Bujumbura signs investment treaties

Burundi is among some dozen developing countries to have signed bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with developed and other developing countries at last week’s Third UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which was organised and facilitated by the secretariat of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). A statement released by UNCTAD noted that countries are increasingly concluding BITs in order to promote and protect foreign direct investments (FDIs) and to foster international cooperation. “By signing such treaties, developing countries in particular are sending a strong signal to the business community worldwide, as well as to their own investors, of their commitment to providing a predictable and stable legal investment framework. The negotiations are part of a long tradition at UNCTAD of supporting efforts by developing countries to attract and benefit from investment and to facilitate south-south cooperation. UNCTAD’s role is to facilitate negotiations [although] the organisation does not participate in the negotiations.” This latest round of negotiations was supported by UNCTAD’s trust fund on capacity-building in developing countries on issues in international investment agreements, to which l’Agence pour la Francophonie, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK have contributed. The conference ended in Brussels, Belgium, on 20 May with the adoption of a political declaration in which the 193 participating governments committed themselves to the eradication of poverty in the world’s poorest countries. The “Brussels Declaration” says that a “transparent, non-discriminatory and rules based” multilateral trading system is essential for LDCs to reap the benefits of globalisation, and adds that the accession of those countries to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) should be encouraged and facilitated. They committed themselves to advancing the “development dimension of trade” at the next WTO meetings, to be held this November in Doha, Qatar. They also committed themselves to mobilising resources for development and to reversing the declining trend of official development assistance. [For further details see < http://www.unctad.org>].