According to global economic experts, 2012 marked the starting point of a new economic momentum for Côte d’Ivoire, following the numerous turbulences the country experienced between 2002 and 2011.
Indeed, the Doing Business 2012 report published by the World Bank highlighted the country’s achievements in attracting foreign investment (approximately USD 352 million between 2008 and 2010), reflecting an exemplary growth rate in West Africa. Nevertheless, experts noted that the Ivorian economy narrowly avoided its worst period and successfully maintained its growth trajectory.
Based on recent informed statements from senior international financial authorities, Côte d’Ivoire has become a highly attractive destination for investment and is considered the most promising market in the UEMOA region due to its enormous economic potential.
This observation is not mere speculation: the World Bank, in its latest Doing Business 2014 report, ranked Côte d’Ivoire among the top ten economies worldwide that made the most progress in the business sector between 2013 and 2014.
The country’s attractiveness for business is no economic accident. Côte d’Ivoire possesses numerous invaluable economic assets capable of drawing both domestic and foreign capital.
Côte d’Ivoire offers investors diverse resources, some yet to be exploited, within an attractive legal framework featuring facilitation measures, privileges, and guarantees established by laws, regulations, and, in some cases, rules derived from OHADA and UEMOA law. These frameworks are supported by local institutions that assist in investment processes.
Ultimately, it is this legal framework that supports the creation of various investment contractual structures, forming the basis for business relationships between private-sector operators and the State.
Naturally, this legal framework reflects the Ivorian government’s determination to make legal security a focal point of national economic revival and reform the country’s core economic legislation.
The goal of this reform is to provide investors with a secure legal environment conducive to private investment, enabling economic growth.
To make it more dynamic and catalytic, Côte d’Ivoire’s investment legal framework has been enriched with a body of regulations governing economic activity, embodied in several Codes, some recently adopted by ordinance.
While these instruments are not the only contractual frameworks available for investment, they constitute the most important legal references upon which most contracts between the State and private operators are based.
Furthermore, in pursuing this reform and adopting a modern legislation that meets economic needs, Côte d’Ivoire aligns itself with community legislative initiatives and international standards in business law.
In this regard, acts issued by OHADA and UEMOA are crucial and serve as models of legal construction. Côte d’Ivoire has incorporated these into its national law to strengthen its economic legislation.
It is worth noting that Côte d’Ivoire has ratified the OHADA Treaty and all eight uniform acts, which are directly applicable in the national legal order.
From a functional and legal perspective, investors can reference these acts in contracts between themselves, and invoke them before national and community courts when disputes arise with the State or third parties.
These uniform acts, covering various areas of business law, serve as legal frameworks for contractual relationships between private parties (e.g., sales contracts, transport contracts, company contracts).
Thus, studying Côte d’Ivoire’s main investment contractual frameworks allows us to focus on their nature and characteristics, whether they arise in the public sector (I) or the private sector (II).
