National Champions Need to Be Nurtured in Order to Support Regional Growth and Development

8 January 2014
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
press release

Kigali — The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through its Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA), will organise the 18th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) from 17 to 20 February 2014 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ICE meeting will focus on the theme of "National Champions, Foreign Direct Investment and Structural Transformation in Eastern Africa".

The theme was motivated by the fact that, even though the Eastern Africa region has continued to achieve impressive growth rates averaging 6.7% growth between 2008 and 2013,, this performance has not been accompanied by sufficient job creation and has failed to lead to accelerated poverty reduction.

"We need to see national and regional champions created and supported., and help foster effective collaboration between public and private sector ...This is the essence of the emerging economic philosophy called Africapitalism, a private sector-led partnership mode focused on Africa's development", said Carlos Lopes, the Executive Secretary of UNECA and Tony Elumelu, a businessman from Nigeria, in a jointly written article recently published on CNN.

The 18th ICE meeting will discuss how much can be expected of domestic investors, and to what extent governments can depend on foreign investment, in order to attain sustainable growth through industrial development and structural transformation.

"In the emerging new economy, national champions have a crucial strategic role to play in generating higher quality growth," said Antonio Pedro, Director SRO-EA.

Pedro stressed that investments and resources spent on facilitating the emergence of national champions could pay off in long-term wealth accumulation"

"At the same time, Foreign Direct Investments can also boost the local economy, if foreign companies are investing in human resource development and developing extensive linkages with national firms. In this way, knowledge and technological skills are transferred to local players", Pedro added.

Alongside the 18th ICE plenary sessions, special ad-hoc expert group meetings (AEGMs) will be held to review other UNECA publications on:

  • “Leveraging New Trading and Investment Partnerships for diversification in Eastern Africa: the role of emerging markets”;
  • “Fostering social cohesion for improved regional integration”; and
  • “Bilateral Investment Treaties and National Champions.”

The 18th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts will bring together representatives from the fourteen member States served by the SRO-EA, as well as Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) of the sub-region, development partners, research centres, media practitioners and other stakeholders.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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