UN agency to organize African capital markets development workshop.

20 October 2003
Xinhua News Agency

English

(c) Copyright 2003 Xinhua News Agency

ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) - The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with the Rand Merchant Bank, is to organize a workshop on African Capital Markets Development from Oct. 27 to 29 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The workshop will bring together senior officials and CEOs from African capital markets, central banks, ministries of finance, academia, investment houses and stock broking firms.

Key speakers include K.Y. Amoako, the executive secretary of ECA, and Paul Harris, chairman of Rand Merchant Bank.

The three-day workshop is articulated around discussions on topics such as the importance of accurate economic data, the role of public education in the development of African capital markets, building a modern governance system for African capital markets, the development of the debt markets and the role of government in the development of capital markets.

While underscoring the importance of capital markets to Africa' s economic development, the workshop will also consider the impact of other socio-economic factors such as conflict, HIV/AIDS, poverty, governance, the health of banks, etc., on the development of capital markets.

ECA officials held that this in turn is part of the overall strategy of ECA in pushing for African economies to be private-sector driven.

This is the first in a series of regional workshops being organized by ECA on capital markets development and is targeted at southern and eastern African countries.

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