Freetown — President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in his address at the West African development forum in Abuja, Nigeria, which took place from the 20th to 22nd February, has urged the Commonwealth Business Council to improve business in the sub-region.

The Commonwealth Business Council is responsible for the initiative of collaborating with West African Governments to organize the West African Investment Forum, which creates an opportunity for policy dialogue geared towards identifying options, and proffering policy measures aimed at enhancing trade and investment in the sub-region.

The President mentioned that one of the primary objectives for creating ECOWAS was to promote the free flow of trade and investment among the Member States of the Community.

"This is of great importance as it seeks to transform the whole West African sub-region, with a population of over 240 million people, into one integrated market," he said.

President Kabbah said the realization of this goal had unfortunately been frustrated over the last few years by the numerous conflicts that developed in many countries of the sub-region.

He however noted that fortunately, we are witnessing the restoration of peace and security in our sub-region. "Investors should therefore treat individual countries in West Africa not as segregated markets but as part of the larger and richer ECOWAS market, that offers great opportunities for all forms of investment," he said.

The President described the Forum as timely indeed because after four decades of independence, Africa and particularly West Africa continues to face daunting development challenges of poverty, conflicts, global trade marginalization, and governance - all of which in various ways jeopardize our development efforts.

"But in spite of these challenges, it is heartening to note that many of our countries are making determined efforts to build their economies and their political and social institutions so as to turn around their economic performance and improve systems of governance," President Kabbah noted.

He continued that for West Africa to be able to effectively address the problem of poverty and increase its economic growth, trade has to be seen as a powerful and self-sustaining engine for economic growth and poverty alleviation.

"No country in the world has ever been able to develop its economy without harnessing its resources and selling its goods and services to the rest of the world," he maintained.

The President said export-led growth is therefore critical if West African countries are to meet the MDGs (including annual GDP growth of 7%). He urged that West African nations must expand their trade by producing and selling more high value products that can compete on local, regional and global markets.

"We therefore need investment and joint venture partners, to utilize trade preference programmes such as the United States AGOA and the EU's EBA. West Africa, as well as other African sub-regions need to move beyond exporting raw commodities to producing and exporting processed value added products and to tap the resources and expertise of our nationals in the Diaspora," the President said.

He said NEPAD emphasizes the role of the private sector, especially domestic entrepreneurs, establishing a good macro economic environment, predictable policies, openness, transparency and removing unnecessary regulations that impede the development and growth of the private sector. It also emphasizes the importance of improvements in education, health, access to credit, and to global markets, among others.

"It has been said that companies contemplating direct investment in Africa will stay away if the track record of our efforts at economic modernization is bad, if legislation is hostile to business, if lawlessness is rife, if private property stands the threat of expropriation, if there is conflict and if infrastructure is weak. In a bid to achieving the NEPAD goals, we must therefore unite to eliminate all barriers to trade and investment within our sub-region and turn some of our trade related infrastructural inadequacies into windows of investment opportunity," President Kabbah warned.

He joined his Colleague Heads of State in continuing to extend profound gratitude to the leaders of the G8 industrialized countries especially the United Kingdom for their professed determination to creating a strong, peaceful and prosperous Africa.

He welcomed the cancellation of debts owed by some heavily indebted poor countries to major international financial institutions and plans to double aid to Africa by 2010. "We hope that all heavily indebted countries in the sub-region and Africa as a whole will benefit from the debt cancellation," he said.

The President said that it is especially gratifying that he went to the forum at a time when Sierra Leone has made great strides to consolidate its peace and institutionalise democratic governance and economic stability following the end of its civil conflict in 2002.

To this end, he said Government has promulgated an Investment Promotion Act, (2004) that meets international best practices, eliminating wide discretions and prohibiting discrimination of treatment of investors whilst providing the internationally accepted guarantees against expropriation, and repatriation of profits. An Investment Incentives Bill is now being finalized. To facilitate business registration within 7 days, a One-stop-shop has been established to assist investors in obtaining permits, licenses and certificates required for the commencement of business while providing relevant information to potential investors.

"My Government's Administrative Barriers to Investment Programme has reviewed administrative procedures required of business to start-up, locate and operate.

This programme has looked at registration and licensing, including estimated time and financial costs, tax policy and administration, trade policy and customs administration, as well as land provision, land registry and titling procedures. The Administrative Barriers to Investment Study Report produced an investor roadmap, which highlighted the difficulties that new and existing businesses face," the President assured.

He said Sierra Leone now offers investment protection through the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement with the United Kingdom. He said, the Investment Promotion Act makes provision for arbitration of disputes in accordance with the rules of procedure for arbitration of the UN Commission on International Trade Laws, and within the framework of other bilateral and multilateral agreements on investment between Sierra Leone and other countries.

President Kabbah paid tribute to DFID and the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with whose assistance the judiciary is undergoing comprehensive reforms and strengthening, and it now provides a solid platform for the prompt and fair settlement of investment disputes.

President Kabbah said his government acknowledges the fact that for trade and business investment to thrive, the macroeconomic environment has to be right.

He said Sierra Leone has successfully developed a Poverty Reduction Strategy. In a Consultative Group meeting on Sierra Leone recently held in London, the international donor community pledged more than US$800 million towards the implementation of this Strategy.

The President said he was pleased to announce that in collaboration with the Commonwealth Business Council, the government of Sierra Leone will be hosting its first International Investment Conference, "The Sierra Leone Investment Forum" in Freetown from March 27-29 this year.

The Forum will seek to bring together international business executives, political leaders, senior government officials, multilateral organizations, international financial institutions, and other key opinion leaders in the business sector, to advance the dialogue on finding ways for addressing the many challenges facing the government and the investment community.