EY-africa-attractiveness-survey-june-2015-final

Future Assuring Africa’s long-term growthPrioritiesPartnershipsViewpointPromotingpartnershipsMawuena TrebarhCEO, Ghana Investment Promotion CentreAn African proverb says, “If you want to gofast, then travel alone; if you want to go far,then travel together.” Partnerships are goingto be essential if we are to drive the inclusive,sustainable growth that is so critical to Africa’sfuture. Unfortunately, the relationship betweengovernments and businesses across many partsof the continent is not always as engaged andproductive as it could and should be. Too often,businesses are viewed as part of the problem.Rather, governments and businesses (both local andinternational) need to become partners, embracinga philosophy of shared value and driving a commonagenda of inclusive, sustainable growth. Andpartnerships need to extend beyond businessesand governments. To drive growth, we need to bemuch more proactive in forging multilateral (ratherthan bilateral) partnerships — across business,government, development finance institutions,donor agencies, and so on — particularly to addressthe interdependent priorities of entrepreneurialdevelopment, regional integration and infrastructuredevelopment.Productive partnerships between business,government and the community are a cornerstone ofour approach to investment promotion in Ghana. Keyto this is getting the right balance between prosperityfor both the business community and the nation. Wedo not think that the two are mutually exclusive; wefirmly believe that they should go hand in hand.As an Investment Promotion Agency, we havepositioned ourselves, especially for the year 2015,as “The Prosperity Partner” for investment inGhana. This placed in context means that we areencouraging and promoting a partnership withinvestors, both Ghanaian and foreign, to ease theminto the Ghanaian business environment, to fulfilltheir objectives and, in the long run, achieve theprosperity they require.Our current approach toward investment promotionhas moved on from a broad-based strategy to ahighly targeted one. This enables us to attract andidentify the required and necessary partnershipsthat are a perfect fit and serve the needs ofthe country. The kind of partnerships promotedis not limited and is dependent on the projectspecifications. We are particularly excited aboutpartnerships between local and foreign businesseswhere the Ghanaian partner initiates the processto expand their business and possibly works towardhaving an international identity.52 EY’s attractiveness survey Africa 2015 Making choices