Africa: Commercial Opportunities and Exports

Lord Johnson of Lainston Excerpts

Thursday 12th September 2024 Grand Committee

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Northover. Like everybody else, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Popat, on instigating this debate. We have had a pantheon of speakers of phenomenal quality. Many of them seem to be trade envoys hoping to keep their jobs under the new Government but the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft, was absolutely right: this is an essential programme that I, as Investment Minister, found incredibly useful and powerful. I recommend it and would like to hear from the Minister his comments on the continuation of that essential process, which allows senior parliamentarians from all parties to connect with key countries that otherwise do not get the attention they deserve.

In my view, coming from the last two years in what is now the Department for Business and Trade, Africa—both sub-Saharan Africa and the northern part of that great continent—is playing such a major role in the future of this nation as a trading and economic partner. The potential is phenomenal. If we combine that with the historic and cultural ties, which are so significant, we are one of the largest investors in Africa. I think that, on a corporate basis, we remain the largest—although, as we have heard from all noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Hannan and Lord Popat, there is a continuing decline of our fundamental export and import trade. This is not just a “nice to have” and a new market; frankly, it is vital if we are to expand our economy. What is so frustrating is that the opportunities are so ripe; they are there for us to take advantage of them.

The first thing I draw attention to is the decline in actual activity. In my view, that can be attributed to the lack of government presence in Africa; the noble Lord, Lord Risby, mentioned the extraordinary paucity of our activity. We have fewer consulates across Africa compared to most of our competitors: China has 65 diplomatic missions while France has 68, but we have only 38 diplomatic missions. I do not know whether any noble Lords have recently read Rory Stewart’s memoir, where he laments exactly this—the sheer lack of people on the ground in terms of hard power and, most importantly, soft power.

I mean my questions for the Minister in the nicest possible way and not to be confrontational. I can see some of my former officials and colleagues sitting behind him; I am sure that they would agree with me. What plans do this Government have to increase our on-the-ground presence, especially in relation to Department for Business and Trade staff in Africa? These are complex and fragmented markets. The opportunities are there and other countries are stealing a mark on us.

The other point I turn to concerns our inherited advantages. We have talked about our history. For me, the history is very positive when it comes to doing trade—not just in terms of trade but in sport, as we have heard from many of my noble friends today. Some 130 million Africans speak English, with 21 countries having English as their official language and 19 being members of the Commonwealth. I pay tribute here to the noble Lord, Lord Swire, and his colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Marland—sadly, he is not in his usual place—regarding the importance of promoting the Commonwealth in principle in Africa.

Given this, what are we doing to encourage the promulgation of the Commonwealth? What are we doing to encourage countries such as Morocco, which, apart from being able to provide us with delicious tomatoes at tariff-free rates, will also at some point in the near future—if we can get this to work—possibly provide 4.5% to 5% of our electricity through the extraordinary projects that we are working on, with solar power being delivered to the UK? These countries want to join the Commonwealth. They want to leave other spheres of influence and join ours, so what are the Government doing to encourage that? Can the Minister continue to commit to funding for our Commonwealth organisations, which are so important?

My next point, which is to do with strategic issues relating to other countries’ activities in a more forward-footed way, follows on from that. I say this with no great prejudice but, as I understand it, China has built more than 100 ports, 100,000 kilometres of roads and 10,000 kilometres of railways. Frankly, how many ports, miles of railway and miles of road has Britain built or instigated in that great continent? Why are we standing by idle when others are moving so fast? Again, this is not just a “nice to have” or simply about helping our exporters; there are geostrategic imperatives here that I would impress upon the Government.

I come to my conclusion. We had a very successful UK-Africa summit, with 27 deals worth billions of pounds. It was extremely frustrating for me and, I know, for many of my colleagues in the department when the Africa summit was cancelled this year. I am certainly sorry about that, but that does not mean that this idea should not be taken up by this new Government. I would like to hear from the Minister what plans they have for a renewed push in Africa, renewed funding when it comes to the Department for Business and Trade, an extra additional effort and funding when it comes to promulgating our Commonwealth country brethren, and ensuring that we put in place, as rapidly as possible, plans for an African investment summit.