African Business articles from June 2009

African Business archives from June 2009

Retrieving our wealth.(A them-and-us summit)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2009... In his review of the G20 summit (African Business, May 2009 issue), Anver Versi makes mention of the contribution tax havens have had to hindering Africa's development. If I might put it another way, the so-called 'wealth' of the African elite...

Encourage domestic investment.(The fallacy of foreign investment)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2009... Once again, in the March issue of African Business, Omari Issa has provided us with a clear and succinct analysis of the economies of the African nations. I take my hat off to him. His article on FDI expresses very clearly the actions that need...

The democratic privilege.(SA expats can now vote)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2009... I would like to add my comments to the article in African Business, March 2009 issue, that described the strange anomaly of prisoners in South Africa being allowed to vote, but until recently, not South African citizens living as expats...

Capital flight concerns.(Africa's top companies 2009)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2009... What a comprehensive assessment of the comparative standing of the pillars of Africa's business community appeared in your April issue (African Business, April 2009 issue). Yet it seemed to me as I leafed through your numerous pages with a...

A call for leadership.(Francis Fukuyama)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2009... Congratulations to African Business on your interview with such a world-class figure (African Business, May 2009 issue). As Francis Fukuyama makes clear, if we cannot learn from history, then we are condemned to repeat it. The Washington...

East African leaders end property standoff.(Regional integration)(East African Community)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... An agreement by East African Community (EAC) presidents has broken a long-running impasse bogging down finalisation of a regional common market. A major sticking point hinged upon whether or not EAC residents should have the right to own...

Corridor will boost trade income.(Logistics)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... A project that aims to upgrade infrastructure and untangle customs and regulatory procedures along trading routes through Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique could soon be launched. When it is in place exporters...

Africa to grow by 2%.(Economy)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The African region's economy will grow at 2.0% in 2009 and 3.9% in 2010, according to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook. The report says "hard-won economic gains in Africa are being threatened by relatively weak financial linkages with...

Maputo to host 2011 All-Africa Games.(Sport)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The Mozambican capital, Maputo, will host the 2011 edition of the All-Africa Games, after Zambia pulled out saying it could not afford to stage the event. The decision was made by the general assembly of the Supreme Council of Sports for...

Kibaki blasts Comesa telecom efforts.(ICT)(Mwai Kibaki)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Eastern and Southern African countries have failed to enhance communications in the region, says Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, also the chairman of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

New rapid rail system for Kenya.(Transport)(Kenya Railways Corp.)(InfraCo )(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... A public-private venture between Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and private infrastructure development company InfraCo will develop a rapid transport commuter system in Nairobi, increasing the number of rail commuters from the current 19,000...

The Zuma era begins a practical, pragmatic cabinet: President Zuma has revealed a pragmatic approach in naming his new cabinet. His creation of new ministries, splitting of others and the individuals he has appointed has been broadly welcomed both in South Africa and abroad. Farhiya Ali Ahmed, reporting from Johannesburg, has the details.(Cover story)
June 1, 2009... South Africans and the international community have in the main greeted President Jacob Zuma's cabinet appointments as an appropriate response to public calls and concerns. President Jacob Zuma named his new cabinet at a media conference the...

I am not a great man--I am a man of the people.(Interview)
June 1, 2009... South Africa's new President Jacob Zuma has endured an unenviable spotlight throughout his political ascendancy, a period which has seen him bear the brunt of lawsuits, acrimony and a barrage of negative media coverage during his nerve-tingling...

Politicians impaled by the satirist's pen: comedians and cartoonists had a ball poking fun at South African politicians in the run-up to the general elections. Tom Nevin reports.(MEDIA)
June 1, 2009... South Africa is a quickly developing society of the savvy, the smart, the trendy and the tolerant, the latter having blossomed in the last 15 years when the country's 42m or so black people suddenly found themselves part of a political society...

Leader. ...(Cartoon)
June 1, 2009... AWULETH UMSHINI WAMI !! * TRANSLATION: BRINCE ME MY MACHINE GUN!! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Landmark ruling allows apartheid victims to sue multinationals: in one of the most significant legal rulings in the post-apartheid history of South Africa, victims of the apartheid regime have finally received the green light from a US judge to sue multinational corporations that knowingly aided and abetted the apartheid regime. The implications of this ruling are colossal, not only for Africa but globally. Khadija Sharife reports.(SPOTLIGHT)
June 1, 2009... In a landmark 144-page judgment last April, Southern District of New York Judge Shira Scheindlin found that some of the world's largest multinational corporations were engaged in aiding and abetting apartheid, torture, extrajudicial killing and...

Ports: Pointe-Noire's new container port construction launched.(Ports)
June 1, 2009... The President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou N'Guesso, and Vincent Bollore, president of the Bollore Group, have officially launched the construction phase of the modernisation and expansion of the container terminal at...

Vital North-South Corridor gets green light: Lusaka was the venue for perhaps the most important conference on African logistics to date. The high-level gathering, which included presidents and international institutions, came to grips with proposals to raise funding of some $2bn to undertake a massive logistical infrastructure project, the North-South Corridor. M J Morgan reports.(Ports)
June 1, 2009... Given Africa's perennial logistical difficulties brought about largely because of inadequate and underinvested infrastructure, it was with some excitement, as well as trepidation that 350 representatives from Tanzania, DR Congo, Zambia, Malawi,...

Beira Corridor.(Ports)
June 1, 2009... The end of the 16-year civil war in Mozambique has permitted the extraction of resources, an activity that had been untenable during the conflict, various major infrastructure projects are now under way to enable exports from the country and...

South Africa's key corridor solutions: Transnet plans to upgrade five key corridors and ensure that rail capacity talks to ports capacity. Tom Nevin reports.(Down to the sea in trains)
June 1, 2009... To achieve our growth strategy--our horizon for the next few years--we felt that the most logical and pragmatic solution was to prioritise transport corridors, says Moira Moses, chief executive of Transnet Capital Projects. "We have identified...

Investment how to cut the cost of Africa's cross-border transport: it costs 60% more to transport an item in Africa than it does for the same item over the same distance in the US or the UK. Most of this expense is caused by unnecessary red tape and ends up costing African economies billions in lost efficiency and investment. What can be done? Asks Omari Issa.(Ports)
June 1, 2009... Stories about difficult trade experiences are commonplace in Africa--so much so that it is easy to overlook the very damaging impact that trade barriers can have on businesses and investor confidence. The implications for domestic businesses,...

WEF--implications of the global economic crisis for Africa: with government and business leaders arriving in Cape Town for this month's World Economic Forum on Africa (WEF-Africa) summit, Omar Ben Yedder provides a preview of what will be one of Africa's most crucial meetings of recent times.(WEF SPECIAL REPORT)(World Economic Forum)(Conference news)
June 1, 2009... Last year, the talk at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Africa meeting was of a continent becoming an interesting and exciting investment destination. Oil prices were hitting record highs, commodity prices were booming and stock markets were...

Business responding to the TB challenge.(Investment)
June 1, 2009... Health is increasingly an issue of importance for the business sector. As was stated by Alex Azar, senior vice-president for corporate affairs with Eli Lilly, one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, "Businesses have a fundamental...

Ensuring Africa's voice is heard: African Business spoke to the Africa Director of the WEF, Katherine Tweedie, about this year's programme, which again promises to be invigorating and varied in terms of coverage.(World Economic Forum)(Interview)
June 1, 2009... Omar Ben Yedder: We now live in a fast-moving environment; what we've seen happening in the past year would have once taken five years or more to unfold. In terms of our response to these changing circumstances, is it more difficult to find an...

Unscrambling Africa: one of the thorniest problems in Africa today, the issue of land reform and all its economic and political implications, was the theme of the last African Presidential Roundtable held in Berlin, Germany. African Business editor Anver Versi was invited to attend this usually closed event. Here are his reflections.(FORUM)(Conference notes)
June 1, 2009... The African Presidential Round-table in Berlin, (see African Business, March 2009) organised by Boston University's APARC, was a rare opportunity to sit with some of Africa's great leaders of the past and discuss current issues facing the...

We will battle global crisis on equal terms--AfDB: this year, the African Development Bank's annual meeting focused on the critical issue of the continent's response to the current global economic crisis. It drew its largest-ever participation and arrived at some vital decisions in a bid to steady the continent in the face of the economic storms. Anver Versi was there.(EVENTS)(Conference notes)
June 1, 2009... There was no question that the 44th annual meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Dakar, Senegal, last month was easily the most critical of this decade. The theme said it all: 'Africa and the financial crisis: An agenda for action'....

The myth of Africa's skills drain: while we tend to complain that professionals such as nurses are being lured by better salaries to work in Europe and the US while they are desperately needed at home, it now appears that these same professionals are not being offered jobs in their home countries despite the obvious demand for their services. Why is this so?(LETTER FROM EAST AFRICA)
June 1, 2009... Whenever I visit the US, I am constantly surprised at how little most Americans know of the various options available to foreigners seeking to become US citizens--and especially of the 'Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery', usually known as the...

Indigenisation law triggers mining dispute: following the collapse of commercial agriculture, after the 2000 land redistribution, the country is now setting out on a path to redistribute ownership of companies that exploit the country's munificent resources--among others. M J Morgan reports on the controversy this move has aroused.(ZIMBABWE)
June 1, 2009... Jack Murehwa, the former president of the Zimbabwean Chamber of Mines, has criticised the new legislation requiring companies to divest their ownership to indigenous residents. Until now, industry representatives have been keeping their powder...

Piracy is 'killing' Ghana music industry: the Ghanaian economy is not totally immune to the effects of the global economic downturn although its impact has been relatively limited, reports Stephen Gyasi Jnr from Accra.(GHANA)
June 1, 2009... Once one Of Africa's leading lights, the Ghanaian music industry, has been heading south for the last few years. It urgently needs its stakeholders and the new government to put into place the appropriate structures and policies to arrest a...

Ghana's economy wobbles: the Ghanaian economy is not totally immune to the effects of the global economic downturn although its impact has been relatively limited, reports Stephen Gyasi Jnr from Accra.(GHANA)
June 1, 2009... When Dr Paul Acquah, governor of the Bank of Ghana, reported that private remittances coming into the country during the first three months of this year declined 7.3% to $1.98bn compared to last year, it was a clear indication that the global...

Snouts in the trough: The notion of entitlement.(It's Our Turn to Eat: The story of a Kenyan Whistleblower)(Book review)
June 1, 2009... It's Our Turn to Eat The story of a Kenyan whistleblower [pounds sterling]12.99 4th Estate ISBN: 978-0-00-724196-5 When Michela Wrong answered the doorbell of her London flat and found her Kenyan friend John Githongo and a mountain...

A world Vieux.(Sound recording review)
June 1, 2009... Fondo Vieux Farka Toure Six Degrees Records Cat: 65703 1158 Having a famous papa can be more of a curse than a blessing. For every Femi or Seun Kuti, the musician sons of Afrobeat star Fela Kuti (or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...