The 12th AGOA Forum is progressing from 9-12 August 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The forum began with a meeting of African Senior Officials who are reviewing the progress Africa has made under the AGOA. Various meetings have also been organized at the sidelines of the 12th AGOA Forum by the Private Sector, Civil Society and African Women's Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP). In one of the sessions organized by the Civil Society, participants reflected on what needs to be done to improve trade and investment performance of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) .
Using the Korea and other Asian countries as an example, participants at the 12th AGOA Forum noted the need for African countries to develop and implement deliberate measures to improve the trade and investment performance of SMEs under the AGOA.
Participants noted that African countries should particularly focus on the following areas as part of the measures for improving trade and investment of the private sector especially the SMEs for them to benefit more from the AGOA.
- Human resource development based on the industrial and market needs of the private sector
- Financial support with clear targeted SMEs banking services including credit guarantee schemes
- Focusing financing to non consumption expenditures
- Ensuring contract monitoring
- Prioritizing SMEs in public procurement
- Promoting joint ventures on both vertical and horizontal basis in and outside the country. It was also highlighted that promotion that the focus should also be on SME-SME joint ventures instead of SMEs-Multinational which at times are some what difficult to attain
- Provision of technical and extension assistance/services from production to markets
- Development and implementation of the private –public partnerships with clear mechanisms of engagement and incentives for attracting private sector investments
- Support to innovations through provision of venture capital and incubation services
- Integration of the value chains with clear inward and backward linkages
- Complete logistics support
- Protection of Intellectual Property rights
- Focus on product derversity, seasonal factors, organic and demand charactersistics of the products
The 12th AGOA Forum participants also reflected on the roles of the diaspora as a channel for enhancing the attraction of foreign direct investment targeting the AGOA market. It was noted that there is a need for improving market penetration to the U.S. The AGOA Forum proposed that the following measures should be considered by African countries in ensuring close trade and investment collaboration with the diaspora.
Ensuring that national laws on trade and investment are not discriminating against the diaspora especially in the area of access to land, share capital thresholds and management of enterprises
Utilizing the diaspora in the flow of market information regarding the prices, the distribution chains, possible trade partners and market regulations
The African countries should develop incentives to attract diaspora investment
There is need for the African entrepreneurs to form joint ventures with the diaspora
It was also noted that the African Chambers of Commerce should mobilize their members and provide a platform for close collaboration with the diaspora
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