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Southern Africa: Demand for Business-Friendly Environment in SADC
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
20 April 2008
Posted to the web 21 April 2008
Paul Fauvet
Port Louis
If it is to achieve its goals, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) needs a vigorous private business community, yet SADC governments "are not doing enough to address some of the obstacles facing business in the region", accused Sipho Mseleku, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of SADC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCCI), on Friday.
ASCCI represents 18 national chambers of commerce and industry throughout the 14 member states of SADC, and is highly critical of the region's governments for their failure to make life easier for business.
Addressing the SADC Consultative conference on Development and Poverty, in the Mauritian capital of Port Louis, Mseleku demanded that governments should "contribute towards creating a very conducive environment for doing business in the region".
"Business has to be able to fire on all cylinders, if SADC is to achieve its goals of increasing intra-regional trade to at least 35 per cent (from the current 2.5 per cent), and form a common market by 2015", he said. "It must be made as easy as possible for countries to trade with one another".
Yet not only were there damaging infrastructure constraints, hindering the transport of people and of goods within SADC, but there was a lack of policies in some member states to facilitate trade, he accused. Coupled with "onerous border and customs procedures in most member states", this was frustrating the drive to provide companies with access to the regional market.
Nonetheless, an ASCCI survey of companies throughout the region showed a measured optimism that intra-regional will indeed grow and become somewhat easier. This optimism, however, is tempered with serous concerns over "crime and corruption, regulatory uncertainty and bureaucracy".
Mseleku also noted that an "upwards business trend in the region has not been matched by a rise in employment levels, except in Namibia and Angola, where labour laws have been relaxed".
He added that the survey's findings about obstacles to business "suggest a lack of legislative and regulatory harmonization of standards and procedures, which stifle the smoother flow of goods and services in the SADC region".
When asked to rank what they regarded as the key obstacles to doing business in SADC, the companies put "crime, theft and corruption" in top position, followed by customs regulations, procedures and bureaucracy. In third and fourth places were exchange rate fluctuations, and lack of market information. Perhaps surprisingly, the legal environment (including the enforcement of contracts) was only ranked as the ninth most important constraint.
Mseleku noted that although almost all SADC members had ratified the 1996 Trade Protocol, not all re implementing the trade rules they have signed up to. Although tariffs in the region were coming down, they were partially replaced by non-tariff barriers, which were "less transparence".
Furthermore, if there were member states lacking in good governance, "regional integration is bound to be slow", he warned. "Despite the existence of a SADC set of rules and basic standards or good governance, there are still pockets of the region where national regimes continue to undermine democracy and violate basic human rights".
Where Mseleku declined to name the violators, the European Commission representative, Michael Lake, speaking on behalf of all the donors, had no such inhibitions, and pointed an accusing finger firmly in the direction of Zimbabwe, where the results of presidential elections held almost three weeks ago have still not been published.
"Peace, security and good governance are essential for development and poverty reduction", said Lake. "The region illustrates this clearly through the establishment of peace in Mozambique, Angola and Congo, and a vibrant democracy in South Africa after decades of a racist regime. On the other hand, the impoverishment of Zimbabwe in recent years and its accelerating decline is a crisis for that country and the region. It is a matter of grave concern for the international community as a whole".
Lake expressed donor interest in the proposal to establish a SADC Regional Poverty Observatory (RPO), essentially funded by SADC members themselves, which will act as "a forum for monitoring and evaluating performance". He thought this would be a healthy development in that "it introduces an element of peer review to regional cooperation.
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Lake recognized that efforts to overcome the current challenges (including climate change, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and soaring food prices) must be made not only by SADC member states but also by the donors. He recognized that the promises to increase levels of foreign aid "are part of the partnership for development set out in the Millennium Development Goals".
However, the latest figures on aid show that, far from increasing, in 2007 the level of aid actually fell. Lake admitted that donors need to make "renewed efforts to meet the commitments we all share".
There had been improvement in SADC financial management, he added, and so donors "look forward to a time when it will be possible to align themselves on SADC procedures, contributing to regionally managed funds or to the general SADC budget, increasing SADC ownership of the regional development process".
Hi,
I am looking for the speech of Michael Lake delivered during the emergency SDAC Summit on behalf of donors. You have reported his speech in your allafrica.com, but what I need his full speech.
Thanks Shabani
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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