By Isseu Diouf Campbell
At the forum titled “Doing Business in Côte d’Ivoire” and hosted by the Economic Promotion Bureau in the USA, Canada and Mexico, on April, 14, 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Manhattan, Primer Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan, got straight to the point in his address to potential investors.
“We must recognize that trade relations between our two countries are clearly below potentials for both parties… It is therefore a good thing that a US/Côte d’Ivoire council was established in New York in September 2012 to boost the partnership between our two countries,” he said.
In 2013, the volume of trade between the US and Côte d’Ivoire reached 1.2 billion dollars with Côte d’Ivoire exporting essentially coffee, cocoa beans, by products and natural rubber and the US, equipment, mainly vehicles and trucks.
Beside the exports, several US corporations including Citi Bank, Fedex, Boeing, Cargill, Chevron, General electric, and Ernst & Young, have set foot in Côte d’Ivoire, but Minister Duncan wants to go further.
“Beside those major corporations, we would like to have small and medium size US companies in our country to provide an added value to our local products,” he added.
Côte d’Ivoire, once West Africa’s economic powerhouse, had lost its appeal after a civil war broke down in late 2002, sinking the country and its economy to its knees.
The current president Allassane Ouattara inaugurated on May 21, 2011 after several months of political deadlock with his opponent Laurent Gbagbo, has the ambition through a National Development Plan to generate strong, sustainable growth, to create wealth and jobs and most importantly to reduce the poverty rate by 2015.
Côte d’Ivoire is the world leading producer of cocoa beans with 35% of the world supply, the world leading exporter of cashew nuts, the fifth world producer of palm oil and the seventh for rubber. The country’s soil also holds manganese, gold, diamond, iron ores, nickel, petroleum and gas.
With a growth rate of 8.7% in 2013, a foreign direct investment of 800 million dollars and a reduction of the security level from 4 to 2, a level comparable to cities like New York or Geneva, Côte d’Ivoire is working very hard to regain its former position.
In that regard, the government adopted laws to prevent corruption practices, put in place a more attractive investment code in mining, electricity, ICT, and land tenure and created the Investment Promotion Center in Côte d’Ivoire, a one-stop shop promoting and facilitating investment in the country.
With more than 400 reservations accounted for the forum in New York, for only 200 seats available, the interest on the American side was certainly there to the point where Minister Duncan had to reschedule his flight to meet with more investors.
Now, it will be up to the Ivorian government, which wants to see Côte d’Ivoire become an emerging country by 2020, to negotiate effectively and create growth that will trickle down to the average citizen.
