China and the Commonwealth

I was delighted to return to Beijing in May to Launch the Commonwealth Business Forum 2011 to the Chinese Market. China will be an important player in this year’s Forum given Perth’s, the host city, resource development with the country and Commonwealth’s African Members increasing relationships with Beijing. We hope the Forum can be a stepping stone to introducing Chinese companies and investment to some of the Commonwealth less well known Members.

While there I was honoured to be invited to address the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade’s annual Chinese Enterprises Outbound Investment Conference. This was the first time the Commonwealth was represented at the Conference and I was delighted to have the opportunity to introduce the 1000 plus delegates to the opportunities available in the association.

Ensuring the Commonwealth’s myriad opportunities are well recognised in China is essential given the scale of the countries overseas investment, in 2009 Chinese Companies invested US$56.3 billion dollars abroad; this was 3125 investments to overseas companies, in 129 countries. As China continues its ‘Going Global’ policy it is essential that the Commonwealth gets its share of this increasingly large pie.

Namibia & SADC

I was lucky enough to visit Namibia earlier this month and call on the President, HE Hifikepunye Pohamba, to discuss CBC’s plans for the year. Namibia is a great country to visit and one that holds good personal memories for me – I was there in the late 80s and 90s running a special program on management development during the democratisation process.

I was delighted to drive through green fields and see firsthand the level of agricultural development the country has achieved – Namibia’s progress since I was last there is most impressive. President Pohamba is proud of the progress his country has made and is keen to continue pushing forward in key sectors – he highlighted education and youth unemployment as key challenges for the coming year.

The President was also keen to highlight the importance of SADC to Southern Africa’s regional economy. President Pohamba is the 2011 Chair of SADC and has assigned himself the key task of strengthening regional infrastructure projects to help move the region closer to a single market.

It is in this capacity we have invited him to address the Africa Business Forum 2011 in London in June. This year’s ABF has a strong SADC focus and addresses the theme ‘Regional Integration and Drivers of Growth’. The President will deliver the opening address at the Forum and will be supported by Ministers from the region and Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão, Executive Secretary of SADC.

Opportunities in Zambia

It was a pleasure to be in Zambia a couple of weeks ago, it is a county I have visited may times over my career and one I have always enjoyed my stays in. I was in Livingston for the Annual meeting of the Zambia International Business Advisory Council with President Banda. It was great to hear about the progress Zambia has made over the last decade since the council was set up. Zambia, last year, had the highest growth rate in Africa and the 25 highest in the world, Zambia is now one of the largest copper producers in the world and last year increased its output at a rate higher then both Chilli and China. The Country’s GDP per Capita has now reached lower middle income levels. The ZIBAC board members were universally impressed worth the progress the country has made and at how well it is doing. One of the main recommendations to President Banda was that he should increase the money spent on making sure the world knows about Zambia’s successes and possibilities – as you only need tell a bad news story once for it to be heard, but good news needs to repeated again and again…………

Following the ZIBAC meeting we held the first Zambia Investment Forum, which we co-organised with the Zambia Development Agency. The Forum brought together 50 international business leaders and investors with local project holders and government leaders to forge new partnerships and help increase the involvement of the international private sector in Zambia’s economy. 3 MoUs we signed at the Event.

The President told me that his government is stepping up its efforts to tackle its skills and training shortages in the population and recognises this can only be done in partnership with the private sector – so this will be a thriving investment opportunity over the coming years as well as good opportunities in Agriculture, Tourism and Mining.

Zambia is a great investment destination and I would encourage investors to look closely at the opportunities available there.

Mozambique

I was very Grateful to have the opportunity to catch up with President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, it was a good meeting covering many different things. Mozambique is a country CBC has a strong relationship with, and I a personal one, I have sat on the President's Advisory Council for several years now.

We discussed the challenges that President Guebuza's Government faces, particularly the recovery from the financial crisis, that's impact is still being felt in Mozambique and a growing skills shortage in the Country. The President highlighted transport infrastructure as one of his key priorities for the coming years, and was clear to point out the importance of working in partnership with the Private Sector and international agencies to deliver projects.

He was keen to highlight successful projects in Mining and Agriculture that are coming steam shortly, and show the plentiful opportunities that remain in these sectors for international investors with an interest. I was also delighted that President Guebuza has accepted our invitation to speak at the Commonwealth Business Forum to be held in Perth, where he will also chair a roundtable focusing on enhancing partnerships between the mining community in Mozambique and Australia.

Eminent Persons Group's Recommendations

While I welcome the Eminent Persons Group's recommendations on the need for reform and greater collaboration between commonwealth agencies, what was not in the report was a great disappointment.

The report did not specify what reforms need to be conducted to ensure the association stays relevant in the future and keeps delivering for all 54 states. The statement on collaboration between agencies and Secretariat, fails to elaborate on the quality and type of technical assistance, or on the delivery of technical assistance through the Commonwealth's Key agencies outside the Secretariat. Delivering though other agencies could be key mechanism to reduce the cost of delivering technical assistance, improving is quality and reducing duplication and redundancy within the Commonwealth family. This would allow the size of Secretariat to be reduced while increasing the quality of scope of the Technical Assistance provided.

It is equally disappointing that the Eminent Persons did not talk about the Private sector and growth, as I have mentioned before, it is my belief that the Commonwealth works at its very best when giving dual focus to both the Harare Declaration on Human Rights and the Edinborough Economic Declaration. And in this time of increased economic hardships in most Commonwealth countries, private sector money is going to be more and more important. It is unlikely Governments are going to put forward large sums of new money given the pressing domestic priorities. Refocusing existing money and mobilising the private sector and other funding sources could be an answer.

As the Eminent Persons Group have said there is now real possibility of the official Commonwealth slowly moving towards the end of the road. I hope the upcoming CHOGM to be held in Perth, Australia in October will give the Association a new beginning. But given the contents of the eminent persons report, I fear it is again going to be tweaking rather than true reform.

Rwanda's Impressive Growth

I was recently in Rwanda to brief President Kagame on CBC’s programme for the coming months and discuss his involvement in the Commonwealth Business Forum to be held in Perth, Australia later this year. This was the first trip to Rwanda where I had the chance to get out and around and see some of the Country outside of Kigali.

I was impressed by the level of development visible outside of the capital, the roads we used to travel to the new Free Trade Zones the government are setting up to promote exports are world class. And one of President Kagame’s headline schemes to get Rwanda on-line, is nearly complete – this will open up huge new opportunities across the country.

Rwanda’s success has lessons for us all, President Kagame has lead an active international investment promotion campaign that is paying dividends. Much of Rwanda’s growth is driven by the Private Sector, giving the Government room to focus on the countries social needs.

During our discussions, President Kagame was keen to highlight the emerging investment opportunities in Rwanda’s power sector, including Hydro, Methane Gas and other renewable and in ICT. And he was particularly keen to highlight the opportunities in Agriculture, specifically Tea and Tea processing where the value addition is now being done inside Rwanda.

President Kagame will lead a business delegation to the Africa Investment Forum in Tanzania on April 17 -19, where many of the Projects he highlighted will be presented. I would encourage all of those with an interest to come along to the Forum as it will be a very important business event for East Africa and the Continent as a whole.

Public Sector Reform in the UK

In the UK currently much of the political discourse is centred on reducing Britain's Deficit and the Government's cuts in spending and the resulting impact on public services. However there is a second quite interesting stream to the government's plans that is receiving less media attention, the reform and the enhance role of the private sector in public services.

The UK has led in the past on enhancing the role business plays in the public sector, throughout the 80s it was the privatisation of unities, something that many other countries have emulated since. In the 90s and early 2000s it was the UK that led the way on Public Private Partnerships with PFIs, this initiative is also used increasing abroad and the UK is one of the world's largest providers of experts in this field.

The UK has a history of innovative public sector reform and this next round proposed by the Prime Minister David Cameron has the opportunity to be in the same vein. Plans to open government contracts up to SMEs rather than just large Corporates, for example, is sensible, it allows the country's largest employing sector access to the country's largest buyer. And widening the role the Private Sector can play in the provision of services will increase competition and hopefully improve quality at a time when government is decreasing spending.

If well implemented, this round of reform could well be emulated across the globe like the past.