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tralac’s Daily News Selection
Featured infographic: Mapped – the global coal trade (Carbon Brief)
Conference alerts: starting today, in Naivasha, the first African Employers’ Summit; in Antananarivo, the first interregional knowledge sharing forum on migrant domestic workers
Underway in Lusaka: the 2nd Intra-Regional Forum on Migration in Africa (COMESA)
Addressing the forum, the Assistant Secretary General of COMESA, Amb Nagla El Hussainy, noted that most countries in the continent have committed to measures aimed at supporting the implementation of the protocols. “The difficulty resides in a lack of political will and capacity of African countries to implement the decisions taken at the Ministerial level in different Regional Economic Communities.” To move the process forward, Amb El Hussainy suggested that the AU assembly of Heads of State and Government, urge Member States that have not ratified the existing Protocols in the continent to consider setting deadlines to do so and that the issue should also be subjected to the African Peer Review Mechanism. Amb Nagla attributed the slow growth of intra-Africa trade to restrictive immigration practices.
The forum is themed: “Fostering Regional Integration: Facilitating Trade and Human Mobility through enhanced border management”. It was co-organized by the AU, IOM, UNECA, COMESA and the Government of Zambia. Its objective is to contribute to the implementation of the African Union Common Position on Migration and Development adopted in 2006 in Banjul, Gambia. Over 300 delegates from the eight African regional economic communities, the AU, senior officials and experts from relevant government ministries, the UN and international Organizations, Civil society and the private sector participated in the forum. [Zambia makes strides regional integration, migration-Davies Mwila] [Twitter conference updates: #migrationinafrica]
AU migration policy resources: African Common Position on Migration and Development (2006), AU Summit declaration on migration (2015), Commentary on the AU migration and regional integration framework
Kenya now to chair ‘Ease of Doing Business Initiative’ (The Exchange)
Cabinet Secretary for Trade and Industrialisation Adan Mohamed on Tuesday received the chairmanship of Ease of Doing Business Initiative from his Ugandan counterpart Peter Ngategize who has been chair for the last two years. EDBI is an initiative of 23 African governments that seeks to open up trade among members. [EDBI: Uhuru calls for more intra-Africa trade]
Zambia: HDR 2016 report launch (UNDP)
The 2016 Zambia National Human Development Report, launched by the UNDP country office yesterday, argues that for industrialisation to drive growth, policies for targeting strategic industries need to be explored locally. Its theme 'Industrialisation and human development: poverty reduction through wealth and employment creation' is informed by the recognition that industrialisation offers unique opportunities for development, and that Zambia’s overall human development may well be shaped by the path of industrialization that the country pursues. Among several recommendations, the report states that the core of Zambia’s economic industrialisation strategy should be a set of interlinked and integrated policies, ranging from human and educational development through to microeconomic and infrastructural support; all designed to promote the growth of the industrial base and in turn reduce the dependence on copper production and revenue. Other recommendations are that future industrial policy should focus on accelerated investments in research and development and human capital accumulation, with particular emphasis on science and technology skills.
Zimbabwe: Staff report for the 2016 Article IV Consultation (IMF)
Going forward, the authorities intend to: (a) reduce the size of the wage bill to re-orient spending towards priority capital and social outlays; (b) improve debt management, develop a comprehensive public financial management strategy, and strengthen VAT policy and key processes in revenue administration; and (c) improve the business environment, including by a transparent and consistent application of their indigenization policy and a new comprehensive land reform program. The latter would include a framework for land compensation. Risks to the already difficult outlook stem mainly from prolonged adverse weather conditions, and weak commodity prices and policy implementation in a difficult political environment. Timely implementation of measures to curb the wage bill and continued progress in State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reforms would be needed to lower employments costs. [Pointer: Box 1 - The impact of El Niño on Zimbabwe]
This is what Dar must do to industrialise (The Citizen)
Tanzania should study regional, continental and global trends if it wants its industrialisation drive to succeed, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation has advised. In doing so, the country should think within and outside its borders, especially as it seeks to revive its manufacturing sector, according to the Tanzania Industrial Competitiveness Report 2015, which has been jointly prepared by Unido and the government. “The country should promote specific efforts for different markets on the quantity and composition of demand,” reads part of the 135-page report unveiled in Dar es Salaam earlier in the week. ['Unpacking Tanzania’s industrial development: context, challenges and policy implications', Industrial policy execution TZ’s big challenge]
Tanzania: Investment chiefs back tax exemptions (IPPMedia)
President Magufuli's government has launched a major tax crackdown, faces some intriguing questions ahead of the unveiling of the much-anticipated 2016/17 fiscal year budget: how do you encourage investment through tax incentives and collect revenues needed to build flagship infrastructure projects? But top government officials in the Magufuli administration yesterday defended the use of tax exemptions as a tool to court both foreign and domestic investment companies, saying it was a necessary evil. According to the government's investment chiefs, tax waivers are used by different nation's around the world to woo FDIs and boost local manufacturing industries.
South Africa: two new outputs from a UNU-WIDER research project
Importing and firm performance: new evidence from South Africa
This paper uses firm-level data from company tax declarations to analyse the complementary relationship between direct access to imported intermediate inputs and manufacturing firm performance in South Africa. There are three main findings. [The authors: Lawrence Edwards, Marco Sanfilippo, Asha Sundaram]
Mark ups and concentration in South African manufacturing sectors: an analysis with administrative data
This paper uses newly available firm-level tax data to evaluate the market structure in South African manufacturing sectors in the period 2010–12. To describe the market structure we compute mark ups for South African manufacturing firms and concentration indexes for 4-digit manufacturing sectors. We find both significant mark ups and significant concentration across most sectors. We compare computed mark ups and concentration with early estimates in South Africa and with other international benchmark countries. [The authors: Johannes Fedderke, Nonso Obikili, Nicola Viegi]
Malawi imports 80% of products from South Africa (Nyasa Times)
Director administration and finance in the ministry of Trade and Industry Joseph Mkandawire said it was a pity that most products consumed in Malawi are manufactured in South Africa and sold in South African chain stores when the same could be manufactured and processed in Malawi. Mandawire said this during local sourcing partnership training for small and medium enterprises underway in Blantyre. The training is aimed training entrepreneurs in business processing so as to create more jobs as well as promote local products for international markets in COMESA. Mkandawire said Malawi is capable of producing the products sold in the international chain stores only that Malawians need to change their mindset so that they have confidence in their own products.
Profiled newsletters: PACCI Weekly Newsletter 4, Sahel and West Africa Club, Food Crisis Prevention Network
Call for Papers: China-Africa Research Initiative conference on Chinese infrastructure engagement in Africa
Trade takes centre stage at ACP Council of ministers (Bridges Africa)
Barclays to offer 12% stake in Africa unit in first sale (Bloomberg)
Kenya’s forex reserves hit Sh770bn to boost value of shilling (Business Daily)
Tanzania: Shilling’s stability excites importers, entrepreneurs (IPPMedia)
Dakar hosts first private Chinese investors’ forum (GhanaNews)
Why the African Union wants to be more like the EU (Newsweek)
A tough battle ahead of AU Commission elections (ISSAfrica)
It's time EAC made sure it stands on its own feet (editorial comment, The Citizen)
Governance, natural resources, and post-conflict peacebuilding: book alert (UNEP)
Canada March trade deficit widens to record as exports slump (Reuters)
US trade deficit contracted in March as imports fell more than exports (US Census Bureau)
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