AFDC launches distance learning seminar series on Improving Investment Environment for Africa and Latin America
Infrastructure is at the core of regional connectivity and integration as it can boost productivity and growth, facilitate trade and investment, and enhance mobility of people and ideas. Thus, building world class infrastructure is critical for growth. However, many developing countries fall behind in infrastructure development due to the lack of capital, technology, expertise, favorable environment, etc. Among all these challenges, the short of capital is obviously an urgent and important one.
In this context, recently, the Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center (AFDC) in collaboration with the World Bank launched a special distance learning seminar series on Financing Growth: Improving the Investment Environment through Infrastructure Development for Africa and Latin America respectively via the Global Distance Learning Network .
? The first GDLN seminar between Asia and Africa on Oct 20
The first seminar of this series with the theme of Urban Infrastructure Development and Financing designed for African participants was held on October 20. It was attended by four African distance learning centers (DLC) based in Senegal, Cameroon, Mauritania, and South Africa as well as Sri Lanka DLC with a total attendance of more than 140 people coming from various government departments and sectors of the five countries.
The seminar, which lasts for two and a half hours, includes two knowledge sharing sessions. The first is a presentation by Mr. Kamran Khan who is the Program Director of the World Bank–Singapore Urban Hub and Head of the World Bank’s Infrastructure Finance Center of Excellence in Singapore. He spoke from his office on Mobilizing Private Capital for Infrastructure Development and put forward two pronged private sector engagement strategies for financing infrastructure development in ASEAN countries, one on country level and the other on regional level.
Following his presentation is a case study session from Mr. Liu Hanyong, Director of International Division of Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau. He first gave an overview of urban infrastructure financing in China and then focused on the case of Shanghai. In particular, he shared two specific cases of urban infrastructure financing in two different sectors, one is the Laogang solid waste landfill project and the other is the Suzhou Creek rehabilitation project.
? The first GDLN seminar between Asia and Latin America on Oct 27.
A week later on October 27, the seminar with the same theme was organized again by AFDC. This time it was for Latin American participants and it was joined by over 120 officials and experts from six Latin American DLCs based in Panama, Colombia, Venezuela ,Mcxico,and Dominica.
Aside from Mr. Khan’s presentation and the case of China, a Mexican case was added to the seminar to give the participants an opportunity to learn from not only distant oriental experiences but also good regional practices. A case on Federal Mexican PPP Highway Program was introduced by Mr. Daniel Vieitez Martínez, the technical coordinator of MuniAPP, Municipality Strengthening for PPP Development Program.
Participants’ interests were apparently aroused by the very informative and pragmatic presentations and they had extensive discussions with speakers in the Q&A session that followed. Sri Lanka participants were keen on applying PPP processes in their projects and the Bank’s practices just served as the right reference for them. African and Latin American participants were eager to learn from Chinese experiences and raised lots of questions concerning every specifics of infrastructure financing in their respective countries.
The seminar was jointly moderated by Dr. Li Kouqing, Deputy Director General of AFDC in Shanghai, Mr. Philip Karp, Adviser Office of the Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific of the World Bank in Washington DC and Ms. Adinora Oquendo, President of the GDLN Americas Foundation, in Venezuela.
It’s the first time for AFDC to launch distance learning seminars for participants from places other than the Asia-Pacific region. Language had been the biggest challenge for coordinating and organizing such learning events across different regions. Thanks for the great support rendered by the World Bank, the event has finally become a reality. For the African seminar, the Bank helped provide English-French simultaneous interpretation which guaranteed the smooth exchange of information and interaction between two language areas. For the Latin American seminar, the Bank and the GDLN America helped coordinate English-Spanish simultaneous interpretation services which safeguarded the smooth running of the seminar.
This seminar is the first of a series of seminars on improving investment environment which are designed to boost south-south learning and cooperation. According to the AFDC’s plan, two more seminars, one on financing agricultural infrastructure development, another on financing educational infrastructure development will be organized in May and Oct 2012 respectively.
