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tralac’s Daily News Selection
The selection: Tuesday, 15 March 2016
The UNCTAD 14 pre-conference negotiating text, submitted by the Chair of the Preparatory Committee, is posted.
UNCTAD 14 on the agenda at civil society event in Africa: The event, held in Accra from 29 February to 3 March, was hosted by UNECA and the Third World Network-Africa and brought together civil society organizations from across the continent. The last two days of the meeting were used as a strategy session to determine how civil society organizations could effectively influence Continental Free Trade Area negotiations, and to develop a strong African civil society position on the UNCTAD 14 sub-themes.
African Transformation Forum highlights:
Africa needs to chart own development model - experts (New Times)
Carlos Lopes, the executive secretary for UN Economic Commission for Africa, said the continent has the privilege of being the transformation “latecomer”, to acquire, learn and reinvent other development models to fit into the African context. But what kind of industrialisation? Lopes said it cannot be the industrial experiment that Americans, Asians or Europeans used. None. “It has to be a completely different one. If you look at those experiments in other parts of the world, they do not adjust to our (African) needs right now, because they were implemented under the world economic conditions that are no longer available to Africa,” he said. Lopes said African industrialisation has to benefit the continental and regional market first before it goes beyond, with special emphasis on agro-processed products, and value addition to mineral exports. [Follow AFT debates: #ATF2016]
ATF documentation: Promoting manufacturing in Africa (Yaw Ansu, John Page, Margaret McMillan, Dirk Willem te Velde), Trade facilitation and economic transformation in Africa (Joe Amoako-Tuffour, Neil Balchin, Linda Calabrese, Maximiliano Mendez-Parra), Access to finance for SMEs (prepared by World Bank Ghana office), Developing youth skills for employment (William Baah-Boateng), Public and private sector collaboration for economic transformation (Yaw Ansu, David Booth, Tim Kelsall, Dirk Willem te Velde)
World manufacturing production, Quarter IV, 2015 (UNIDO)
The growth of manufacturing output in developing and emerging industrial economies decreased to 4.6%, down from 5.2% growth in the previous quarter. The growth outlook varies between different developing and emerging regions and groups; e.g. manufacturing output grew by 6.1% in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific compared to the same period of the previous year, while it declined by 4.0% in the Latin America region. Manufacturing output fell slightly in Africa (by 0.2%), however, negative growth has only been observed in one country in the region while the rest of the region registered positive growth figures. Manufacturing output grew by 1.1% in Egypt, by 0.4% in Morocco, by 5.8% in Senegal and by 0.8% in Tunisia. A decline of 1.4% was registered in South Africa where the economy - as an exporter - has been hit by the low commodity prices.
Energy crisis continues to be Africa’s metaphor for backwardness - Adejumobi (The Post)
Speaking during a two-day ad-hoc expert group meeting on ‘the energy crisis in Southern Africa: perspectives for the future’ in Malawi yesterday, Said Adejumobi, Economic Commission for Africa sub-regional office for Southern Africa director, said the energy crisis was one of the greatest challenges facing the African continent. “Three decades ago, the indicators for describing Africa as the ‘heart of darkness’ were high levels of poverty; ignorance; illiteracy, disease and other factors. Today, with the ‘Africa rising’ story, the metaphor for Africa’s continued backwardness is the energy crisis, precisely the provision of electricity,” Adejumobi said. [Infrastructure Africa Business Forum: update]
Tomorrow: a Brand South Africa, University of Johannesburg seminar on findings from Brand SA fieldwork on the reputation and exposure of South Africa in peer African markets. [Perspectives on South Africa’s reputation on the African continent: This presentation [17 November 2015] explores South Africa's reputation on the African continent, the country's performance on the 2015 Nation Brand Index, and indices on our global competitiveness. It also presents Brand South Africa fieldwork research, as part of the SA Inc series.]
Sam Mkokeli: 'Will Zuma’s visit to Nigeria bolster trade?' (Business Day)
Trade and foreign policy expert Tom Wheeler says the state visit was a very important one and the big delegation from the South African side showed the seriousness with which attempts to improve trade are being handled. He says a lot of work needs to be done in to improve the relationship beyond the symbolism of the state visit. That includes getting rid of the regulatory bottlenecks frustrating businesses on both sides.
George Rautenbach: 'SA’s ignorance of Africa does everyone a disservice' (Business Day)
Recently Cape Town hosted the first Bloomberg Africa Business and Economic Summit. The presentations focused on the validity in the argument that Africa is booming. While it certainly was worth the effort to attend, I was surprised and perplexed at our ignorance as South Africans of the world in general and our continent in particular. This was reflected throughout the summit. Why was this event important and what can be learned from it? Strangely enough we can draw conclusions from both the content and the absence of content. A summit that was supposed to answer many questions turned out to raise more questions instead.
Enterprise Mauritius team in SA (Business Day)
Enterprise Mauritius CE Arvind Radhakrishna said the trade missions sought to strengthen existing relationship, while seeking new buyers in different categories, such as boutique outlets. "The timing of the mission is particularly opportune in light of the depreciation of the South African rand, since Mauritian manufacturers enjoy zero rate of duty when entering the South African market."
Chinese imports threaten cement sector (IOL)
Donald Mackay, a director at XA International Trade Advisers, claimed yesterday that at least one factory in China had already been approved to export cement to South Africa and other Chinese producers were believed to have applied for approval. “It won’t be long before a number of other Chinese factories are approved and we see Chinese cement simply replacing the Pakistani cement in South Africa,” he said. Mackay said the weakening in the value of the rand meant that Pakistan’s US dollar-based exports had become significantly more expensive, while the depreciation in the value of the Chinese yuan had suddenly made Chinese exports more competitive.
Related: South Africa-Saudi Arabia Joint Economic Commission Session: update (GCIS), SA retains US duty-free access (Bloomberg), Policy over scrap metal requires industry input (Business Day), Saudi firm to invest R35bn in South African energy projects (Business Day)
Concluding today: the 11th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India Africa Project Partnership. Highlights of the inaugural session included the release of the EXIM Bank report on ‘Focus Africa: enhancing India’s engagement with Southern African Development Community’ and a background report on India-Africa Project Partnership.
Focus Africa: Enhancing India’s engagements with Southern African Development Community (Exim Bank)
The study dwells on the strategic importance of SADC countries as investment destination for India. The SADC region accounts for nearly 30% of Africa’s GDP and is the second-largest bloc (in terms of economy size) in the continent, after Economic Community of West African States. For India, especially, the SADC region is of strategic importance, accounting for nearly 40% of its total trade with Africa, and a substantial portion of India’s investments, with major destinations like Mauritius, Mozambique and South Africa, among others. In the SADC region, Indian multi-national enterprises (MNEs) have ventured into both Greenfield and Brownfield investments, spanning across various sectors including manufacturing, mining, construction and energy, among others. According to data from the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India, India's approved cumulative investments in the SADC region during April 1996 to March 2015 amounted to US$ 46.5bn.
Capacity building vital for India-Africa cooperation: VK Singh (Business Standard)
He said technology is a strong foundation of India-Africa partnership and there are fields such as health-care, space, pan Africa e-network, reduction of the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world. "We are also looking to work in the areas of sustainable development of economy, solar energy because Africa has partnered with us in solar alliance, and climate resilient agriculture. Our focus is to jointly implement these initiatives and realise the targets through joint efforts and collaboration," he added. The minister also urged LDCs in Africa to take full benefits from the Duty Free Tariff Preferential Scheme extended to LDCs by Government to increase African LCDs share of total African exports to India. [South Africa's Adcock in talks to sell part of its India business (Economic Times)]
Tanvi Madan: 'What India thinks about China's One Belt, One Road initiative (but doesn't explicitly say)' (Brookings)
More, and more productive, jobs for Nigeria: a profile of work and workers (World Bank)
This report presents an updated picture of jobs in Nigeria and identifies opportunities for improving the quality of jobs. This report has shown that Nigeria combines middle-income status and Africa’s largest economic power with high poverty levels, largely because the main sectors of economic growth are disconnected from the sectors that provide employment, notably subsistence activities in the agricultural and services sectors. Finally, the diagnostics included in this report show that both new and existing jobs, whether in agriculture or other sectors, will need to be more productive to help the population move out of low-earning employment and poverty.
Djibouti: Country Strategy Paper 2016-2020 (AfDB)
The African Development Bank Group's 2016-20 CSP for Djibouti has been prepared against a backdrop of steady improvement in the country's economic growth since 2011, calming of the socio-political environment and start of implementation of the Djibouti Vision 2035 and the 2015-19 SCAPE. A small country with barely 800,000 inhabitants, covering an area of 23,200 km, Djibouti has since 2011 enjoyed economic prosperity accompanied by relative political stability. The economic growth trend has been positive over the past four years, rising steadily from 4.5% in 2011 to 5.9% in 2014. This momentum is expected to be maintained over the coming years, with a projected growth rate of 6.0% in 2015 and 2016. In addition, GDP per capita has more than doubled in 15 years from USD 762 in 2000 to USD 1,670 in 2013.
Specific roles and responsibilities for institutions key for implementing Agenda 2063 (ACBF)
The presentation made by Prof Nnadozie also focused on the complex and heavy institutional architecture at the regional and continental level including lack of clarity of mandates among AU organs as well as duplication of roles, functions and activities. He also proposed specific roles for NEPAD planning and Coordinating Agency, the African Peer Mechanism, and the Pan African Parliament. At the end of his presentation, he recommended that the Constitutive Act should be reviewed and realigned to meet the needs of the continental agenda while mandates of institutions should be revisited in order to further clarify, harmonize and reduce duplication and ‘turf’ congestion.
La Francophonie and Agenda 2063: synergies promoting development (21 March, AU)
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: 'How can we ensure Africa continues to rise?' (WEF, Project Syndicate)
As they make these investments, policymakers must not forget that much of Africa’s recent growth can be credited to good macroeconomic policies and sound economic management. Extending the continent’s rise will require strengthening the continent’s economic fundamentals. This means ensuring that prices in the economy are correct, starting with the exchange rate. Some countries may need temporary controls to curb damaging capital outflows, but policymakers should aim for a market-based exchange rate and a solid plan for governing inflation, debt, foreign-exchange reserves, current accounts, and fiscal balances.
Tanzania seeks sugar curbs (East African Business Week)
The government is seeking an extended derogation from a SADC law permitting duty-free access of sugar markets among member countries in a bid raise domestic competitiveness and prevent dumping by larger producers after African export quotas to EU end in September 2017. "We are in SADC, yes, but despite the fact that the SADC protocol on trade requires sugar to come at zero tariffs into our country, what we are saying is we need time for us to grow also," he said.
Adrien M. Ratsimbaharison: 'A social network analysis of trade within and outside the SADC' (SSRN)
ECOWAS workshop: mainstreaming nutrition into NAIPs (AU)
Deloitte Africa Outlook 2016 conference: summary report
Kenya: IMF Executive Board approves new arrangements totaling US$1.5bn (IMF)
Growing Chinese debt leaves Angola with little spare oil (Reuters)
UNCTAD Advisory Group report on innovation knowledge for inclusive and sustainable development
4th Meeting of Algerian-US Dialogue on Trade and Investment: update
Malawi's Joseph Njovuyalema appointed SG for Africa MPs on SDGs (Nyasa Times)
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