The First Africa Asia Business Forum was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the Palace of The Golden Horses, from 25 to 29 October 1999.

The preparation for the Forum took place over a year and consisted of 6 national and regional workshops in Africa (Accra, Nairobi, Windhoek, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Harare) and 6 national workshops in Asia ( Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Lahore, New Delhi, Madras and Seoul). These were important capacity enhancing components towards the event. The focus was on one-to-one negotiations that would lead to concrete results, with few speeches.

These workshops were designed to deal with the routine obstacles that face African and Asian business people in doing business with each other. To participate in the audits, firms had to meet the basic selection criteria and participate in a physical audit to determine suitability.

The Africa workshops focused on the following topics:

• Orientation and perception reinforcement for foreign linkages
• Options for structuring business linkages
• Laws governing international transaction
• Cross-cultural business communication
• Negotiating business linkages
• Preparing Investment Profiles
• Sourcing Finance for Linkage Development

The Asia workshops highlighted business opportunities in Africa for Asian businesses and covered the following subjects:

• African membership in Institutions for Global Trade and Investment(ACP, MIGA, GSP, WTO and others)
• Emerging African Entrepreneur Networks
• Cultural Aspects of Doing Business in Africa
• Technological Application and Doing Business in Africa
• Financial Sources for Doing Business in Africa
• Legal and Accounting Aspects of Doing Business in Africa

In the final selection, 110 Sponsored Africans from 25 countries participated in the Forum. In addition there were 28 semi-sponsored businesses from 7 African countries. 12 of the sponsored delegates brought along 14 additional representatives who were self-sponsored. There were also 34 representatives of 20 Government Investment Promotion Agencies, Export Promotion Boards and Zones, Direct Foreign Investment and Privatisation Agencies.

On the Asian side, there were 119 sponsored Asian businesses representing 6 countries (South Korea, China, Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Singapore). At least 3 of the sponsored Asian companies brought along an additional 7 representatives.

Primary financing for AABF I was provided by the Government of Japan, with additional financial support from UN Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, and in collaboration with other UN system partners such as ITC, UNCTAD and UNIDO, and the World Bank Group's MIGA through its field function, Promote Africa, Windhoek, Namibia.

AABF I was a highly successful event bringing together 230 African and Asian business executives to negotiate deals. 23 African and 6 Asian countries were represented. The Forum was opened by the Honourable Dato Sri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, amongst a host of distinguished guests. There were representatives of the African diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur and several African Government Ministers. Among the 27 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) that were disclosed at the event, four of them totaled USD 24.5 million in joint ventures.

The benefits of the first Business Forum went beyond the number of agreements entered into. Perhaps it's most important accomplishment was bringing together business executives from the two regions and dispelling the myths each held of the other. For example, since the first Forum, several exchange visits have taken place among executives from both regions including a visit in October 2000 of 60 business persons from Malaysia, Korea, India and Pakistan to Uganda and Tanzania - in search of opportunities. In November 2000, 30 representatives of key African and Asian business associations met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to discuss the future sustainability of promoting inter-regional business linkages under private sector leadership. The ASEAN Chamber of Commerce and Industry was represented by its President, Mr. Jose Concepcion Jr. of the Philippines. It is the success of AABF I that led the Government of Japan to agree to support a second Forum.