Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Dar es Salaam (Agenzia Fides)- Help Africa finds its place in international trade system and promote its economic development. This is the goal of a meeting for African ministers of the economy which opens today 1 October in Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania.
The meeting, which will close on 3 October, is organised by the African Bank for Development and is part of an Aid for Trade initiative promoted by the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank.
Several Asian countries have reached a good level of development and reduced poverty through international trade, see for example South Korea, Singapore and China. Why not repeat the same success in Africa. The continent, although rich in natural resources considered strategic by world industry, counts for only 3% of total international trade. In the 1950s this percentage was 10%. After decades of decline, in the last 20 years the situation has been improving: trade is five time as much and exports have increased by 15% annually since 2000.
To increase the volume of its exports and its share of world trade Africa needs to build new infrastructures and harmonise national laws. Shortage of infrastructures means additional costs for companies: the cost of transport accounts for 13% of African products destined for export compared with 8-9% in other developing countries and 5.2% in developed countries. To tackle the problem of infrastructures massive investments are needed to build ports, roads, airports, systems of electricity telecommunications. The World Bank estimates that to build roads to connect the capitals of Africa to the main cities would require 20 billion dollars plus an additional billion dollars a year for upkeep. A high price but it would increase trade for a value of 250 billion dollars in 15 years with the rural areas benefiting most.
Another factor to change is the bureaucratic customs systems in African countries which delays the delivery of the goods by an average of 11 days compared to 7 days in Latin American countries and 5 and a half days in Asian countries. According to the Organisation for Economic Growth a reduction of six days of delay due to customs procedure would mean a 10% increase in African exports.
International trade organisations are considering with African countries, starting a programme for the formation of customs workers and supplying a computerised system to accelerate border procedures. As part of the Aid for Trade initiative African exporters are learning to adopt quality and sanitary standards required by developed countries.
The reduction of poverty in Africa passes also by international trade but it is also necessary to fight corruption, encouraged by the presence of “tax havens” (see Fides 21 September 2007). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 1/10/2007 righe 37 parole 496)
