Author: OBG Admin

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Sewing up support: Textile manufacturers face competition from Asian imports

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

The textile industry in Ghana was once a leading player in the country’s industrial sector, employing about 30,000 workers. That number is now closer to 3000 and dropping steadily. The decline is largely due to competition from cheap imports, predominantly from Asia, which is making it difficult for Ghanaian textile producers to prosper in the market. “The main challenge is the influx of pirated copies from Asia. They are copying our designs, using our brand names and dodging paying any taxes,” Cecil Evans-Chinery, national wholesale director at Premium African Textiles, which is responsible for the distribution and marketing of goods made by textile manufacturer GTP,

George Richani-CEO-Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

Tackling the shortage: The government is looking for alternative housing solutions

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Like many emerging markets with fast-growing populations, Ghana faces a housing shortage. It must tackle a crunch between a public sector with limited resources to provide social housing and a private sector that sees little profitably in such developments. Serious Deficit The figure most often quoted for Ghana’s housing deficit is 1.7m units, rising to 2m by 2018. The shortage has led to the growth of informal and slum housing in some cities, a reduced standard of living, and health and safety risks for inhabitants. “Our market is derived from an acute housing shortage that spans the region,” Ibrahim Bah, managing director of real estate

Sheikh Ahmad Duaij Jaber Al Sabah-Chairman-Commercial Bank of Kuwait

Catalyst for development: A new levy is set to provide increased funding for the sector

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As well as establishing the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Ghana’s Tourism Act granted the organisation significant new scope by setting up the Tourism Development Fund (TDF). The TDF does not replace state funding for tourism but substantially supplements it, and could provide a multiplier effect, with more revenues from tourism providing funds for reinvestment to develop the sector. The TDF’s aim is to “provide funding for tourism and tourism-related projects and programmes”. The GTA can determine which activities this can apply to on a case-by-case basis, including five main areas: marketing and promotion; capacity building, market research and the development of tourism infrastructure; development and

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

High hopes: Natural assets and a good reputation bode well for future growth

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In spite of its reputation as a safe, friendly destination – along with strong links to the diaspora and a wide range of cultural, natural and historical sites – Ghana’s tourism sector has yet to reach its potential, prompting the country to embark on an ambitious strategy aimed at increasing visitor numbers five-fold over the next 12 years. Ghana’s tourism sector has strengthened in recent years, with a thriving domestic segment helping to generate forecasts of steady growth. However, while the country is one of West Africa’s best-known tourist destinations, there is widespread recognition that more could be done to boost the industry’s contribution to

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Staff party: Development of the industry will need to be accompanied by improved training

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

As Ghana’s tourism sector has grown, there has been a widespread feeling that one of the biggest challenges it faces is human resources. The authorities are now working to address this by participating in international training programmes and developing a new tourism university to support the sector. Counting Up Ghana ranks 129th in the world in terms of the proportion of the workforce that is employed in tourism. In a country with a growing population, building up this labour-intensive sector to expand its contribution to job creation seems an obvious strategy. Tourism and travel directly employed 124,500 people in Ghana in 2013, according to the

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

E-health: Promoting better health care services through digital platforms

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In 2010 the Ghanaian government launched a national e-health strategy to improve coverage and expand access to health care. “E-health holds a lot of promise for making the big strides urgently needed for improving the health of our communities, especially those living in rural areas,” wrote the former minister of health, Benjamin Kunbuor, in the launch document for the national e-health strategy. At the time, according to the document, there were five different types of software used to manage hospitals, with key elements of patient records remaining exclusively paper-based. In addition, the Ministry of Health (MoH) estimated that over 40% of the population had to

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

A stable supply: Drivers and change in GCC-Africa investment

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The push among GCC states to invest in Africa came about in earnest following the 2007-08 global food price crisis, and targeted agricultural land and strategic commodity production. Agribusiness, sovereign wealth funds and other agri-investment vehicles were the main players. Primarily state-led, the investments at that time centred on framework agreements with the host market, guaranteeing purchases and providing subsidised credit. Fast forward and in October 2014 the Dubai Chamber of Commerce noted that Gulf entities had contributed over $30bn to African infrastructure development over the previous 10 years, a substantial figure when one considers the GCC’s relatively recent start of outreach to the continent

George Richani-CEO-Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait

Looking east: Trade with Asia is growing and diversifying

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Following a difficult period for the international shipping market, in 2012 the container route from Shanghai to the Gulf through Dubai saw the second-highest rate of freight growth in the entire Asian region. This was part of an emerging trend of the maturation of GCC-Asia trade. A relationship that was once just based on energy demand is diversifying and the GCC is seen as a viable market for Asian goods and investment, a key transit point – given its developed infrastructure – for the fast-growing markets of Africa, and a high-quality producer of goods and services in its own right. Shifting Patterns The change in

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Attracting interest: Streamlining the licensing process in order to enhance the emirate’s business environment

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In a bid to attract new foreign investment inflows across a host of high-priority sectors, the government of Ras Al Khaimah launched a number of new initiatives for prospective and existing businesses in 2014. The RAK Department of Economic Development (RAK DED) recently announced plans to work with the UAE’s Ministry of Economy (MoE) to improve the emirate’s business environment, with the new agreement slated to streamline and de-centralise business licensing procedures, in addition to attributing new fee collecting responsibilities to RAK DED, highlighting the

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Return to debt markets: The emirate issues its first sovereign sukuk in a decade

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

Although the government of Ras Al Khaimah is not known for frequent bond issuance, it returned to the debt markets in 2015 with the deployment of a $500m sovereign sukuk (Islamic bond). Bonds, both Islamic and conventional, have been increasingly utilised by public and semi-privatised entities in the emirate recently, and despite earlier indications that the government would seek a syndicated loan to raise capital for new projects, debt market conditions are more favourable at present, as evidenced by RAK Bank’s recent decisions to both issue and tap a new bond, its first since 2005. With RAK’s spending set to rise as it moves to