Agriculture Min. Reviews Opportunities, Challenges of Investment in Africa

Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Sayyed Al-Quseir said on Wednesday 15/11/2023 that the African continent possesses enormous natural and economic resources, including millions of hectares of arable land and enormous wealth from mining, natural gas, forests, natural pastures and wildlife, and it retains a large percentage of the world’s natural resources from energy sources. Renewable and non-renewable, it also possesses great human resources, most of which are young people.

The Minister addressed the trade and investment session of the China-Africa Agricultural Forum currently held in the Republic of China, the current situation in global and regional agricultural trade exchange, which suffers from some difficulties due to many intertwined challenges and crises, starting with the Corona pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, and the current situation in the Middle East, in addition to climate change.

The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture spoke about the reasons for the weak volume of investment, stressing that investment between countries depends primarily on the availability of data and information about investment opportunities and incentives in each country, as the lack of flow of this information greatly affects capital movements, in addition to the fact that many investments fear… There are no guarantees that allow the exit of funds or investment returns.

He said that political stability and conflicts greatly affect the flow of investment, as the main factor in attracting investments is ensuring stability in any country in which projects are established, as well as the difference in customs and tax transactions between countries and thus are considered among the returns of movement in investment transactions, stressing that some legislation needs To reconsider creating an environment conducive to investment, as the expansion of the establishment of free and customs zones may be a motivating factor, while supporting the private sector and civil society to play a greater role in the field of investment, is considered a matter of utmost importance..

Al- Quseir pointed out that payment systems, banking services, and settlement mechanisms must be developed, especially in countries that do not have a large amount of dollar reserves.

The slowdown in growth and accelerating inflation has led to stagnation in the movement of trade with the rise in fuel, energy, and transportation prices, and these are the challenges facing emerging markets and weak flows. capital, inflationary explosions, geopolitical tensions, and military escalation.

Regarding the reasons for weak trade exchange, Al- Quseir revealed that they are: weak logistics with high costs of transportation, freight, and insurance, with increasing risks due to wars, disasters, and conflicts, and the cessation of supply chains due to successive and intertwined crises and challenges, and the imposition of some countries on their exports of some goods due to security conditions. Nutrition and protecting her internal position.

He continued that the reasons include increasing distances between production markets and consumption markets, which leads to increased costs, and the outbreak of conflicts in the main areas of production areas, such as the crisis in Russia and Ukraine, which greatly affected the movement of trade exchange.

He stressed that many importing countries, especially poor or developing countries, may not have a system for settling payments, and many of them do not have the financial capabilities to create appropriate reserves to enhance their food security, in addition to that many materials are exported in their condition as raw materials without carrying out manufacturing operations.

It loses added value and thus affects the volume of trade between countries.