1. Regional Integration: Views from Guinea / West Africa Ramatoulaye Bah Minister of Industry Republic of Guinea

2. Overview Why should regional integration for investment be promoted? What are the major constraints? What has already been done? Who are the major players? … and how can Guinea and all of the West African countries benefit?

3. Major Constraints Lack of effective coordination of individual members’ investment policies. Outdated domestic investment codes, and lack of consistency in application. Political stability risks. Inadequate / insufficient collaboration and sharing of investment information. Lack of common, regional investment information and promotion tools.

4. Major regional players and efforts for regional investment cooperation What has already been done to promote investment at the regional level? Strong cooperation under several regional schemes to liberalize trade in the ECOWAS region, West African Monetary Zone, etc. Cooperation on investment matters is less advanced compared to cooperation on trade liberalization and promotion. Good cooperation on legal harmonization as part of OHADA. What are the major regional players that can easily promote investment in a more sustainable fashion? ECOWAS, UEMOA, Mano River Union, etc. Overlap and inconsistencies due to the high amount of regional integration efforts in Africa.

5. Regional Integration in Africa Source: in the public domain, presented by Wikipedia

6. Regional Integration in Africa Euler diagram, in the public domain presented by Wikipedia

7. Opportunities for Guinea and West Africa more broadly Encourage national governments to think “regional” in certain economic sectors --> sharing infrastructure projects (water, electricity, roads etc.) Negotiate and implement joint economic programs (South-South collaboration). Monitor and evaluate progress, to learn from experiences and initiate additional investment projects.

8. Assistance needed from the World Bank Group Assist with the formulation and drafting of a policy and regulatory framework to intensify investment integration. Support on intra-regional cooperation, particularly on information sharing. Help harmonize investment codes, as well as monetary and fiscal policies of countries in the region. Assist countries in harmonizing as much as possible their institutional, regulatory and legal frameworks. Assist countries in structuring due diligence processes to enable them to make strategic investment decisions on an informed basis.

9. Thank you.