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tralac’s Daily News selection: 9 December 2015
The selection: Wednesday, 9 December
This week in Kigali: the 12th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects
NCIP Summit: 'Involve private sector in integration projects' (editorial comment, New Times)
Monitoring Regional Integration in Southern Africa Yearbook 2015/16: call for papers (tralac)
Asian Economic Integration Report 2015 (ADB)
The Asian Economic Integration Report 2015, examines current trends in trade, finance, migration, remittances and other economic activities in the region, with a special chapter on the role of special economic zones. “The expansion in the number of SEZs from about 500 in 1995 to over 4,300 in 2015 shows the strong and rising interest to this form of policy experiment, though the success record is somewhat mixed,” said ADB Chief Economist Shang-Jin Wei.
FOCAC 2015 Summit: The Johannesburg Action Plan (2016-2018)
On trade: The two sides will scale up trade and try to elevate the China-Africa trade volume to US$400bn in 2020, from US$220 in 2014, ensuring that the rate of growth is maintained in overall figures and that balance in trade is the desired outcome.
Pointers: China to conduct e-commerce cooperation, introduce e-certificates of origin, paperless customs clearance processes; Both sides to jointly formulate the China-Africa Railway Cooperation Plan for 2016-2020 and associated transnational highway networks; China will support African countries in establishing 5 transportation universities; China-Africa industrial partnering and industrial capacity cooperation will be undertaken in a 'comprehensive and orderly fashion'
Namibia-China: Govt approves N$7b airport (The Namibian)
South Africa: IDC to drive empowerment with Chinese cars (Business Day)
Review business ethics laws, US firms urge Kenya (Daily Nation)
American business owners based in Kenya on Monday urged the government to take action against companies that bribe public officials to win contracts. The American Chamber of Commerce-Kenya Chapter offered to assist the government to redraft the Business Code of Ethics to create a level playing field for all. “Immediate and coordinated action must be taken to implement the Joint Commitment as agreed upon between President Uhuru (Kenyatta) and the business community as corruption is a major hindrance to the growth of the private sector and (denies the) government revenue,” AmCham-Kenya Chapter President Mr Peter Njonjo said.
Geoff Pigman: 'New perspectives on trade from the Commonwealth' (EconoMonitor)
Botswana: poverty assessment (World Bank)
Botswana's progress toward reduction of extreme poverty and inequality was among the world’s strongest in the second half of 2000s. During this period, the economic growth has been strongly pro-poor. Botswana is one of the top performers in Africa when measured by annual consumption distribution growth for the bottom 40 percentile. However, despite these noteworthy improvements, inequality remains high. The study concludes that with adequate macro and social policies, and a strong focus on improving equity, Botswana has a historical opportunity to build on recent achievements and move towards eradicating extreme poverty within one generation.
Recent 'Doing business 2016' country reports - on the theme 'measuring regulatory quality and efficiency': Angola, Botswana, DRC, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zimbabwe
International trade in services was main driver of growth in global trade in 2014 (UNCTAD)
International service exports accounted for 21% of total global exports (valued at just over $5trn) in 2014, a growth of almost 5% compared with the previous year, while merchandise exports (valued at $19trn), increased by only 0.3% in the year, as measured in current prices, UNCTAD's Handbook of Statistics 2015 reveals. Total global exports for 2014 were valued at $24trn, up by 1.2% compared with the previous year. Services exports from both developed and developing economies grew strongly in 2014, at 5.3% and 4.8% respectively.
EAC govts urged to fast-track integration of regional exchanges (New Times)
Regional governments should take advantage of automation across the East African Community stock markets to fast-track the integration of the bloc’s exchanges. The call was made by a capital markets stakeholders’ consultative meeting in Kigali on Friday. The meeting also discussed the terms of reference, and reviewed progress on the implementation of the EAC capital markets infrastructure integration project that were presented by the EAC’s Financial Sector Development and Regionalisation Project (EAC-FSDRP), and the system’s Pakistani vendors, Intotec Limited.
IGAD to enhance border fish trade (IGAD)
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development together with fish experts from the IGAD Member States met in Addis Ababa this week to share experiences as well as review and assess a trade agreement study for enhanced and facilitated fish trade between Ethiopia and Djibouti that can later be replicated to other IGAD Member States.
Kenya: Mumias share price up on COMESA safeguards extension (Business Daily)
Mumias Sugar Company shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange rose 6.7% Tuesday following the extension of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa quantitative safeguards that give a lifeline to the industry for the next one year. The decision to grant Kenya the sixth extension was made during the 35th Comesa Council of Ministers meeting in Zambia.
Tanzania: Govt urged to rethink privatisation of industries (The Citizen)
The government has been told that in order to revive failed privatised entities, it should work towards improving cost structures, access to technology and markets. The recommendation comes from the private sector a few days before the expiry of a 30 day ultimatum issued by the government to individuals and companies furnished with the formerly public-owned firms. Official statistics show that some 274 state firms had been privatized by 2012. Among these, 95 were in the agricultural sector, 94 in industry, 23 in infrastructure, 34 in natural resources and tourism, 15 in the energy and minerals sector and 13 in other sectors.
KWFT eyes Rwanda, Sudan Sudan expansion (Business Daily)
Kenya Women Microfinance Bank is targeting Rwanda and South Sudan markets as it seeks to be the first local micro-financier to branch out in the region. The micro-financier, which is the largest such operator in Kenya, said it will be targeting small and medium enterprises for lending in the two regional economies over the next two years.
SA, Botswana ease travelling for cross-border community (SANews)
South Africa and Botswana have officially introduced a pilot project that will make travelling much easier for the cross-border community of Tshidilamolomo. The village straddles South Africa and Botswana due to what Minister Gigaba described as the “irrational borderlines” drawn by colonialists.
The cost of investment incentives: the case for Zimbabwe (NewsDay)
The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (Afrodad) will today hold a validation workshop on preliminary results of the Cost of Investment Incentives in Zimbabwe study. The study is being conducted by Afrodad and ActionAid International Zimbabwe and seeks to influence the government to develop and implement transparent, accountable and efficient mechanisms for the mobilisation and utilisation of domestic resources.
Mozambique is Zimbabwe’s second largest regional trading partner (NewsDay)
Special economic zones in fragile situations: a useful policy tool? (AfDB)
The report contrasts the theory of developing SEZs with evidence from existing experience (more often than not of unfulfilled promises), identifying problems of weak governance and instability as particular constraints. Seeing as though issues of institutional capacity and volatility are characteristic of fragile situations, implementing an SEZ programme is all the more challenging in those contexts. The risks of pursuing an SEZ approach for the wrong reasons, based on political rather than economic considerations, is more prevalent in fragile situations where policymakers under enormous pressure to show quick results. However, the resulting risk that SEZs thus disappoint raised expectations in the population and damage investor confidence is often overlooked. The main lessons emanating from this study are that i) SEZs require a minimum level of state capacity, ii) SEZ policy design and implementation is a lengthy and difficult process, iii) there is an increased threat that SEZs in fragile situations may fall captive to vested interests, iv) meaningful private sector participation is even more important in fragile situations.
Yesterday's UNGA debate: sustainable fisheries, draft text on oceans and the Law of the Sea
Kaswamu Katota (Zambia), speaking for the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries, said that the overall socioeconomic development of the Group’s countries was constrained by their lack of direct territorial access to the sea, remoteness and isolation from world markets and high transit costs. Although he noted that UNCLOS acknowledged some of those factors, he reviewed its specific wording pertaining to landlocked States, observing that only a little over half the Group’s membership had ratified it. He called upon the International Seabed Authority and other stakeholders to help landlocked developing countries not only in the accession process, but with technical assistance towards ratifying, implementing and effectively utilizing the provisions of the Convention, as well.
Yesterday's UNSC debates: Central Africa, Sahel region
At COP21: Caring for Climate (C4C) Business Forum, EU and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries join forces for ambitious global climate deal
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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)
