Road Projects

The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
NEWS
7 July 2007
Posted to the web 7 July 2007

By Hayal Alemayehu
Addis Ababa
Chinese Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), a Chinese construction firm which has been out bidding a number of road projects (including the ring road) in the country since it set foot in Ethiopia, on Friday clinched two-third of the Addis Ababa City Road Authority’s (AACRA) nine, 996.7 million birr worth road projects.

The firm outbid local and foreign rivals in five of the nine road projects, whose designs has been undertaken a year earlier by local designers. Of the nearly one billion birr worth road projects, CRBC will bag the ones worth over 600 million birr.

In addition to CRBC, another Chinese firm, named UE Industrial, has also managed to grab one of the nine projects. The 24.4 million birr worth project this company will undertake involves installing modern street lights along the roads the Authority itself constructed earlier, and those whose completion is pending.

The AACRA’s General Manager Fikade Haile has yesterday signed the agreements with the winning companies, which included two local construction firms, namely Hazi Construction and Eny. Construction.

According to the city’s latest road project contracts, the CRBC will construct four segments of asphalt roads stretching a total of 20 kilo meters and forty meters wide. The roads the Chinese firm will construct are Masqal Square – Kaliti road spanning 9 kilo meters, the juncture at Coca Cola factory – Teklehaimanot Road via Abnet square stretching 2.5 kilo meters, Africa Union-Pushkin Square-Mekanissa ring road square spanning 4.1 kilo meters and Sost Kutir Mazoria-Bisrate Gebriel-Tele-Desse Hotel road and Tele-Pushkin Square road together stretching 4.6 kilo meters.

CRBC has also won a billboard installing contract that will indicate various locations in the city for some 14 million birr.

Hazi Construction, a new local company engaged in the construction sector, has managed to win two of the nine projects worth over 200 million birr. Hazi construction will construct over 7kilo meters of asphalt roads from Mekanisa to Sebeta Menged and Mesqal Flower Hotel – Ethio-China Avenue – Bole Road and Bole Michael square – Bole Rwanda road.

The other local construction company which won one of the nine projects is Enniy Construction. This company will construct a 3.7 kilo meters road from Shola Gebeya to Lem Hotel to Anbessa Garage to Yerere Ber.

All the constructions are expected to be completed with in two- year period of time.