Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in African countries ranked in the bottom quartile of the Economic Freedom Rankings by the Fraser institution on liberalising their economies.

I regularly engage with our counterparts in African countries on economic policies, including those ranked in the bottom quartile of the Economic Freedom Rankings. As set out in the Integrated Review, the UK Government is committed to the promotion of free and fair trade around the world and has already concluded trade agreements with 15 African countries. The UK Government supports economic development of African countries through a variety of channels, and UK investors have continued to invest throughout 2020 and 2021, meaning the £15.4 billion of deals made around the 2020 Africa Investment Summit are on track.

Looking specifically at countries in the bottom quartile of the Economic Freedom Rankings, in the past 6 months FCDO Ministers have visited Ethiopia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Malawi. These visits included discussions on improving economic development and trade policies. Such discussions have also taken place with other countries in the bottom quartile of the rankings. There are many examples of how our economic development support in these countries has delivered impact including:

In DRC the UK has helped to reduce multiple corruption opportunities, encourage increased formalisation, and has reduced the time taken to register a business by 22 days.

The UK's £6.8 million of support to the 'Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund' has leveraged over $9.8 million in private capital into medium and small enterprises which created over 3,400 permanent jobs, almost half of these for women.

In Sudan the UK has supported the reforms process we have seen progress on exchange rate, subsidies, and the early improvements to the enabling environment for trade and investment.