It certainly wasn't a normal week at work

With students from South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Lebanon, Namibia, Congo, Zimbabwe and elsewhere throughout Africa; and presenters from Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia, it was always going to be an interesting week regardless of what brought us all together in the first place. What did though, was the broad, sometimes opaque, sometimes misunderstood but nonetheless important investment concept of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

New Perimeter has run a pro bono course on SEZs for the past five years, alternating between the University of Pretoria (UP) and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Led by Claire Donse (International Pro Bono Counsel, Paris), along with the core team of Ashley Bell (Partner, Hong Kong), Pieter Paul Terpstra (Senior Associate, Amsterdam) and Brittani Yriarte (Associate, New York) the week-long course was held at UP as part of an intense 6-month masters program for African students with backgrounds in finance, investment, government and law. The course was never going to be a textbook recital of investment concepts, rather we wanted to equip the students with practical knowledge that they could take back to their home countries.

Our reception on Monday morning was immediately warm, and it was clear that the students understood many of the investment issues already - the first question related to the economic benefits outside the SEZ, which is perhaps one of the key tenets of a successful zone. The students' eagerness to learn was what impressed us the most. The enthusiastic feel continued throughout the week as we took the students through the practical implications of SEZs, how to garner investor confidence, regional trade agreements, dispute resolution mechanisms, investor partnerships and a number of case studies. Many of these case studies were from a first-hand perspective, such as Bob Gruendel (Partner, New York) and Brittani Yriate's insights on Oman and Stephen Webb's (Partner, Brisbane) experiences with the Maldives and Timor-Leste. The talks given by both DLA Piper lawyers and our guest presenters,  Dr. Jim Coleman of BuroHappold Engineering, and Johann Koen of Barclays, were always met with inquisitive and sometimes passionate questions and comments.  After all, SEZs go to the heart of any investment issue in a country, whether it be governance, policy, the rule of law, standards of living and government budgets.

It certainly wasn't a normal week at work for our small team and a few of us enjoyed it so much, we were momentarily deluded with grandeurs of academia - surely not all students are this engaged, eager, passionate and friendly though! The concluding presentations from the students showed how much they had learned in a short space of time, but we too had learned a lot from them - both their opinions on how Africa is to shape its future and their personal stories, too. We know that many of the students will go on to bigger and better things and they were an absolute privilege to teach.