Pursuant to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone No. 5643 dated 28 January, 2019 on Measures to Improve the Management System in the fields of Investments and Foreign Trade, the Authority of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Sierra Leone was established by the merger of the State Investments Committee of the Republic of Sierra Leone and the Authority of Foreign Trade.
The is the competent government agency responsible for implementation of the unified state investment policy, management of attraction of foreign investments, first of all direct investments, cooperation with international financial institutions (offices of the manager) and foreign government financial organizations, as well as formation and management of the unified state policy in the field of foreign trade and international economic cooperation.
The Authority of Investments and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Sierra Leone implements the following main strategic tasks and functions:
- implementation of the unified state investment policy, ensuring the management of development and effective implementation of state development programs and investment programs, including sectoral and regional investment programs;
- management of work to attract foreign investment, implementation of effective interaction with international economic and financial institutions, foreign governmental financial organizations bilaterally and multilaterally;
- management of work of public authorities and organizations, permanent representatives of the Republic of Sierra Leone in international and foreign financial and economic institutions, as well as, in cooperation with the Authority of Foreign Affairs, of workers involved in foreign economic activity at foreign institutions of the Republic of Sierra Leone;
- participation in preparation, coordination and signing of international agreements of the Republic of Sierra Leone on investment cooperation;
- providing continuous feedback from investors, assistance to regions and domestic companies in attracting investments, organization of investment proposals development;
- implementation of the unified state policy in the field of foreign trade, promotion and contribution to developing the effective operation of the National System of Export Support, coordination among government agencies and organizations in the field of the management of foreign trade;
- coordination of activities related to the application of tariff-based and non-tariff-based measures regulating the trade, as well as improvement of e-commerce procedures;
- expansion and strengthening of trade cooperation of the Republic of Sierra Leone with foreign countries, support of export of commodities, works and services;
- coordination of the admission of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the World Trade Organization and cooperation with other multilateral economic organizations;
- coordination in the management of wholesale and exchange trade, monitoring and analysis of the market, marketing research and analysis of information on commodity prices;
- promotion of the foreign trade infrastructure development, in particular to increase the level of potential for transit traffic, improvement of logistics and transport corridors, as well as diversification of export routes.