Marrakesh Hosts 5th Symposium on Investments in Mining in Africa

The 5th symposium on investments in the African mining sector opened Monday here with the participation of 200 officials and experts from 26 African countries, Europe, the United States and Canada and delegates of the Mining Investments Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Opening the conference, Moroccan energy and mining minister, Youssef Tahiri, stressed that the mining sector will be facing huge challenges, including the need to discover and exploit new mine fields, develop exploitation means and guarantee the continuity of mining activities.

He urged private enterprises to promote the sector and called for amending the mining sector related laws to alleviate taxes in order to attract more external capital and investments while preserving environment, a concern, he said, that has become a strategic element in the marketing of mining products.

Other participants called African countries to introduce macro-economic reforms and to enforce new laws to protect investors.

A senior official at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) urged African countries to further liberalize their mining industries to attract foreign investments.

"At a time of low prices and heightened perceptions of risk by investors, the basic factors that investors will look for... are less bureaucracy, fast decision making, predictable rules of law, consistency and stability of policy," Philippe Lietard, director of the oil, gas and mining department at the IFC, an affiliate of the Washington-based World Bank, told the two-day meeting.

In 1997, Africa's share of world exploration spending stood at 16 percent of a total $5 billion, experts said.