Cote d’Ivoire’s economy is on track to grow by 8% this year and by 10% over the next three years, President Alassane Ouattara said
The president – who was sworn in in May last year after months of bloody clashes following his victory in electionsin December 2010 as his opponent refused to concede – said improving the ratio of investment to gross domestic product and a reform in the cocoa sector, which would increase the price to producers thus boosting their income, would be the main drivers for growth.
“This will be helped by the depreciation of the euro,” Ouattara, a former official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a conference at independent policy institute Chatham Housein London. Cote d’Ivoire’s currency, the CFA franc, is pegged to the single European currency at the rate of 0.152 euros per 100 CFA francs.
“We are quite confident we can attain these growth rates,” he added.
Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s top producer of cocoa, making up around 40 percent of global production. Under the reforms, producers should receive around 50-60 percent of the international price for their cocoa beans, a rise from the 35 percent they were receiving until last year.
The country has adopted a new investment code and Ouattara said trade liberalization and improving the business climate to make it “one of the best business climates in Africa” were priorities of his presidency, besides bringing reconciliation to the people.
He added that a government plan for 2012-2015 aims to halve the current 50 percent poverty rate within the period and sets investment plans for improving the health and education sectors, agriculture and transportation but also strengthening the rule of law and improving governance.
DEBT RELIEF
Last month, the IMF and the World Bank approved debt relief with a total value of $7.7 billion for Cote d’Ivoire, under the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), saying that the move would reduce the country’s external debt by more than 60 percent.
Ouattara said that with the move, the ratio of external debtto GDP had fallen to 20 percent from a previous 60 percent.
Inflation will be 2 percent this year while the budget deficit will shrink to 3 percent of GDP from last year’s 5 percent, he also said.
“Cote d’Ivoire is getting back on track and we have the ambition to accelerate our growth,” Ouattara added. “For us, foreign direct investment is key to faster growth and the creation of employment.”
Among the reforms to be made to boost FDI and tourism revenue, the visa regime will be relaxed, with the length of a visit to be extended from the current three months to six months, the price of a visa to be cut by 40 percent or even 50 percent and more consulates to become available for tourists to apply, Prime Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio said.
Ouattara said the country’s security had been reformed and efforts for reconciliation were making progress and that a commission set up to investigate the killings in the country’s clashes will report shortly on its findings.
DIVISIONS REMAIN
The country remains divided, with Ouattara’s critics saying that while former president Laurent Gbagbo appeared at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, facing charges of crimes against humanity for the violence that erupted following his refusal to concede defeat in the 2010 elections, supporters of Ouattara accused of having committed crimes had not been brought to justice.
Gbagbo has denied responsibility for the violence.
Human Rights Watch last year called on the government to investigate both sides involved in the conflict, saying that forces loyal to Ouattara had “killed hundreds of civilians.”
The Cote d’Ivoire president’s visit to Chatham House was met by demonstrators on both sides, with some cheering the president and others protesting against him.
“We love him,” Sanata Traore, a 36-year-old Ouattara supporter from Cote d’Ivoire who now works in London as a caterer told Emerging Markets. “He is very intelligent, he is very educated, he is an international man. In one year, everything changed in the country.”
“We’re happy to live here but also happy to go back home,” Traore, wearing a T-shirt with the president’s picture on it, said.
Separated from the supporters by a police cordon, Ouattara’s opponents were just as vocal, even though slightly fewer in numbers.
“We’re protesting because since the election dispute, there has been no peace in the Ivory Coast,” Gueu Made, a 44 year old bus driver from London, told Emerging Markets. “Why are we witnessing the justice of winners?”
Ouattara said the investigations were ongoing and justice will be done.
“We have no problem in bringing everyone to trial,” he said.