"Africa offers Asian businesses abundance of investment opportunities"

" \n The African Development Bank on Thursday held a workshop to convey the continent\u2019s immense investment and partnership opportunities to Asian business leaders, particularly as the continent seems poised to return to economic growth in 2021 following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The two-hour virtual event, held in English, Korean, and Chinese, offered participants an opportunity to learn more about the Bank and its operations. The webinar comes on the heels of the recently launched African Economic Outlook 2020 -Asia Supplement, which revised growth projections and outlook for Africa for 2020 and 2021.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI take this opportunity to strongly encourage Asian private sector entities gathered here today, to partner with the Bank to take advantage of the multiple investment opportunities that exist on the continent,\u201d said Samuel Higenyi Mugoya, the Bank\u2019s Director for Syndication, Co-financing and Client Solutions Department, which co-organized the event, together with the Bank\u2019s Asia External Representation Office. In introducing the Bank, Takashi Hanajiri, Head of the Asia External Representation Office, provided an overview of the Bank and its history and components before providing a summary of its flagship\u00a0 Africa Investment Forum initiative and the opportunities it offers. Referring to the AIF event held in Johannesburg in 2019, he said, \u201cSo far the largest deal was a LNG project in Mozambique with a total cost of $24.6 billion,\u201d adding, \u201cmany Asian institutions, both public and private, are sponsoring the project.\u201d\u00a0 Following a discussion of the Bank\u2019s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hanajiri concluded on a positive note, noting \u201cAfrica\u2019s growth will rebound to 3% in 2021 from -3.4% in 2020.\u201d Bank staff presented on the Bank\u2019s non-sovereign operations and financial product offerings. Other sessions covered Africa\u2019s immense potential in energy, particularly renewable energy, as well as agriculture, which remains the continent\u2019s most important economic sector. Director Mugoya praised Asian countries\u2019 ongoing support for the Bank and Africa\u2019s development. \u201cThere are four Asian member countries in the Bank, namely China ,\u00a0 India , Japan and\u00a0 Korea , that have been long-standing and strategic partners for almost 40 years. The Asian member countries have consistently contributed to the Bank\u2019s capital requirements and supported the African Development Fund\u2019s successive replenishments.\u201d The African Development Fund is the Bank\u2019s concessional window. The webinar, which drew around 300 participants, closed with a question and answer session. Queries addressed such issues as the Bank\u2019s representation in India, trade financing offerings and access to financing for women. Participating corporations and institutions included Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, Export-Import Bank of India, JICA, Korea Eximbank, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND). Africa\u2019s huge and highly diverse continent has the second-largest population in the world and the second-largest land mass after Asia, offering tremendous investment opportunities for the Asian private sector. The Bank views Africa\u2019s private sector as a critical engine of economic growth and development but Asian companies often lack information about the business climate. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa was the second-fastest growing continent outside Asia. Over the past decade, the continent has experienced the longest period of unbroken growth in per capita incomes since the 1960s. \n "

"Africa offers Asian businesses abundance of investment opportunities"

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