News
tralac’s Daily News selection
The selection: Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Profiled tweets, by Kenya’s @AMB_A_Mohammed: By hosting TICADVI, Kenya’s credentials as champion of devt in Africa and leader in integration and econ dev't will be greatly enhanced, Kenya will also host UNCTAD, the principal organ of United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues
Starting today: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016. Profiled WEF sessions: Africa’s Next Challenge, The AfDB's New Deal for Energy in Africa
Profiled commentary, by Akinwumi Adesina: 'A new deal on energy for Africa: power, potential and partnership' (New Times)
There are already key players in the field, like the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative supported by the G7, the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, and the US Power Africa Program. The private sector is a source of leadership as well as funding, for instance through the Africa Energy Leaders Group. The task is to point them all in the same direction. So the New Deal is an African-led initiative to mobilise political will and financial support to solve Africa’s energy challenges. What will it do? It has four – huge – targets:
Profiled publication launch: 'Factory Southern Africa? SACU in global value chains' (SAIIA)
Southern Africa, however, is only weakly linked into global value chains (excepting South Africa’s participation in the automotive chains and Lesotho's participation in the apparel chain). The question remains as to whether certain policy choices could open the door for such participation – and whether participation in value chains is even desirable. Another question is whether Southern Africa can develop its capacity to move up the ladder of value within the value chain. Traditionally, Southern Africa inputs at the lowest level, close to commodity extraction, rather than at the higher, more lucrative, end. With China upgrading to higher input levels, it is estimated that 80 million jobs could shift to Africa, but which countries in Southern Africa could capitalise on this opportunity, given high labour costs. The World Bank report has three core recommendations in order to promote SACU as a gateway for global value chain development in Southern Africa: [Launch: 21 January, Johannesburg]
East Africa's agriculture value chain: integrating 3000 smallholder farmers (UNDP)
Bidco Africa, a leading manufacturer of fast moving consumer products in East Africa, has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to integrate an additional 30,000 smallholder farmers into its agriculture value chain and create 60,000 entrepreneurs and jobs by 2019. BCtA is a global initiative that encourages companies to fight poverty through inclusive business models.
Can Southern Africa industrialize amidst energy crisis? (UNECA)
But, can the region industrialize among a crippling power crisis? Should SADC worry or take this as an opportunity to find a lasting solution? In light of the above, ECA Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa will convene two forums discussing the state and future of Energy in the region and the SADC Strategy and Roadmap on Industrialization. The 22nd Session of the Inter-governmental Committee of Experts meeting will discuss how to finance the industrialization strategy and roadmap from 10-11 March 2016 in Lilongwe Malawi. The ICE will be preceded by an Ad-hoc Expert Group meeting addressing the 'Energy Crisis in Southern Africa: Perspectives for the future' from 7-8 March, also in Lilongwe, Malawi. An issues paper on the same subject will form the main document for review and discussion. Recommendations from the meeting will be presented to the Conference of Ministers; an annual gathering of ministers responsible for finance and planning on the continent in March 2016, in Addis Ababa.
South Africa: Inter-Ministerial Committee on Investment Promotion appointed (GCIS)
The One Stop Shop concept requires support from all government departments. The President has thus decided to expand the current Inter-Ministerial Committee on Bilateral Investment Treaties to include a focus on South Africa's investment climate across all areas of government in a coordinated and cohesive manner. This reconfigured IMC on Investment will be chaired by President Zuma, assisted by the Minister of Trade and Industry. It will focus on:
India: Commerce ministry pushes embassies to pick up cues for Indian exporters (Business Standard)
Ghana: Ratify trade facilitation agreement to boost export revenue (GhanaWeb)
The Coalition for Trade Facilitation, a business-led initiative, says speedy ratification and implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement could raise the country’s export revenue. “The Alliance for Trade Facilitation with support from the Business Sector Advocacy Fund (BUSAC) has provided a unique platform to leverage business, and also to research into the current business processes in our domestic and international trade and lead reforms. It is important that business and the general trading public understands what the agreement provides for and how the implementation process can be influenced, hence the coming together with initial support from BUSAC.”
How the Trade Facilitation Agreement can help reduce trade costs for LDCs (E15 Initiative)
The West African Giveaway: use and abuse of corporate tax incentives in ECOWAS (ActionAid Nigeria)
This report examines corporate tax incentives and their impact in the Economic Community of West African States, with a focus on four countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal. The report finds that:
Related ActionAid report: ‘Leaking revenue: how a big tax break to European gas companies has cost Nigeria billions’
China’s investments in Africa: what’s the real story? (Knowledge@Wharton)
Three experts from the front lines of the China-Africa relationship [Wenjie Chen (IMF), Aubrey Hruby (co-founder of the Africa Expert Network) and Thomas Laryea (Dentons)] offered their views on this complicated issue at the Forum.
Related: More China-SA ‘in-depth’ co-operation ahead (News24), Decoding China's economic growth prospects under the New 13th Five Year Plan: implications for South Africa, Sino-Africa (HSRC)
Dar is better off relaxing laws against expats (The East African)
Within the region, Magufuli’s presidency will be assessed very much by the policies he pursues on the East African Community, especially when weighed against what has seemed Tanzanian wariness on the Four Freedoms. While the crackdown on foreign workers did not necessarily signal a retreat to isolationism, President Magufuli cannot escape the perceptions bound to have been created, and may have got his officials to quietly make reassuring phone calls to their counterparts in the region. Multinational corporations that in recent years have set up shop in Tanzanian in substantial numbers may also have asked for clarification. The lesson here is that making populist pronouncements is one thing, but implementation is quite another, especially when there are bound to be ramifications across borders.
Regional ports conference cancelled after sacking of Tanzanian officials (The East African)
The meeting was set for February 15-17 and was organised by the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) and TPA. “The conference cancellation followed a move by the newly elected Tanzania President John Magufuli’s to relieve several TPA top managers including the director-general, of their duties and to dissolve the authority’s entire board of directors” George Sunguh, a communication officer at PMAESA said. This will be the first time for the annual PMAESA conference will fail to take place since its inception in 2007 in Seychelles.
10000 Nigerian freight forwarders “to lose jobs to foreign counterparts” (Premium Times)
The Shippers Association, Lagos State, said on Monday that 10,000 indigenous freight forwarders might lose their jobs as some foreign shipping lines had taken over freight forwarding business. The president of the association, Jonathan Nicol, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. He said the issue of dominance of Nigerian freight forwarding business came up in 2015 and was resisted by freight forwarders.
The usual suspects: mitigating risks in African public-private partnerships (World Bank Blogs)
All things being equal, African PPPs have to work harder to reach financial close than similar projects in other parts of the world. While the gap between the more mature markets in Australia, Europe, and North America and those of emerging markets is narrowing—and probably is not as great as people might think—it clearly still exists for many investors seeking long-term certainty. [The author: John Kjorstad]
World economic update: subdued demand, diminished prospects (IMF)
Growth forecasts for most emerging market and developing economies reveal a slower pickup than previously predicted. Growth is projected to increase from 4% in 2015 - the lowest rate since the 2008–09 financial crisis - to 4.3 and 4.7%in 2016 and 2017, respectively. But these overall numbers fail to do full justice to the diversity of situations across countries. India and parts of emerging Asia are bright spots, projected to grow at a robust pace, whereas Latin America and the Caribbean will again see a contraction in 2016, reflecting the recession in Brazil and economic stress elsewhere in the region, even as most other countries in the region will continue to grow.
World employment and social outlook: trends 2016 (ILO)
Despite falling unemployment in some developed economies, the global jobs crisis is likely to continue for at least the next two years, especially in emerging economies, topping 200 million by 2017, the United Nations labour agency warned today, calling for urgent steps to boost jobs. “The significant slowdown in emerging economies coupled with a sharp decline in commodity prices is having a dramatic effect on the world of work,” UN International Labour Organization Director-General Guy Ryder said of the latest report. Vulnerable employment is particularly high in emerging and developing economies, hitting between half and three-quarters of the employed population, with peaks in Southern Asia at 74% and sub-Saharan Africa at 70%. The report also shows that informal employment, as a percentage of non-agricultural employment, exceeds 50% in half of the developing and emerging countries with comparable data. In one-third of these countries, it affects over 65% of workers.
Related: Five million jobs by 2020: the real challenge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (WEF), 2016 ECOSOC Youth Forum: Regional breakout session on Sub-Saharan Africa (New York, 1-2 February,OSAA), The Arab Youth Forum: an innovative approach to green growth and job creation (Alexandria, 31 January - 2 February, UNIDO), Ban names ‘eminent advocates’ to propel achievement of new Sustainable Development Goals (UN)
Sanjay Kathuria: Constraints to regional integration in South Asia (World Bank)
Intraregional investment in South Asia is still very low. Last year, India invested $10bn overseas. Of this, in South Asia it invested a miniscule amount. Why? Why shouldn't India play the role that Singapore played in ASEAN, being the regional prime investor and creating regional value chain? What is holding back large Indian companies that are going so far to invest? [The author is the lead economist in the World Bank's Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice]
SADC-Lesotho: Double Troika Summit on Lesotho: communiqué, Faced with SADC suspension, Lesotho changes its mind (AIM)
Consolidated action for development at the core of G20 Sherpa’s Meeting (UN)
Hannah Ryder: 'New horizons for the BRICS countries: inter-growth and integrated development' (UNDP)
tralac’s Daily News archive
Catch up on tralac’s daily news selections by following this link ».
SUBSCRIBE
To receive the link to tralac’s Daily News Selection via email, click here to subscribe.
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.
