Trade-South Africa - South Africa is set to be the launch pad for a sub-Saharan African initiative to accommodate and expand trade with the rest of the world. This follows a private sector initiative by top business executives from 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to establish a number of World Trade Centers on the continent. As such, Cape Town has become the first city in Africa to give rise to the process. According to Julius Steyn, CEO of the World Trade Center Africa, the Cape Town centre is ready to start doing business, which involves stimulating trade on the continent and offers a platform for private businesses to promote themselves.

The growth rate of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to amount to 4% per year from 2011 to 2020, which will add about $2,8-trillion to the region in value. The centers aim to facilitate up to 1% of this growth within five years, which will amount to about $70-billion. This will be three times more than the annual donations made by the G8 countries to Africa and 16% more than what is needed to eliminate poverty.

'A World Trade Center basically consists of a building where all business and trade activities of different countries are assembled to promote trade between private sector entities. Such a center is completely neutral to politics and rests on the principle that people want to do business in a face-to-face manner. It is a process that cannot be fully accommodated by e-commerce. For Cape Town, this will mean that local business people can make contact with overseas colleagues on home ground, while foreign business people can in turn acquire local contacts,' says Steyn.

The World Trade Center is complementary to efforts by government and semi-government organisations to promote trade. However, because it is a private sector initiative, the center is able to provide for greater volumes in trade and is more commercial in nature. Any business entity can participate in the center's business activities.

'With the establishment of a World Trade Center in Cape Town an effort has begun to bring together the private sectors, with the support of their governments, in a politically neutral way for 13 sub-Saharan countries to establish a trade block with the rest of the world,' says Steyn.

The countries are South Africa, Botswana, DRC, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia and the Republic of Djibouti.

TradeInvest Africa/31/03/2011