World Economic Forum Africa Topic

Economic figures which are in most cases doctored to paint a rosy picture are only empty words to a majority of poor Africans. The African continent has continuously addressed the issues of the domination of MNC’s in their region. There have been several instances where the MNC’s have been found exploiting the natural resources without providing any benefit to the domestic economy in the continent. Several mining firms generating revenues of around $900million pay as less as 5% tax towards the government revenue. Most locals do not appear to be benefiting from the natural resources boom, with about two thirds of the country's population living on less than two dollars a day, according to World Bank. A report released by Kofi Anna said that tax avoidance, secret mining deals and financial transfers were depriving Africa of the benefits of its resources boom. Though, there are win-win cases like African Medical and Research Foundation has a partnership with Royal Philips Company based in Netherland to work collaboratively for structural improvement of African’s infrastructure healthcare provision, proposals to pursue sustainable development are reasonable.

The African delegation supported the Indian delegation proposal of incorporating FDI into the WTO as this would have helped several small developing economies especially in Africa to report such fraudulent practices followed by MNC’s at the international level. 

Further, the African delegation is planning to frame their investment policies to favour the FDI investment in the continent with transparent policies, competitive tax rates and strict rules with heavy penalties against companies who simply tend to exploit the benefits without contributing towards social upliftment of the African continent.

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