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which combined with the country’s political, social, and economic stability, has attracted much interest in the area. According to Bias, natural resources, particularly mineral resources located in the African region, are the main sources of wealth generation while they are the promoters of economic development. However, the actual exploration requires transparent and practical management policies.
Legal and governmental challenges
“The knowledge and efficient management of resources is a major priority of the government in its attempt to globalise investments. We are finding that the current development has allowed for Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in areas such as agriculture, fishing, and tourism,” she said.
Bias expressed that Mozambique is hopeful that such activities will come together to help contribute to the economic and social development of the country. In addition to oil and natural gas, which are major contributors to the international energy markets, the country faces challenges within the legal institutions and its government framework.
“The attraction of public and private investment in the diversification of the economy is important. Trust, stability, transparency, and the protection of investments are necessary in order to ensure that there is longer term investment to encourage research and the use of technology,” asserted Bias.
She added that Mozambique is also aware that it should invest more on human technical development, infrastructure and other key areas to drive the economic development of the country.
African energy hub
Speaking on Ghana, a country of 25 million people, its Vice President Kwesi Amissah Arthur stated that it has a young labour force and a large educated population who are 
yearning to move on from the lower middle income status. “Our ambition, being surrounded by wonderful countries, is to become the energy hub of the region,” he said, highlighting the aspirations of the country.
Arthur disclosed that Ghana hopes to achieve this by increasing its power generation by 5,000 megawatts by 2016. In addition to this, the country also hopes to improve renewable energy sources and also invest in nuclear energy.
“In essence, what we are trying to do is to interest investors to come to Ghana, since once they set foot in our nation, investors will have access to a wide market of people who are yearning for improvements in the standards of their lives. Our environment is very welcome and friendly. Anyone who does business here will tell you that we are so friendly that they tend to come back again,” Arthur told the audience.
The drive to industrialise
Meanwhile, Namibian Minister of Trade and Industry Calle Schlettwein in her address said that Namibia is a middle income country that is heavily dependent on the private sector. “We are a typical country that produces what we don’t consume and consume what don’t produce,” he said.
The core of the economic development policy is hinged on the drive to industrialise, Schlettwein said. “If we want to maintain economic growth to lift the standard of our countries, we must industrialise. We must do this is in a way that we leverage the raw material endowment.”
As a strategy to further improve the country, Schlettwein noted that Namibia propagates the development of the domestic, regional, and international value chain.
“We are the biggest producers of uranium, diamonds, gold and silver, to name a few. If you ask me if we make jewellery, the answer is that we don’t. So our investment opportunities are therefore targeting the setting up of manufacturing businesses and establishing the value chain to transform those raw materials into finished goods,” he said.
Schlettwein cautioned that if the country doesn’t take up this direction, it will remain as the price takers of consumer goods and will end up in the bottom of the value chain. He also pointed out that the structural issues Ghana faces, similar to other African countries, is the lack of investments in skills development, transport, and basic infrastructure.
“However, this can be done only through policy direction in which we can industrialise. For this we must see how we can do this together with businesses to create the policy space. The private sector must bring technology and the risks and profits must be shared. If we so, we can create wealth,” said Schlettwein.
