News
tralac’s Daily News selection: 15 October 2015
The selection: Thursday, 15 October
Rwanda: Local traders want Northern Corridor summit to focus on cross-border barriers (New Times)
The local business community wants the forthcoming Northern Corridor Heads of State Summit in Nairobi, Kenya to focus on addressing the challenge of cross border trade barriers. The consensus was reached during a meeting of the business community to discuss barriers hindering cross-border trade ahead of the summit, yesterday. According to the traders, the barriers include, a high cost of air transport, double taxation, and laxity in the implementation of treaties agreed under the EAC common market protocol and single customs territory. They expect the 11th northern corridor summit on October 17, to largely focus on these challenges to boost regional trade.
EALA: President Kenyatta addresses special sitting
President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the EALA, calling on the Assembly to consolidate its work for the furtherance of the integration process. President Kenyatta further said the citizens of the region were yearning to freely move, work and enjoy the tangible benefits of integration. The President further urged stakeholders in the integration dispensation to go the extra mile and create awareness to the citizens of the region. He remarked that citizens of the region needed to be fully aware of the integration process. He said this was a role to be undertaken by both politicians and the ordinary people as well.
The Speaker called on the Summit of EAC Heads of State to intervene to ensuring the Institutional Review of the EAC is finalized. He lamented that the Institutional Review process was an expensive affair to taxpayers and time consuming. “This is none other than the Institutional Review which has been on the cards for the last six years and has cost tax payers – an estimated yet astronomical figure of USD 2 Million! The process has been through a full round in circles much to the detriment of the EAC. On the one side the Secretariat and other Organs remain under-capacitated and under-funded. On the other side, the EAC is unable to realise its full potential”, Rt. Hon Speaker said.
Profiled, recent EALA reports: Workshop on investment policies and strategies in the EAC region, Regional parliamentarian's policy workshop on climate change and gender
Africa Mining Vision Compact launched (AU)
The African Union Commission launched the Africa Mining Vision Compact during a high level dialogue session with the Private Sector Leaders, in the margins of the 1st ECOWAS Mining and Petroleum Forum and Exhibition on 8 October 2015. The main objective of the AMV Compact that will be developed and concluded in due course between the private sector investing in the mining sector and AU Member States, is to ensure that the private sector operates in a manner that is in line with the Africa Mining Vision that was endorsed by the AU Heads of State and Governments in 2009. The AMV compact will create a business environment that will be mutually transparent and accountable in order to ensure optimal benefits from the sector accruing to both the governments and the private sector.
Zimbabwe: ‘Diamond miners duped Govt’ (The Herald)
Diamond mining companies in Marange are resisting the push by Government to consolidate their operations to improve transparency because they misrepresented their investment plans to the State. Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa said the mining companies did not invest the amount of capital they agreed on with Government when the parties signed the joint ventures. Lack of investment in exploration to extend life of mines through discovering new deposits to sustain operations has seen surface gems mining out. This has caused revenue from their mining activities, in which Government has 50% interest, to plunge drastically.
As countries become increasingly dependent on world trade, with 40% of resources extracted and used worldwide linked directly or indirectly to trade, new policies are needed to address adverse environmental impacts, according to a new report. International Trade in Resources: A biophysical assessment, produced by the United Nations Environment Programme-hosted International Resource Panel, reveals that the value of international trade has increased over six-fold and its volume more than doubled between 1980 and 2010. This increase in trade has been accompanied by a shift in resource-intense processes, and associated environmental burdens, to developing nations.
New report spotlights links between maritime transport and sustainability (UNCTAD)
The 2015 Review of Maritime Transport, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, underscored the role of maritime transport in helping implement a workable international sustainable development agenda. The report also revealed that developing countries, especially in Africa and Oceania, pay 40 to 70% more on average for the international transport of their imports than developed countries. This is mainly due to regional trade imbalances, pending port and trade facilitation reforms, as well as lower trade volumes and shipping connectivity. Further, the report also states that the developing economies' share of world container port throughput increased marginally to approximately 71.9%. This continues the trend of a gradual rise in developing countries' share of world container throughput.
Infographic, @ShippingLatest: What are the main African countries for container handling?
China’s transport initiative could boost trade up to $2.5 trillion (JOC)
China’s land and maritime transport initiative linking Asia with Europe and Africa, and the countries in between, promises to add up to $2.5 trillion in trade to the country over the next decade, a Kuehne + Nagle executive said Thursday. “That’s more than the value of (Chinese) exports in 2013,” Jens Drewes, president, North Asia, told roughly 600 people at JOC’S TPM Asia Conference in Shenzhen.
Concern as 6000 trucks are stranded at Dar port (The Citizen)
At least 6,000 trucks have been stranded at the Dar es Salaam Port following cumbersome procedures of clearing cargo, transport stakeholders lament. According to them, the situation has been caused by the introduction of VAT and single customs territory for transporting goods to DR Congo. The president of the Transporters Association of Tanzania, Mr Zacharia Hans Poppe, told reporters that the ports authority was concerned about the declining amount of cargo at the Dar es Salaam Port. “The introduction of VAT at the rate of 18% on transit cargo is set to kill transport business for transit goods from Dar es Salaam Port to Congo. Already at least 6,000 trucks are parked at the port without business. This will definitely render thousands of Tanzanians jobless,” he said.
Toward solutions for youth employment: a 2015 baseline report (ILO)
One third of the world’s 1.8 billion young people are currently neither in employment, education or training. Of the one billion more youth that will enter the job market in the next decade, only 40 percent are expected to be able to get jobs that currently exist. The global economy will need to create 600 million jobs over the next 10 years – five million jobs each month – simply to keep pace with projected youth employment rates. Reversing the youth employment crisis is a pressing global priority and the socio-economic cost of inaction is high, says a new report. This inaugural report, Toward Solutions for Youth Employment: A 2015 Baseline Report, has been released by Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) – a multi-stakeholder global coalition established to improve youth access to work opportunities.
Kenya economic update (World Bank)
Kenya’s economic performance remains solid, with the growth rate expected to improve from 5.3% in 2014 to 5.4% in 2015, according to a new World Bank Group economic report released today. It is projected to rise further to 5.7% in 2016. The most recent Kenya Economic Update attributes the growth to government investment in infrastructure, including railways, roads and energy, and strong consumer demand. The foundation for growth remains strong, the report says, though prospects for higher growth have moderated from the impact of external shocks, including the recent crisis in China and weak global currencies. The current fiscal expansion presents a risk to growth, the KEU states. The current account deficit also remains high due to poor performance of the export sector, which has wiped out gains from lower oil prices.
Bank financing of SMEs in Kenya (Central Bank of Kenya)
FinAccess Business is a research project conducted jointly by FSD-Kenya, the World Bank, and the Central Bank of Kenya to improve understanding of the SME market on both the supply and demand sides. Demand-side data continues to be limited due to the lack of a representative list of active business establishments in Kenya, which makes it difficult to track the size of the market as well as the evolving characteristics of the business population and their need for financial services. This is a major gap in the analysis of the Kenyan SME finance market, which will be analysed in a forthcoming, indepth report. The present report provides instead a comprehensive view of the supply-side of SME finance and its evolution between 2009 and 2013.
Ethiopia's industrialisation spells crisis for Kenya's Turkana - HRW (Business Daily)
Industrial projects along Ethiopia's Omo River could dry up Kenya's Lake Turkana and create a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe exacerbated by climate change, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. Turkana, the world's largest desert lake, lies in Kenya's northwest corner, on the border with Ethiopia, and gets 90% of its water from the Omo River. [Download the report]
Pick n Pay remains focused on growing footprint outside SA (Business Day)
South African retailer Pick n Pay on Tuesday said growing its business outside SA remained a strategic priority for the company "notwithstanding the challenging trading conditions facing some regions". In the 26 weeks to end-August, the retailer said it opened six stores outside its home market — three in Namibia, one in Zambia and two in Zimbabwe.
Egypt's net FDI rises 54.6% to $6.4bn in fiscal year 2014/15: CBE (Ahram)
According to the central bank's September bulletin, Egypt's FDI rose by $2.25bn since standing at $4.12bn a year earlier. The huge increase follows fiscal and legislative reforms introduced by Egypt since the start of 2014/15, and comes during the country's first period of sustained political stability since the 2011 revolution. Money from Arab countries made up most of the investment inflows, increasing 51.6% to $2.67bn from $1.3bn the year before. European Union investments rose 3.5% to $6.9bn from $6.6bn.
Mozambique: President considers level of poverty in the country 'unacceptable' (Club of Mozambique)
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, said Tuesday in Maputo that the level of poverty in Mozambique "unacceptably high", pointing inclusive economic growth as essential to the fight against social inequalities in the country. Nyusi highlighted the fight against poverty as the main challenge facing Mozambique, when he spoke at the Second Nordic-Mozambican Conference on Inclusive Growth in Mozambique, which started Wednesday in Maputo.
Namibia: Alternative markets for red meat explored (New Era)
Mecki Schneider, the chairperson of the Livestock Producers Organisation (LPO), says various alternative markets have in the meantime been explored. Contact was made with China, Hong Kong and Russia as possible alternative markets. In spite of interest in Namibian products, these markets are not used yet. The two main reasons are that the phyto-sanitary agreements have not yet been finalised and the decrease in total slaughters. Meat exports to the USA could become a reality in the near future as soon as their meat inspection certification is finalised by their Food Security and Inspection Services.
Agricultural supply chains and agro-industrial parks: position paper (Abgiz)
An increasing number of African governments are focusing on the creation of agro-industrial parks as a tool to overcoming subsistence farming and promoting a value chain creation. South Africa is the no. 1 exporting country in the Sub-Saharan region. Italy is the no. 3 worldwide producer of agricultural machines and the no. 1 for packaging, with a supply chain worth over 150 billion dollars. The two countries could integrate their competencies and create agro-industrial parks as operational tools to better and more rapidly take advantage of the emerging opportunities in African markets.
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This post has been sourced on behalf of tralac and disseminated to enhance trade policy knowledge and debate. It is distributed to over 300 recipients across Africa and internationally, serving in the AU, RECS, national government trade departments and research and development agencies. Your feedback is most welcome. Any suggestions that our recipients might have of items for inclusion are most welcome. Richard Humphries (Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @richardhumphri1)
