Comesaria Newsletter feb09

COMESA RIA NEWS

Uganda’s promising investment scene

In a press statement by UIA Board Chairman, Mr. Patrick Bitature, described the investment scene in Uganda, last year, as good. The Uganda Investment Authority licensed 349 projects, with a planned investment value of USD 2.4 billion, projected to create 48,374 jobs.

This is an improvement from last calendar year, 2007, when Uganda licensed 357 projects, with a planned investment of USD 2.2 billion. Uganda will not, in the short term, be impacted as heavily as the developed economies by the current crisis. As the need for lower costs of operations becomes vital for companies to keep afloat, they will look for cheaper options.

The aim, he said, was to make Uganda a well placed location for that. Uganda's economy continued to grow at 8.9% last financial year, and UIA continues to register great interest in investment opportunities from our target FDI source countries. The projected 7.4% growth for 2008/9, though lower, is still good, considering the global financial state. The top ten sources of planned FDI last year, 2008, included; Singapore, Belgium, United Kingdom, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Mauritius, China, Finland, and the USA, in declining order.

Singapore plans to invest in 3 projects with a planned value of USD 465,840,000 projected to create 920 jobs.

CONTENTS

Page 2Latest Headlines

Page 3Country of the Month

Page 4-5latest Headlines

Page 6Events, About RIA, Quote of the day

EYE ON COMESA ISSUE 11

FEB

RU

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09

COMESA REGIONAL INVESTMENT AGENCY

COMESA Investor’s Conference 25th of February, 2009Fairmont Towers Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

The COMESA Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Investment in Egypt is organizing the second major COMESA Investor Conference on 25th February, 2009 Fairmont Towers, Cairo, Egypt.

The COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA), under the aegis of the COMESA Secretariat, will spearhead the Conference. Following the success of the COMESA Investors Conference held in Brussels on 18th -19th November 2008, the conference is expected to draw more than 200 people, including Government officials and Business people from the COMESA region as well as CEOs of the COMESA Investment Promotion Agencies, representatives, development organizations, financial institutions and private sector organizations. The objective of the conference is to link up the Egyptian Businessmen with the COMESA IPAs and entice them into investing and trading to enhance intra COMESA investment within the COMESA Member States.

The COMESA member states will present investment opportunities in four key sectors: tourism, energy, agriculture and infrastructure.

Speakers will include the Minister of Trade and Industry of Malawi, the State Minister of Tourism trade and Industry Uganda, the Sudanese Minister of Investment ,the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry in Zambia and Minister of Investment of Egypt.

UGANDA

COMESA REGIONAL INVESTMENT AGENCY www.comesaria.org

EGYPT

PPPs in Egypt Source: The Advocate

Egypt’s government has taken the initiative to introduce Egypt’s PPP program, which has culminated in the establishment of a PPP Central Unit within the Ministry of Finance.

The PPP Central Unit is charged with coordinating the national PPP program across ministries and public bodies and reports directly to the Minister of Finance and the Ministerial PPP Committee on the progress of PPP projects.

Investment by UAE in Egypt reach USD 2.9 billionSource: Arab finance.com

The UAE's investments in Egypt were

worth USD 2.9 billion (Dh10.65bn) at

the end of 2008 and Etisalat owned

39.5 % of the total.

There were 421 UAE companies in

Egypt, including 64 contracting, 44

financial, 125 service, 40 agricultural,

38 tourism, 87 industrial and 23

communications businesses.


PAGE 2 FEBRUARY 2009

Rwanda: Belgium Signs Euro 38 Million Co-Operation Agreement Pact

Kenya: Country's New Airline Comes to KIA Boasting Cheapest Fares

Eritrea: New Building Complex of Gash -Barka Regional Administration Inaugurated

Burundi: 'Heart of Africa' Mall Lifts Bujumbura City

Air Seychelles extends cooperation with AVIAREPS

Eritrea: Catchments and Canals Under Construction in Dekemhare Sub-Zone

Rwanda: Electrogaz to invest USD 80 million in 2009

Rwanda's national energy company Electrogaz says it will invest USD 80

Source: The new times million in power generation and distribution this year, in an attempt to

The Belgian government is set to lower tariffs and draw investment.release Euro 38.12 million (about RWF 30,000, 000, 000) to Rwanda, as part of Company director John Mirenge said the two countries' development rapid population growth in recent years, cooperation frame-work. coupled with long-term under invest-

ment, had left the grid low on reserve Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary power and stymied development.Museminali and Belgian Chargé d'Affaires, Theofiel Baert, signed five The Rwandan government, he said, had new cooperation agreements at the been forced to rent expensive diesel ministry's premises. generators, increasing the cost of

electricity and making the country Queried, Baert spoke well of the current uncompetitive in the region.Rwanda-Belgium development co-operation framework. Later in the year, the utility will split into

the Rwanda Electricity Corporation and Rwanda Water & Sewerage Corporation to allow for better efficiency and focus, he said.

Source: Allafrica.com

A building complex of the Gash-Barka regional Administration constructed at a cost of about 23 million

thinaugurated on January 20 , 2009. Following the recent peace initiatives in Burundi, the investment climate has

The building comprises 92 rooms, an Air Seychelles, the national carrier of become more appealing and this has assembly hall, an information center the state Seychelles, extends its seen an increase in investment by local and engineering center. A solar energy cooperation with AVIAREPS to two entrepreneurs.that could generate 1,600 kilowatt and further markets: the United States and provide power to 25 computers have Canada. With immediate effect, the In tandem with most urban centers in already been installed to facilitate leading airline & tourism representative East Africa, Bujumbura is also seeing the activities in the building. is taking over responsibility for the emergence of a new type of building

carrier’s marketing and sales activities. complex, the mall. 'Quartier' Asiatic used to be the quasi-small scale

Currently AVIAREPS is contracted for the wholesale zone populated by the markets of the Czech Republic, 'Qincallerie' or hardware store. It is Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia and called 'Quartier Asiatic' because of the Ukraine. This extended collaboration is proliferation of stores manned mainly an early response to a growing demand by persons originating mainly from the in North America for flights to the Creole orient, but who island chain: in 2008, arrivals of American visitors in the Seychelles increased by six per cent compared with 2007 (National Statistics Bureau 2008).

Air Seychelles offers connections from major cities worldwide such as Paris, London (Heathrow), Frankfurt, Rome, Milan, Johannesburg and Singapore to its base airport in Mahé, the largest island of the Seychelles.

Nakfa

have settled for decades in Burundi.

The main objective of the ongoing construction of canales and catchments is to divert rivers to farmlands and to preserve water so as to create moistures incase of lack of rain showers.

Source: The Arusha times

A Nairobi based new airline has started daily routes between Jomo Kenyatta and Kilimanjaro- International Airports. The new carrier boasts the cheapest fares to date.

The Orange marked, Fly-540 made a maiden flight from JKIA to KIA last Friday using an ATR 42 aircraft, one of the eight planes it owns so far. Fly-540 has a fleet of seven French made ATRs passenger carriers and a Fokker Friendship F27 cargo plane. Plans are underway to add two larger aircraft, possibly Boeing planes later this year.


Source: www.boarding.no


Dekemhare: The construction of catch-ments and canals is underway in Kob-Zibi, Dekemhare sub zone, in an effort to irrigate over 170,000 hectares of farmland and to gather satisfactory agricultural yields, according to Engineer Simon Berhane an expert in irrigation development branch office of the Ministry of Agriculture Southern region.

Indicating that farmers of the area have been exerting unremitting strives and have encountered difficulties to divert rivers for irrigation proposes, Engineer Simon said that the government have now employed new machineries thus playing a decisive role. Source: Reuters

Zambia reduces investment charges for investors Source: APA News

APA-Lusaka (Zambia) The Zambian government on Thursday reduced charges on investment licences in a bid to make it cheaper for investors to invest in the country.

Commerce Trade and Industry Minister Felix Mutati told journalists in Lusaka on Thursday that the move was with effect


PAGE 3 JANUARY 2009

from December 2008. Mauritius based Landmark Special Opportunities Company (LSOC) and

He said the fees for various investments Landmark Real Estate Fund (LREF) are licences have been reduced by between picking up around 60% stake in Kolkata-23 and 80 percent. based realty company Forum Ventures

for close to Rs 100 crore, a person He said a statutory instrument has involved in the transaction said.already been issued to legalise the changes and hoped this would attract Both LSOC and LREF would make more investors to the country. investments in Forum Ventures through

their Mauritius-based subsidiaries, LSO Subco and LREF Subco, respectively, the

Source: Daily Nation person said. Forum Project Holding, a development company owned by the Forum Group, holds around 37% in the Forum Ventures.

Source: The New Times

Rwanda's Investment Strategy (RIS) envisages the increase of total investments from 22 percent in 2005 to 30 percent of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) by 2020.

Rwanda's investment promotion is premised on the need to facilitate the structural transformation of the econ-omy toward industry and services, underpinned by the creation and sustenance of a knowledge based economy.

Source: Business Daily The country has created the investment code. This is the creation or acquisition of new business assets or the

Sources: India Real Estate Monitor expansion, restructuring or rehabilit-

Zambia: State to Work On Rural Roads, Bridges

Kenya: Bonds to Raise Sh360 Billion

Rwanda's platform to create more investment opportunities

Kenya: Equity commits to boost mobile banking

Mauritian firms to buy 60% in Forum Ventures

Source: Times of Zambia

The Government seeks to raise Sh360 billion in the next five years through infrastructure bonds.

The bonds will be issued to help fund projects in the energy, housing, sewerage and water supply, transport, rails and road networks among other sectors.

Recently, the Safaricom IPO raised Sh226 billion against a target of Sh50 billion an over subscription of 532 per cent.

Sh867 billion. Private funds inflows and remittances from the diaspora totalling Sh113.5 billion are also targeted.

Mr Banda also called on traditional rulers to work closely with the Government to develop the country.

Backed by a war-chest of at least 2.8 million customers a third of the banked population. Equity Bank on Thursday made a commitment to double the number of Kenyans with access to mobile financial services, a month after it launched its mobile banking product.

The bank's growth has been as a result of being innovative to develop products and especially savings products which meet the needs of the low-income people”.

With statistics estimating that nine out of 10 people in most developing countries having limited or no access to a bank account or basic financial services, M-banking products like Safaricom's M-Pesa are providing opportunities to tap

The Government will work on roads and bridges to open up rural areas for economic development, President Rupiah Banda has said.

Paramount Chief Chitimukulu's palace yesterday, Mr Banda said good roads and bridges were a prerequisite for development.

He said that the Government wanted to improve bridges and roads to link up various places so that people could freely move and carry out various development activities without any hindrance.

He said the construction of Kalungu Bridge on the Kalungu River, a tributary of the Chambeshi River would enable the people to cross the river and move their goods for sale in Kasama from Mungwi and other areas.

Consequently, he said, the project would trigger other economic activities for the benefit of the people in the area.

NUMBERS

920

80170, 000

2.959

into the market and provide affordable access to financial services to vast

920 Jobs are expected to be created in numbers of poor people.Uganda due to Singapore investments.

Rwanda's national energy company Electrogaz says it will invest USD 80 million in power generation and distribution this year, in an attempt to lower tariffs and draw investment.

Egyptian telecom giant Orascom Telecom’s new subsidiary Telecel Globe has bought Namibian mobile operator Cell One in a USD 59 million cash deal.

The construction of cathments and canals is underway in Kob-Zibi, Dekemahare sub zone, in an effort to irrigate over 170,000 hectares of farmland

The UAE's investments in Egypt were worth USD 2.9 billion (Dh10.65bn) at the end of 2008


PAGE 4 JANUARY 2009

ation of existing business enterprise.

Similarly, Rwanda's investment promotion involves all activities aimed at encouraging greater infusion of investments to fuel growth as well as enhancing the image of the country as an ideal location for investments. The policies are directed towards expanding production and value addition in traditional exports; tea, coffee and tourism, diversifying of export base, focusing on high value, innovative products and services, and enhanced institutional competitiveness among others.

Investment Strategy (RIS) envisages the increase of total investment from 22 percent in 2005 to 30 percent of GDP by 2020. This envisaged accelerated growth wil l require s ignif icant e x p a n s i o n a n d d e e p e n i n g o f investment as wel l as export performance.

Egypt: Orascom Telecom buys Namibia's Cell One in USD 59 million cash dealSource: Reuters

Egyptian telecom giant Orascom Telecom’s new subsidiary Telecel Globe has bought Namibian mobile operator Cell One in a USD 59 million cash deal.

Telecel Globe has bought Cell One as part of its strategy of targeting licences and mobile operators in small and medium-sized developing countries with high growth potential.

“Cell One is well positioned in the Namibian market to become the key provider of competitive mobile voice and data services.

Telecel Globe expects the investment in Cell One to have a positive effect on the brand, the customers and Namibia as a whole," Telecel Globe Chief Executive Kai Uebach said.

Telecel Globe has already paid USD 32 million for Cell One, with the balance due in January 2010.

Orascom said Cell One operated a GSM n e t w o r k w i t h 1 9 8 , 0 0 0 a c t i v e subscribers and had a market share of

Cont... COMESA Woos European Investors

over 20 percent.

It added that Namibia had mobile penetration of close to 50 percent at the end of 2008.

Source: Namibia Economist

Capricorn Investment Holdings (CIH),

the parent company of Bank

Windhoek, has made inroads into the

Zambian financial services sector

through an acquisition in Cavemont

Capital Bank Ltd, also known as

Cavemont Bank. In 2006, Capricorn

kick-started its bold expansion plans by

acquiring a substantial shareholding in

Botswana's Bank Gaborone.

Sources within the banking sector say

CIH's entry into the Zambian market is

widely seen as part of its expansion

strategy into regional markets, with

more acquisitions envisaged for

Mozambique, Angola and other parts

of Africa. Zambian Stock Exchange-

listed Cavemont Capital Holdings

Zambia PLC is the holding company

that is now co-owned by CIH Namibia.

Source: The reporter

T h e C h i n a R o a d a n d B r i d g e Corporation (CRBC) is launching the installation of 350 road indicating and street naming boards, the first of their type in the country.

The Addis Ababa City Road Authority (AACRA) had in late 2007 offered the over 17 million birr contract involving the production and installation of the sign boards to CRBC. It took the corporation more than a year to produce the sign boards, which it has been installing since mid-December.

The corporation will erect the boards along the 33.3 km long ring-road beginning from Diaspora Square to the Wingate Junction.

The installation work is expected to be

CIH Buys Zambian Bank

Ethiopia: CRBC launches installation of 17mln birr road indicator boards

Country Of The Month

Surface area:

Capital:

Population:

Official language:

Currency:

GDP at market prices (2007):

Real GDP growth rate (2008):

FDI inflows (2006):

FDI Stock (2006):

Exports of goods and services:

Imports of goods and services:

Main export sector:

Main destinations of exports:

Main origins of imports:

Your Your Partner in Investment

Tel: (+253) 31 21 02Fax: (+253) 35 88 37Address: P.O. Box 1884- Rue de Marseille- DjiboutiWebsite: www.djiboutinvest.dj

Republic of Djibouti

23,200 Km2

Djibouti

820,000

Arabic

Djibouti Franc (DJF)

USD 0.85 billion

6 %

USD 108 million

USD 230 million

USD 340 million (2006)

USD 1.555 billion (2006)

reexports, hides and skins, Coffee andJewelry

Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen and United Arab Emirates

Saudi Arabia, India, China and Ethiopia

Djibouti National Investment Promotion Agency


PAGE 5 JANUARY 2009

completed in January, according to Forum in Mumbai from February 11-13, Destination of the Year (2008) by the Fekade Haile, the general manager of 2009. UK's National Outsourcing Association the Addis Ababa City Roads Authority (NOA) and was recently listed in (AACRA). The Forum has long been India's Gartner's Top 30 global outsourcing

premier global meeting for the IT-BPO destinations.industry and this year sees Egypt's Information Technology Development Agency (ITIDA) as a platinum sponsor.

Egypt will be strongly represented

APA :Port Louis (Mauritius): A cons- through its own country session and will LIBYA. China Railway Construction Corp ortium of Mauritian and Malagasy have a delegation of both multinational is reported to have won a US$ 805 businessmen is finalising plans to invest and local Egyptian outsourcing million contract to build a new railway in 250 million dollars in a mega -project in companies, including Xceed, Vodafone, Libya.the production of biofuel. Teleperformance and Raya, on-hand to

demonstrate Egypt's strong position as The 172 kilometre line will take around A communiqué issued by the Mauritian a global service delivery location and a 54 months to complete. No further partners in Port Louis on Saturday, said leading partner of India's outsourcing details have been provided.the consortium, the Mozambique industry. Principle Energy (MPC) plans to The reports in Chinese business media produce some 213 million litres of Mr. Amin Khaireldin, Strategic Advisor said that the deal follows a US$2.6 ethanol by 2013. and Board Member of ITIDA, along with billion contract last year to build two

other delegates from ITIDA, will be other rail lines, a 352 kilometre railway The production will be exported to speaking at the Nasscom Leadership along Libya's Mediterranean coast from some countries of the region in order to Forum on the emerging importance of Khums to Sirt and an 800 kilometre line attenuate the energy crisis. Egypt in the global outsourcing market. in the south from Sebha to Misurata.

Mozambique has recently approved a Currently Indian direct investment in The coastal railroad is slated for "Right of Use and Exploitation of Land" Egypt totals $800m in more than 200 completion in four years and the concession which will put 18,000 Egyptian companies and with its southern line should take three years.hectares of land at the disposal of the relatively large and burgeoning talent consortium in Dombe, Manica in the pool of IT professionals, the Egyptian central Mozambique. outsourcing sector has received strong

support from its government to develop Sugar cane will be cultivated for the the industry further. It is projected that Source: www.newvision.co.ugproduction of bio-fuel. the Egyptian outsourcing sector will

generate revenue of more than USD Last year, Uganda exported more goods The company which expects to produce 1billion by 2010, four times the 2005 and services than the previous one. The 2.5 million tons of sugar cane yearly and revenue. value of exports increased from USD 2 will also set up an electrical power billion in 2006/07, to USD 2.4b in station to generate 82.2 megawatts of Last year, ITIDA signed a number of 2007/08. electricity as from 2012. Memorandum of Understandings and

Letter of Intents with Indian bodies and President Yoweri Museveni said coffee Twenty percent of the production will companies including Nasscom and exports increased from USD 229 million be used by the company and the rest three of India's top five IT/BPO in 2006/07 to USD 348 million in will be supplied to the national grid. companies to extend the collaboration 2007/08.

between Egypt and India. An estimated 2 650 jobs will be created “Partly as a result of this good export and the consortium will help in Egypt has been making huge strides in performance, the level of Uganda’s infrastructural development in the the world of outsourcing and according international reserves increased to USD region. to Yankee Group 'Egypt is by far the 2.7 billion in June 2008. The regional and

Middle Eastern country currently best adverse global developments in positioned to take advantage of the calendar year 2008 have tested the boom in outsourcing. It has a relatively strength of our economy,” Museveni

Source: www.ameinfo.com young population, a multilingual said. workforce, a large and burgeoning

Egypt, one of the world's fastest talent pool and strong government He noted that investments by foreigners g r o w i n g l o c a t i o n s f o r g l o b a l support for outsourcing.' had increased to USD 946 million in outsourcing, will be showcasing its ICT 2007/08, from USD 695 million in industry at Nasscom's India Leadership Egypt was also named the Offshoring 2006/07.

Mauritian, Malagasy consortium to invest USD 250 million in Mozam-bique’s ethanol sector Source: The Zimbabwean daily Source: www.bi-me.com

China Railway wins USD805 million railway contract in Libya

Uganda's export value hits USD 2.4 billion, investments hits USD 946 million

Egypt to strengthen ties with India at Nasscom's Leadership Forum 2009


PAGE 6 JANUARY 2009

Investors have very short memories.Roman Abramovich

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.Warren Buffett

We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.Robert Kiyosaki

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EVENTS

COMESA Investment Conference 200925 February 2009

Improving Investor Relations and Service Systems in the COMESA Region 26-27 February 2009

Real Estate Investment World23-26 March 2009

Arabian Hotel Investors Conference 20092-4 May 09

Rest in Peace Malik El Rouby

Fairmont Towers, Cairo, Egypt

Fairmont Towers Hotel, Cairo , [email protected]

Pudong Shangri La [email protected]

Madinat Jumeirah Dubai UAERising Above ExpectationsArabianconference.com

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PERSONAL NOTE FROM RIA STAFF

August 1975 - December 2008

About us

The COMESA RIA STAFF would like to take this opportunity to mourn the loss of our dear colleague Malik El Rouby, who held the accountant position on our team. He passed away December 29. He leaves behind his wife and two daughters. Touching all our lives, he was a warm and affectionate presence that will be cherished by all of us here in the office.

May he rest in peace.

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