1 / 21

Southern Africa Services Exports

Southern Africa Services Exports. 20 th February 2008 TRALAC Conference, Cape Town Dr. Nick Charalambides. Context. Services Exports. Export competitiveness Agic, Manufacture. Services Liberalisation. Overview. Where are there opportunities? What is happening at country level?

lilika
Download Presentation

Southern Africa Services Exports

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Southern Africa Services Exports 20th February 2008 TRALAC Conference, Cape Town Dr. Nick Charalambides

  2. Context Services Exports Export competitiveness Agic, Manufacture Services Liberalisation

  3. Overview • Where are there opportunities? • What is happening at country level? • What are the key drivers of services exports? • Where is there most scope for “home grown” producers? • What are the constraints for services exports?

  4. Global Trends

  5. Computer related services ($ bn)

  6. Not only India

  7. Services exports: Botswana

  8. Services exports: Mauritius Health Education

  9. Key drivers of exports? • Characteristics of services: Often intangible • Brand and Reputation • Network of established customers • FDI has been fundamental in many export success stories

  10. FDI and Services Exports • E.g. of Mauritius the key exporting sectors of tourism, offshore banking and BPO, foreign firms account for 84%, 90%, and 80% respectively of total employment • Botswana: In tourism, Of the 331 enterprises licensed and operating between March 1997 and February 2001, more than two thirds were foreign

  11. FDI and Services Exports: Ireland

  12. Opportunities for Home Grown? • High technical content, low operational risk • Regional Approach? • Education • Financial services • Construction (S.A. Madagascar) • Business services • Niche? Where might the edge be?

  13. Mobile phone boom in Africa Million users, from 1998 to 2005 120 80 40 0 Fixedphone Internet Mobilephone 1998 2005 Source : ITU, 2006

  14. M applications? • The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: • Wizzit, MPESA, Smartswitch • Trade @ Hand • Too often donor driven • Tailor made content

  15. Constraints: Market Access • Barriers vary greatly by sector, mode, by country • But OECD markets are generally open to CRS, ITES (banking, accountancy, professional) • Challenges generally relate to second order issues • Data protection (Domestic) • MRA • Visas (Business Travel Card) • Regional: many constraints

  16. Constraints: Business • Reputation and Profile • Market information: 48% of Mauritian owned enterprises find market information a serious constraint; 23% for foreign owned.Services Export Help Desk • Skilled labour • Need for fast adaptation of regulation

  17. Constraint to Opportunity • Regional centres of excellence • Mutual recognition • Regional labour market • …Build and share expertise

  18. Liberalisation not sufficient • High costs of business services • But: • “We are at the “end of the road” (Namibia) • Sectors are already open but there is little investment (Lesotho), • New entrants have not lowered prices by much (Mozambique)

  19. Regulation is key to your competitive edge

  20. Some challenges • Why is Botswana, Swaziland not exporting advertising, BPO, legal services… to the most important hub of economic activity in southern African • … which is one hour away by plane • What opportunities are there in the region? • Where is the edge for local entrepreneurs?

  21. Thank you

More Related