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UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM-WIDE SPECIAL INITIATIVE ON AFRICA
TRADE ACCESS AND OPPORTUNITIES AND INVESTMENT
Progress report by UNCTAD as coordinating agency
19 march 1998
The present report contains information on activities carried out by UNCTAD and cooperating agencies in the context of:
It is recalled that the objective of the joint UNCTAD/WTO/ITC Integrated Technical Assistance Programme for Least Developed and other African countries is to provide: (i) assistance for human resource development and institutional building with particular attention to implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements; and (ii) supportive measures to strengthen export supply capabilities taking into account the challenges and new market opportunities created by the Uruguay Round. Joint activities between the three organizations have continued and are bearing fruit.
The Programme covers the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda.
Fully-fledged project documents have been prepared and approved by both beneficiaries and donors (in one country – Tunisia – project implementation is already under way). Training of trainers for activities in the four English-speaking countries was completed in December 1997 and will shortly get under way in the French-speaking countries.
An Inter-Institutional Agreement setting out the details of how the three agencies will cooperate on the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme has been agreed and signed by the executive heads of the organizations concerned, thus putting into place the requirements for a truly joint exercise. Both UNCTAD and ITC have assigned a senior staff member full-time for the implementation of the Joint Programme and other staff work with the Programme on a part-time basis. Informal discussions are currently under way regarding the extension of the Programme to cover other African countries. It is expected that these will be primarily, although not exclusively, least developed countries.
Funding
In order to implement the programme, WTO, UNCTAD and ITC launched a Common Trust Fund for Technical Assistance for Africa in the trade sector on 1 March 1998 to support the Joint Integration Technical Assistance Programme.
The Common Trust Fund should reach a total in the range of US$10 million to cover programme requirements for the seven sub-Saharan partner countries. It will consist of two windows. Window I is for unearmarked contributions, which will be used to finance national needs assessments, project development and advisory missions; activities for the collective benefit of participating countries; and complementary or full financing of country projects. Window II, for earmarked contributions, will be allocated to specific country projects. Managed by ITC, the Fund will be guided by a Steering Group consisting of donors, beneficiary countries and the secretariats of ITC, WTO and UNCTAD.
To date, those Governments that have indicated an intention to contribute to the Common Trust Fund are: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The Objectives of the Fund are:
To improve Trade Information networks, the Programme complements (and is coordinated with) the Trade Efficiency Initiative, in which UNCTAD, supported by ITC, sets up Trade Points and links them to the Global Trade Point Network. The Programme’s emphasis on networks, information systems and trained experts will strengthen existing Trade Points or create such facilities where needed. The Programme will help countries customize two practical ITC guides that improve export operations, "Trade Secrets – The Export Answer Book", a question-answer book about common export-related concerns and "How to Approach Banks" giving an overview of export finance possibilities and approaches. Technical studies to define or enhance export finance schemes will be undertaken, as appropriate.
THE HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON THE INTEGRATED INITIATIVES FOR LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES’ TRADE DEVELOPMENT
(WTO/UNCTAD/ITC), OCTOBER 1997
The High-level Meeting was convened in Geneva on 27-28 October 1997. The Report of the Meeting is contained in document WT/COMTD/12 issued by WTO on 12 November 1997.
The Meeting covered issues related to market access, the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance, including for Human and Institutional Capacity-Building, to Support Least-Developed Countries in their Trade and Trade-Related Activities, Country Round Tables and Thematic Round Tables.
Market access
In the area of market access, the LDC’s expectations, as articulated by the Minister of Trade of Bangladesh, revolved around the proposals of the Director-General of WTO for removing all tariffs and quotas on imports from LDCs and the subsequent WTO Plan of Action for the LDCs. (It should be recalled here that the proposal for duty-free access for products of export interest to LDCs formed part of the Cartagena Commitment of UNCTAD VIII). LDCs called for: firstly, zero tariff rates for all goods of interest to LDCs including textiles and which should be binding; secondly, elimination of safeguard measures against so-called ‘sensitive’ products’ and thirdly, changes in rules of origin, simplifying them and making allowances for regional and LDC accumulation.
The Meeting welcomed the announcements (by the European Union, the United States and several developing countries) of new or additional preferential market access measures for least developed countries taken or proposed to be taken soon and invited delegations that have announced initiatives to improve market access to notify the details to the Secretariats of WTO and UNCTAD as soon as possible.
The Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance, including for Human and Institutional Capacity-Building, to Support Least-Developed Countries in their Trade and Trade-Related Activities.
The High-level Meeting endorsed the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance, including for Human and Institutional Capacity-Building, to Support Least-Developed Countries in their Trade and Trade-Related Activities. The Integrated Framework seeks to increase the benefits that least developed countries derive from the trade-related technical assistance available to them from the six agencies involved in designing this Framework, as well as from other multilateral, regional and bilateral sources, with a view to assisting them to enhance their trade opportunities, to respond to market demands, and to integrate into the multilateral trading system. It builds upon the experience of relevant programmes currently being undertaken by the six agencies involved.
Country round tables
An important feature of the High-level Meeting was the convening of twelve round table meetings. Presentations by the LDCs concerned covered each country’s needs for trade-related technical assistance and an integrated response to these needs by UNCTAD, WTO, ITC, UNDP, the World Bank and IMF. The round tables, which were seen as pilot cases, were considered as the start of a process of applying on a country specific basis the Integrated Framework for Technical Assistance to LDCs which request participation in the exercise.
Thematic round tables
UNCTAD played a leading role in the preparations for the two Thematic Round Tables on "Building the Capacity to Trade in LDCs’ and "Encouraging Investment in LDCs". The main background documents for the round tables were prepared by UNCTAD and ITC.
Follow-up
Since the Meeting, the governing bodies of UNCTAD, UNDP, IMF and the World Bank have endorsed or taken note of the outcome of the meeting; needs assessment exercises have been carried out in several African LDCs; and meetings held of the inter-agency coordination mechanisms. An administrative unit is being established in ITC to handle coordination of the implementation of the Integrated Framework.
UNDP/UNCTAD technical assistance for Africa
Fifth UNDP intercountry Programme for Capacity Building in Trade and Development in Africa – RAF/96/001.
Broad Objectives
The main thrust of the fifth UNDP Intercountry Programme for Africa is capacity building in the field of trade and development. To achieve this broad objective, the Programme focuses on four broad capacity building objectives:
Implementing Agencies
UNCTAD is closely cooperating with ITC and WIPO as well as with NGO institutions in the implementation of the Programme. UNCTAD is mainly involved in implementing activities under (i) and (ii); ITC is mainly involved in implementing activities in (i), (iii) and (iv) while WIPO will be implementing activities related to IPRs in (i), (ii) and (iii).
Expected Outputs
It is expected that the Programme will result in:
The UNDP hopes to launch implementation of the programme in the second quarter of 1998.
PILOT SEMINAR ON MOBILIZATION OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (UNCTAD/UNIDO)
The Pilot Seminar on the Mobilization of the Private Sector in order to Encourage Foreign Investment Flows towards the Least Developed Countries (UNCTAD/UNIDO) was held in Geneva on 23-25 June 1997. The report and the recommendations from the Pilot Seminar was endorsed by the Trade and Development Board at its forty-fourth session in October 1997. Subsequently, the outcome of the Pilot Seminar was used as an input in the WTO High-Level Meeting on Integrated Initiatives for Least Developed Countries’ Trade Development.
In compliance with the recommendations of the Pilot Seminar and the WTO High-Level Meeting, a project document "Building Capacity in the Least Developed Countries to Attract Foreign Investment through Venture Capital Funds" has been prepared and forwarded to potential donors for financial considerations. The proposed project has three core activities: a) Study on best practices for attracting risk capital through venture capital funds; b) Training entrepreneurs in LDCs on preparing project proposals; c) Organization of regional workshops on non-FDI investment in LDCs. The last two activities would be jointly implemented with UNIDO.
Through a technical assistance project financed by the Government of Norway, a number of feasibility studies on foreign investment in the sectors of tourism, agro-industries and infrastructure were undertaken and the results were presented at the Pilot Seminar. In order to further disseminate the information among the investment community, these studies will be shortly published.
As an outcome of the Pilo Seminar, Trigone Capital Finance S.A., a Geneva-based financial company, will launch an investment fund for Africa [the Global African Development Fund (GLAD)]. With an initial capital of US$15-20 million, the fund’s target size is US$200 million. UNCTAD will encourage its member States to submit investment projects, through their investment promotion agencies.
INVESTMENT GUIDES FOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES (UNCTAD/ICC)
To help overcome the information lacunae on investment and assist LDCs to realize their investment opportunities, UNCTAD proposes to prepare, for each LDC that so requests, a comprehensive, up-to-date and investor-oriented Investment Guide (of about 100 pages). While the ultimate objective is to prepare such a Guide for each of the 48 LDCs, the actual implementation of the project will be phased, beginning with 6 countries in the pilot phase. Most of these activities will be in Africa.
The preparation of the Guides would be embedded in a local capacity-building efforts aimed at assisting LDCs to strengthen their own investment-promotion and investment-servicing capacities through a build-in training component that foresees the active participation of local personnel from the start and throughout the project’s implementation, and their responsibility for updating the guides. Thus, capacity building would continue after the preparation of the first Guide. The project would also help to foster a policy dialogue between governments and the private sector (including foreign investors), with a view towards minimizing impediments to investment and increasing its contribution to development.
UNCTAD/Geneva
