Measuring the Capabilities of Firms to Deliver Local Content in Resource Rich Countries

About the ProjectNatural Resource-led Development in New Producing CountriesOur project seeks to understand how natural resource extraction can drive inclusive economic growth in new producing countries. We are engaged in a multiyear, multidisciplinary study with four objectives:Understand the human geography of new producing countries. Assess the magnitude of new discoveries and estimate direct fiscal impact. Understand how industry can be localized to create economic growth. Estimate spillovers and welfare impacts to society. We recognize that policymaking in new producing countries is a complex process, and our project also seeks to understand the interactions of actors’ interests that drive energy sector policies.Our initial focus is on four countries – Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda – that expect to develop significant oil and gas reserves in the next 5-7 years. Through natural resource development, these countries hope to achieve middle-income economic status by 2030-2040. This project is conducted through close collaboration with leading think tanks and NGOs in Africa.Key PointsThe term ‘Local Content Policy’ is a catch-all for ensuring that resource owners capture more value from developments than the fiscal revenues alone. KAPSARC has explained the benefits of a dynamic perspective when evaluating firms’ capabilities – their entrepreneurial capacity – and proposed a tool for assessing firms in this paradigm. Here, we present an analysis based on the descriptive statistics gathered from applying the framework outlined in the previous two papersUganda is on the cusp of developing its oil industry following major discoveries around Lake Albert in the northwest region of the country. It has provided a useful case study for developing insights that can be more generally applied in resource rich economies seeking to maximize the value extracted from their endowments. KAPSARC conducted a study of Ugandan firms, their capabilities and potential to serve the oil and gas industry as suppliers. The specific findings were:Ugandan firms demonstrate relatively good performance in some important dimensions, including absorptive capacity and innovation. However, this is curbed by low levels of linkages with the academic and industrial sectors, limited exports and poor interaction with the financial sectorThe firms surveyed show an entrepreneurial behavior, which is encouraging for public policies promoting the private sector. Moreover, almost all the firms are privately owned.International standards, important in oil and gas operations, are not widely used. Plugging this gap is an opportunity that can be addressed by local content policies.The oil and gas industry is new in Uganda, yet 29 percent of the firms surveyed are already suppliers to the sector. The contribution to their sales represents only a small percentage. This low level of sales among a relatively high number of suppliers indicates a potentially positive impact on the local supply chain if appropriate local content policies are designed.

关于项目——新兴生产国自然资源引领的发展本项研究旨在探究自然资源开采如何推动新兴生产国包容性经济增长。本项目为期数年，跨学科研究，设定四大目标：深入理解新兴生产国的人文地理学；评估新发现的规模并估算直接财政影响；探究产业如何本地化以创造经济增长；估算对社会的外溢效应及福利影响。我们认识到，新兴生产国的政策制定是一个复杂的过程，本项目亦旨在理解推动能源领域政策的各方利益互动。我们的初始关注焦点为四个国家——肯尼亚、莫桑比克、坦桑尼亚和乌干达——预计在接下来5至7年内将开发出重要的石油和天然气储备。通过自然资源开发，这些国家期望在2030至2040年间实现中等收入经济体的地位。本项目与非洲领先的智库和非政府组织紧密合作。关键要点‘本地内容政策’一词旨在确保资源所有者从发展中获取的价值超过单纯的财政收益。沙特阿拉伯国王阿卜杜拉科技大学（KAPSARC）在评估企业能力——包括其创业能力——时，提出了一种动态视角的益处，并提出了评估企业在这一范式下的工具。在此，我们基于前两篇论文中概述的框架所收集的描述性统计分析，呈现了分析结果。乌干达正处于开发其石油工业的关键时期，西北部地区的阿尔伯特湖周边的重大发现为其提供了有价值的案例研究，这些洞察可以更广泛地应用于寻求最大化其资源赋存价值的资源丰富经济体。KAPSARC对乌干达企业进行了研究，评估了其能力及为石油和天然气行业提供产品的潜力。具体发现如下：乌干达企业在某些重要维度上表现出相对良好的表现，包括吸收能力和创新。然而，这受到与学术和工业部门联系的低水平、有限的出口以及与金融部门较差互动的限制。调查的企业显示出创业行为，这对于促进私营部门发展的公共政策来说是令人鼓舞的。此外，几乎所有企业都是私营所有。在石油和天然气运营中至关重要的国际标准并未得到广泛使用。填补这一差距是可以通过本地内容政策解决的问题。石油和天然气工业在乌干达尚属新兴，但调查的29%的企业已经是该行业的供应商。其对销售额的贡献仅占一小部分。在相对较高数量的供应商中，这种低销售额水平表明，如果设计适当的本地内容政策，将对本地供应链产生潜在的积极影响。