Press Release on African Economic Conference: Africa's Infrastructure Gap and the way Forward for Regional Integration
I was greatly priviledged to be part of the 2013
African Economic Conference which held in Johannesburg, South Africa within the
enchanting confines of the Montecasino complex!
I recently came by a press
statement released by United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on
the session within which our paper was presented and thought to share
it here.
The summary of the session was that - there is a need to upgrade
investment in physical infrastructure and remove non-tariff barriers in order
to facilitate regional trade across the continent. Below are extracts
from the press statement.
[During a session dedicated to Regional Integration
in the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), chaired by Janvier
Litse, Director of NEPAD, Regional Integration and Trade at the African
Development Bank, scholars observed that bridging the existing infrastructure
gap among countries including improving the quality of roads and investing in
telecommunication infrastructure is needed to facilitate regional
trade.“Improvement in the quality of roads will increase movement of factors of
production which will foster intra-regional trade in the short, medium and long
term,” Litse said.
Other soft infrastructure is needed to fast-track
the achievement of the objectives of the ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme,”
said Uduak Akpan, from the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa during his presentation
titled: “The Impact of Regional Road Infrastructure –Improvement on
intra-regional trade in ECOWAS.”
Citing the Dakar-Lagos highway,
which spans 4,010 kilometres of which 3,260 are paved in various areas, Akpan
argued that the route provides the most direct road connection between the
capitals of both countries (Senegal and Nigeria) along its alignment.
“Completion of the Lagos-Dakar highway has increased in the average road
quality between Lagos and Dakar from its current level to the level of roads in
South Africa,” he said, pointing out that the improvement in Lagos-Dakar
average road quality has boosted regional trade.
However, increasing the
quality of the roads demands huge financial investment making it necessary for
governments to work with international financial institutions such as the
African Development Bank (AfDB) to raise funds.
Currently, the AfDB remains the largest external
financier for infrastructure in Africa at both the national and regional level,
with 20 per cent of its concessional window earmarked for regional integration
projects. For instance, between 2009 and 2011, the Bank completed 51 transport
projects valued at over $3 billion, covering road, airport, seaport and railway
infrastructure.
The institution has financed over 4,000 kilometres of roads and
several major bridges in Africa. In his paper titled “Telecommunication
infrastructure, regional integration and the convergence of revenues in
ECOWAS”, Demba Sy, an economic statistician and researcher from the National
Agency of Statistics and Demography in Senegal, argued that regional
integration has had an impact on not only strengthening of commercial ties
between member countries, but has also resulted in a more productive direction
of investment in the telecommunications sector. “They could better serve to
strengthen regional integration in further connecting the real economy and
facilitating bilateral trade flows,” he argued.
In her paper titled “Economic Integration, Trade
Facilitation and Agricultural Exports Performance in ECOWAS Member States”,
Oluyomi Ola-David, from the teaching and research department at Covenant
University, Nigeria, argued that on the average, the level of trade
facilitation in ECOWAS is below world average. She noted that the 15
ECOWAS members experience greater costs of exporting and importing respectively
due to bureaucratic processes.
“Countries need to relax stringent
bureaucratic processes in order to reduce the number of days required to
process domestics for import and export,” David said. In addition,
infrastructural provision is essential for improving trade facilitation with
provision of Internet having a significant impact on trade facilitation. “The increase
in the use of ICT in the operations of various customs activities in the member
states will go a long way in facilitating trade in the sub-region,” she said.
Strengthening the institutional framework in the
ECOWAS sub-region, in particular curbing the menace of corruption and adherence
to the rule of law, has potential to facilitate trade, David said.]
Sources:
http://www.uneca.org/aec2013/pages/infrastructure-gap-non-tariff-barriers-impediments-regional-trade-africa
http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/infrastructure-gap-non-tariff-barriers-impediments-to-regional-trade-in-africa-12455/
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