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tralac’s Daily News selection: 19 August 2015
The selection: Wednesday, 19 August
Summit noted the critical role played by macroeconomic convergence programme in facilitating stability and deepening market and financial integration, and urged Member States to intensify and consistently implement regional policies and programmes as well as Member States’ economic reforms, plans and strategies to resolve the challenges affecting SADC economies for sustainable growth path.
Summit noted progress in the implementation of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2015-2020 and of the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063, and resolved to continuously monitor the actualization of key milestones at its Ordinary Summits;
Summit noted the need to explore sustainable ways of financing SADC programmes, in particular the implementation of the Revised RISDP and Industrialisation Strategy. To this end, Summit directed Council to finalise on-going work on alternative sources of funding and report to the next Ordinary Summit. Summit resolved to scale up implementation of regional infrastructure as a key enabler to economic integration in support of industrialization. [Download]
2015 SADC People’s Summit: communiqué
On cross border traders, small scale farmers: Governments must extend the Simplified Trade Regime, implemented in COMESA, to the SADC region with a focus on the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers, Empowerment of Women, and simplified paperwork; Governments must put in place pre-requisite infrastructure to support production, agro-processing & value addition of agricultural produce and promote market access in regional and other export markets; and Governments must ensure that trade policies protect women small-scale farmers and cross-border traders and that they need to be gender-sensitive, in line with SADC gender declarations.
SADC to implement uniform goods valuation (The Herald)
The Southern African Development Community is working towards effective implementation of a uniform valuation of goods at customs clearance centres among member states to ensure proper valuation of imports and exports. This is expected to be achieved through training of customs of officials. SADC currently uses World Trade Organisation valuations but uniform implementation of the system by some member states has been the biggest challenge. Speaking to The Herald Business on the sidelines of the SADC Customs Training for Trainers Programme 2013-2016 yesterday, SADC senior programme officer for Customs Mr Willie Shumba said the development of capacity in customs is critical in promoting compliance of legitimate international trade.
Freight forwarders oppose COMESA’s RCTG scheme (The Post)
Zambia risks massively losing out on business and government revenue if COMESA’s RCTG scheme is implemented, says the Customs Clearing and Freight Forwarding Agents’ Association. The Regional Customs Transit Guarantee scheme, popularly referred to as the CARNET, is a customs transit regime designed to facilitate movement of goods under customs seals in the COMESA region and to provide the required customs security and guarantee to the transit countries. Last month, Nakonde customs clearing agents said the Zambian government should not sign up for the scheme because it would make clearing agents at the border town redundant, which would have far-reaching negative effects on Nakonde’s economy. But Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya reacted by insisting the local clearing and freight forwarding fraternity should not fear the RCTG scheme because it is a mechanism that will give them business opportunities to participate in regional trade.
EALA Committee on Communication, Trade and Investments: report on the workshop on investment policies and strategies in the EAC
The legislators also want a framework in place to ensure that specialization in investments are encouraged among the Partner States as opposed to intra-competition. In addition, they are calling for inculcation of mechanisms to enable investors to capitalize a certain percentage of profits in the EAC countries rather than repatriating all the money back to their home countries. The issues are summed up in a report of the Communications Trade and Investment (CTI) on investment promotion policies in the region that was debated and adopted on Tuesday morning as the EALA Session commenced in Kampala, Uganda. [Download]
Experts call for regional body to regulate unfair trade competition (Daily Monitor)
In training workshop recently organised by SEATINI Uganda in partnership with CUTS and with support from TradeMark East Africa, experts on competition related matters said with the growth of cross-border trade, it is prudent to establish a regional authority that will regulate inevitable unfair trade tendencies.
Middle East and North African countries meet to work on competition and consumer protection policies (UNCTAD)
Over 140 mines in Congo are now officially conflict-free: the latest list (ENOUGH)
Funded by USAID and the German government's Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, the teams are led by the International Organization for Migration and include representatives from Congolese civil society, the Congolese government, business, and the United Nations. The teams of "validation missions" have made significant progress since they started: out of a total 180 mines assessed so far, 141 have now been validated as conflict-free. While this does not include every mine, it does cover a large percentage of the minerals trade, as many of the large mines in eastern Congo have been validated. However, the validation missions still need to travel to several other areas, including Shabunda and Walikale.
AfDB bails out Zimbabwe (NewsDay)
Zimbabwe’s bid to join the African Trade Insurance Agency has received a major boost after the African Development Bank chipped in with $4 million of the money required to get registration, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has said. Zimbabwe requires $15m as minimum capital subscription to the ATI.
Kenya cuts Uganda power imports by more than 50% (Business Daily)
Kenya has cut electricity imports from Uganda by more than half following the injection of additional geothermal power into the national grid. Data from the Energy Regulatory Commission indicates that Kenya imported 27.97 million kilowatt-hours from the neighbouring countries including Ethiopia in the first half of the year, down from 57.91 million kWh in same period last year, a 51.7 per cent drop. Uganda, which is pushing for increased trade with Kenya, accounted for 95 per cent of Kenya’s power imports or 26.49 million kWh.
Talks on for direct Nairobi-Tokyo flights (Daily Nation)
Kenya has started talks with Japan over the introduction of direct flights between Nairobi and Tokyo. Speaking at a Kenya-Japan investment forum in Nairobi on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said direct flights between Tokyo and Nairobi would boost business between the two countries.
Dangote Cement: reaping the benefits of African expansion (ThisDay)
Goddy Egene writes that the financial results of Dangote Cement Plc for the half year ended June 30, 2015, show that the company has begun to reap the benefits of its expansion across Africa. Dangote Cement Plc recently inaugurated its new cement plant in Zambia. The Zambia plant, the sixth integrated plant outside Nigeria, was in line with the company’s plan to invest massively in Africa bearing in mind the impact it would have on Africans. The company, which is the highest capitalised on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, accounting for almost 30% of the total market value, had announced plans to create 16 cement plants across Africa to produce at least 80 million tons of cement and address the infrastructure needs of the continent.
SA business wants visa-free entry for BRICS member countries (Gbooza/Xinhua)
South African business on Tuesday welcomed the decision by Russia to consider offering visa-free entry for tourists from China, India, Brazil and South Africa as fellow members of BRICS. "This is a step in the right direction! If the business doors are open or 10 multi-year visas entry are issued, that will no doubt boost our economic growth," Brian Molefe, chairman of BRICS Business Council SA, told Xinhua. With an open visa, coupled with a free trade policy, an estimated three million jobs can be created every month within the grouping, according to Molefe.
Ghana, South Africa trade below $1b in 2014 (Ghana Business News)
South Africa: Companies urged to thrive on regional integration (CAJ News)
Ghana remains a strategic trade partner for South Africa – Deputy Minister Masina (thedti)
How similar is Chinese investment in Africa to the West’s? (Brookings)
This data provides insight into what the Chinese private sector is doing in Africa. Based on the descriptions of the overseas investment, we categorize the projects into 25 industries covering all sectors of the economy (primary, secondary, and tertiary). The allocation of the projects across countries and across sectors provides a snapshot of Chinese private investment in Africa. Some things immediately jump out from the data. In terms of sectors, these investments are not concentrated in natural resources; services are the most common sector and there are significant investments in manufacturing as well. [The authors: Wenjie Chen, David Dollar, Heiwai Tang]
Study finds gaps in Africa-EU food security R&D links (SciDev)
A report has identified gaps in the capacities and funding for Africa-Europe food security research collaborations, and the need to strengthen such networks and research uptake. In a report published by the CAAST-Net Plus, a EU-funded consortium that advances collaboration between Sub-Saharan Africa and the EU in research and innovation for global challenges, the authors examined 74 Africa-EU food security research projects implemented between 1998 and 2014. [Download]
Africa Beyond 2015: 15th International Economic Forum on Africa
The Africa Forum is the annual gathering where OECD and African policy makers, private sector representatives, academics and civil society leaders meet to debate the performance of African economies and the challenges ahead. It will do so in light of the debates on Sustainable Development Goals and Financing for Development, the impact of the continent’s future demographic development on its economic transformation, and the policy responses to climate change. [Session concept notes available as downloads]
Copper dips below $5000 a ton amid China concerns
Chinese companies create 6000 jobs in Namibia: ambassador (Global Post)
The resource curse revisited (Chatham House)
Poaching to render 4m people jobless in Africa - ministry (IPPmedia)
UNSC debate on the UN, regional organisations and global security (UN)
ECOWAS warns army to stay out of Bissau crisis (Jollof News)
US to provide $110m to African countries annually for peacekeeping (Ghana Business News)
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