Africa well positioned for investment from BRICS countries
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E-mail Xinhua, March 28, 2013
Some experts said on Wednesday that Africa was well positioned to attract investments from the BRICS countries for development.
Sampson Akligoh, Head of Research at Databank, a leading investment bank in Ghana, said these investments, when they come, should be channeled into the main stream sectors of Africa's economies, including infrastructure development, owing to the high rate on return on capital in that sector.
The analyst made this point in a mailed response to questions from Xinhua on the ongoing BRICS Summit in Durban, South Africa.
"Already, we are labeled as the next frontier," Akligoh pointed out, believing that this labeling positions the continent to attract such critical investments needed for development on the continent.
The economist called on Africa's policy makers and politicians to "push for economic infrastructure expansion, the returns on which can attract more funds from the global capital market, including funds from BRICS countries."
"The new world order comes to Durban this week -- for the fifth BRICS Summit, and the first in Africa," Donald Kaberuka, President of African Development Bank (AfDB) wrote in a feature received here on Monday under the heading: "A Win-Win in Infrastructure -- The Durban BRICS Summit."
The AfDB boss observed that the BRICS countries were already part of the African infrastructure solution.
Kaberuka believes it was time for an idea which was first floated two years ago and which could take the relationship between Africa and the BRICS countries to the next level: channeling the significant surplus into high return infrastructure projects -- a win-win proposition.
Waqar Haider, Sector Leader of Sustainable Development at the World Bank Ghana Country Office, believed the need for Africa to attract all types of investment from not only the World Bank and African Development Bank but the BRICS countries.
"I am absolutely comfortable, for instance, with Ghana going for the Chinese investments and Brazilian investments," Haider stated.
He however cautioned that African countries including Ghana should do their own homework and make sure that the investment is good for their countries.
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