Image: Wikimedia
By Nicholas Pescod – AfricanBrains
South African minister claims that Africa is emerging as the next big economic growth, after Asia.
According to Times Live, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said, that serious infrastructure development and enhanced financial governance has improved the continent’s growth path.
“It’s widely and increasingly recognized that Africa is the next growth frontier. The whole world is being battered by the headwinds of the global economic crisis and (also) battered by the headwinds from the slowdown in Asia,” Davies said. “If we look beyond the immediate problems that we are confronting, if we look to the medium and longer term, we can see that Africa is emerging as the major frontier after Asia.”
There are a number of reasons for Africa’s growth. The continent is experiencing a mineral products boom, a consumption boom and some infrastructure development. Davies also said improvement economic governance has also helped the continent.
The AGOA is an arrangement was first passed by the United States Congress in 2000, allows eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa to export their goods into the US without being charged import duties.
The legislation approved on Thursday extends the arrangement to 2015 and allows provisions for South Sudan.
Speaking at the summit, the United States ambassador to South Africa Donald Gips, said that AGOA had become extremely important for South Africa and other Africa’s economies.
He said that African countries, had exported $53 billion to the United States without paying any duties.
According to Gips, last year South African vehicle exports were worth over $2 billion. Yesterday, the United States Congress voted in favour of renewing the trade arrangement.
Nicholas Pescod attended Iroquois Ridge High School in Oakville, Ontario and graduated in 2007. After deciding to return for an extra semester of high school he attended the University of Guelph in 2008. In 2009 he transferred from University into Centennial College’s journalism program and graduated in 2012. Pescod has been a contributor to the East-Toronto Observer, and he currently contributes to the North Shore News’ entertainment section. While at Centennial College he created Radio Nation, a weekly Internet radio show with a focus on indie music. Since Radio Nation began in November of 2010 there have been over 70 different live guests. In 2011 Pescod received a Global Citizenship award from Centennial for his work on Radio Nation. The show has regular listeners from around the world. Email: nicholas.pescod@africanbrains.org
Tags: Africa, Commerce, Economy, Finanne, Industry, Rob Davies, Trade
