| WEF: Africa’s survival ‘hinges on economic integration’ | Send to a friend |
| Thursday, 06 May 2010 22:57 |
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The issue of Africa’s economic integration no longer needs debate because of its significance in the very survival of Africans in the increasingly competitive world. This was the view of participants in the World Economic Forum on Africa that started in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday when they spoke at a session on Regional Integration: Learning from the East Africa Community. They said the issue now should be on how to move on beyond regional to pan-African economic and social integration so as to be able to compete with the rest of the world. “We see powerful countries in Europe through the European Union, Asia through ASEAN and even the Americas integrating. They no longer operate individually on economic and trade issues. Then, who are we to remain isolated?” queried ambassador Ami Mpungwe, the chairman of the Tanzania Chamber of Minerals and Energy who was the session’s moderator. The chief executive officer of Mara group, Mr Ashish Thakkar, who was a member of the session’s panel, said as African countries integrate they should have in mind building capacities and widening the integration process to compete with the likes of China and India which have dynamic markets. He said the region should devise public private partnership (PPP) strategies that could specify how the private sector stakeholders could get involved in funding the infrastructure. The East Africa Community (EAC) secretary general, Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, said a wider integration is the goal of regional integration and the motive behind the current tripartite project to harmonize trade between the EAC, SADC and Comesa, which is already in advanced stages. The aim of the tripartite project is to have a wider free trade area in eastern and southern Africa, he said, explaining: “We need to move away from the balkanization of Africa to a larger African economic union. And in this case regional integration should be seen just as building blocks.” He said the main challenge was to get leaders and policy makers into thinking regional, rather than nationally. But as far as the EAC integration is concerned questions on infrastructure deficits and shared benefits of integration came out very strongly in the session; more so as the region enters a crucial phase of integration at the level of the common market. Mr Mwapachu noted that the issue of lack of adequate capital to fund infrastructure should be immediately addressed by member states to ensure the common market works smoothly. The assistance provided by multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and African Development Bank, was crucial but not enough to ensure the region puts in place a robust infrastructure, he said. He stressed on the need to involve the private sector and pension funds to mobilise resources for improving the infrastructure. Tanzania and Kenya were floating infrastructure bonds, but there could be more involvement of the private sector, he said. He cautioned, however, that the issue of trade facilitation was equally important and if non-trade barriers (NTBs) were completely removed, even with the existing state of infrastructure, the region could make significant progress in cross border trade. He lamented that 60 per cent of the cost of doing business in EAC was caused by soft infrastructure deficit characterised by bureaucracy and corruption. He commended ongoing projects for single border points already in place at Rusumo on the Tanzania-Rwanda border and Malaba on the Kenya-Uganda border. The foreign minister of Rwanda, Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, said a quick political decision was needed to ensure all NTBs were removed. “It is unacceptable that on the road between the Dar es Salaam port and Rusumo on the Rwanda-Tanzania border, for example, there should be eight weight bridges that weigh the same truck,” she said. According to press reports early this week, however, it has been decided to slap sanctions on EAC states that fail to remove the NTBs. The chairperson of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation, Ms Esther Mkwizu, said the political will was needed to ensure the removal of NTBs. The chairman of the Confederation of Tanzania Industries, Mr Felix Mosha, said some barriers, such as road blocks, should not be included among NTBs. “Road blocks should be called for what they are, just road blocks. If we include them in the NTBs we fall into the trap of going to complicated processes, spending a lot of resources in trying to see how we can remove roadblocks, which is ridiculous at best,” Mr Mosha said. On shared integration benefits to individual countries, participants said the issue was not to go back to the former EAC modality of comparative advantage, distributing industries, but to make sure there was efficient infrastructure and systems ensuring trade benefits to individual countries. Ms Louise said in order to benefit, countries should also be ready to surrender part of their sovereignty. “Many decisions that we make to integrate are not implemented because countries cling to their sovereignty and national priorities,” she said. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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