African Business - Good Prospects
China and India Expand their Interests in Africa
While China and India expand their interests in Africa a World Bank study shows good prospects for African business as economies grow.
Many African countries, including Senegal, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda, Ghana and Cape Verde, have lifted significant percentages of their citizens above the poverty line. With these good prospects, they may well be on course to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving poverty by 2010, according to the World Bank report, African Development Indicators (ADI) 2006.
In another World Bank study, China and India expand their interests in Sub-Saharan Africa,. Their business interest in the continent extends well beyond a hunt for natural resources. Exports from Africa to Asia tripled in the last five years, making Asia Africa's third largest trading partner (27%) after the European Union (32%) and the United States (29%), according to Africa's Silk Road: China and India's New Economic Frontier.
Africa moves to number three in regional rankings
Africa has moved from last place to third in this year's regional rankings for reforms that encourage new enterprises, formal sector jobs and growth, according to the World Bank/IFC report, Doing Business 2007: How to Reform.
Doing Business 2007 focuses on reforms, identifies top reformers in business regulation, and best practices in how to reform. This volume is the fourth in a series of annual reports investigating global regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
The ten indicators are:
- starting a business,
- dealing with licenses,
- hiring and firing,
- registering property,
- getting credit,
- protecting investors,
- trading across borders,
- paying taxes,
- enforcing contracts,
- and closing a business.
The indicators are used to analyze economic and social outcomes, such as informality, corruption, unemployment, and poverty.
This marks the first time Africa has been among the top three reformers, following Eastern Europe and the OECD countries in the number of business-friendly regulation reforms. Forty-five regulatory changes in 30 economies in the region reduced the time, cost, and hassle for businesses to comply with legal and administrative requirements. These indicate good prospects for African business.
China and India Expand their Interest in Africa
Chinese and Indian firms are increasingly doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa, and their interest in the continent extends well beyond a hunt for natural resources, a World Bank study says. Exports from Africa to Asia tripled in the last five years, making Asia Africa's third largest trading partner (27%) after the European Union (32%) and the United States (29%), according to Africa's Silk Road: China and India's New Economic Frontier.
Africa's Silk Road offers original firm-level data on the African continent of Chinese and Indian firms operating there, says the study's author, World Bank Economic Adviser Harry Broadman, who surveyed 450 Chinese and Indian companies operating in four African countries - South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, and SenegalWorld Bank —and developed first-time business case studies in the field of 16 other Chinese and Indian firms in Africa.
The new data suggest Asian firms are beginning to diversify beyond oil and natural resources into a broad array of industries—a trend that could lead to more sophisticated products being produced in Africa and help Africa more fully participate in world commerce.
Africa’s Silk Road provides, for the first time, systematic empirical evidence on how the two emerging economic giants of Asia— China and India—now stand at the crossroads of the explosion of African-Asian trade and investment.
There are certainly good prospects for business in Africa as China and India expand their interests in Africa.
Also read:
Durban the Smartest City in Africa
