Esmel Emmanuel Essis
Director General of the Investment Promotion Centre (CEPICI)
Economy / Ivory Coast
Reforms mean that country is open for business
Côte d’Ivoire is searching for investment to meet its ambitious National Development Plan, which aims to transform the country into an emerging economy by 2020. The man leading the search is Esmel Emmanuel Essis, Director General of the Investment Promotion Centre (CEPICI).
What is Côte d’Ivoire’s strategy for attracting new investment?
CEPICI is assisting reform of the business environment, increasing ease for all. The World Bank has noted that our reforms have made transferring property less costly, trading across borders easier and enforcing contracts more secure. As a result, we were named among the top 10 countries in the world for the progress of reforming our business climate in the most recent Doing Business Report.
How will you meet the requirements of the National Development Plan?
We will continue our structural reform and place impetus on the industrialization of our agricultural sector. Moreover, we are also looking to develop new growth sectors, such as renewable energies, ICT and mass retail.
What’s your message to investors?
Industrialization is one of the key pillars of our reform. Côte d’Ivoire remains committed to regional integration, and investors could benefit from our situation to form a sub-regional industrial hub here.
