4 December 2008
THE urgent need to improve the international competitiveness of African businesses was the focus of a roundtable discussion at the United Nations headquarters on Monday, 22 September.
The panel, which took place during the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Africa's Development Needs, was organised by the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC), the joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.
The discussion, "African Private Sector Initiative: Strengthening Competitiveness in a Global Context," was co-sponsored by the World Bank and United Nations Global Compact.
The discussion which brought together renowned African political and business leaders, multinational executives and international organisations debated ways to bolster African business participation in regional and global supply chains.
Panelists include Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili, Vice President of the World Bank for the Africa Region, as well as leaders from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
African regional economic communities have gone a long way in establishing free trade areas, but this policy success has not yet translated into major new job opportunities that will help Africans reduce poverty.
African regional economic communities are looking to build stronger business links among themselves in order to build the skills and economies of scale among African business to compete and link with businesses in global markets.
Africa fares poorly in global comparisons of the climate for business and trade. According to the World Bank Group, 23 of the 30 countries with the most difficult business environment are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The challenges for African business to be competitive in global export markets are many. Many of Africa's poorest countries are landlocked, making better transport corridors and faster border procedures critical. Telecommunications systems, cold storage facilities and quality-control laboratories also need to be upgraded.
Less well known, but equally critical, is the need to upgrade export-related skills - through trade information systems, market analysis training, enterprise management training and facilitation of networking and policy dialogue among those who support exporters.
The ITC is a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the UN, with a mandate to help business in developing countries become more competitive in global markets to speed economic progress and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. 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.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
