Tunis:  This document outlines the strategic business plan of the Africa Trade Fund (AfTra). AfTra was established by the African Development Bank in March 2012. It was developed for a three-year period 2012-2015 with seed funding from the Government of Canada for $15 million USD. The fund will support the growing impetus for regional economic integration and expanded trade opportunities by Regional Member Countries (RMCs’). It is expected that AfTra will be transformed into a multi-donor fund during these three years and will mobilise about $30 million. The objective is set in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Aid for Trade (AfT) program, which aims to assist low income countries develop trade-related skills, regulatory regimes and infrastructure.

Johannesburg: China has fine-tuned its statecraft in ­Africa and morphed into the world’s most radical pragmatist. What can Africans do to gain from China’s new strategy? China’s approach is broad and opportunistic, because it did not have a competitive edge over Western firms. Nonetheless, three nations are the fulcrum on which the Chinese-African relationship must balance: Angola, Nigeria and South Africa.

Nairobi: Poor operations at the port of Mombasa remains one of the main hurdles to Kenya's growth, the World Bank's lead economist in the region, Wolfgang Fengler has said. He said the port needs a major policy transformation as it holds the key to growth of most sectors like manufacturing, agriculture and trade. Given Mombasa geographic advantage, it has the potential of becoming a world class, competitive facility, he said yesterday. "The port of Mombasa is not for Kenya, it is for the whole of East and Central Africa, but Kenya can greatly leverage on the advantage it has," Fengler said after launching his new book titled 'Realizing the Kenyan Dream'.

A WCO workshop on the topics of Enforcement, Risk Management and Preferred Trade was conducted in April in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the involvement of the WCO Secretariat, UK Customs and the member countries of the Southern African Customs Union - SACU (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland). Capacity building in the mentioned areas in the SACU Region is part of the WCO Sub-Saharan Customs Capacity Building Programme financed by the Swedish Government through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA.

Paris:  Produced halfway through the current Russian G20 Presidency, the second annual ICC G20 Business Scorecard assesses four policy areas that the ICC G20 Advisory Group considers priorities for G20 attention: trade and investment, financing for growth and development, energy and environment, and anti-corruption. Overall, the Scorecard rates G20 responsiveness to business priorities as ‘fair’, indicating that G20 leaders are making progress but at a somewhat protracted pace. This is an improvement on the score from the 2012 Scorecard, which rated overall progress as ‘poor’.

Tehran: In a recent press release, the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation announced that it is considering a proposal for the establishment of an IOR-ARC business travel card for the member states to help facilitate inter-regional trade. The IOR-ARC, which is the only pan-Indian ocean grouping, has 20 members, namely Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Tokyo: Between August and October 2012, the Japan External Trade Organization conducted its latest survey on the business operations of Japanese-affiliated firms in Africa. This was the first time the survey had been conducted since 2007. One of the aims of this survey was tocontribute to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) to be held by the Japanese Government from June 1 to 3 this year. The survey covered areas such as future business outlook, challenges in business, requests for Japanese government support and more. Below is a summary of the results.

Abuja:  Nigeria's short term macroeconomic outlook looks generally strong, with the likelihood of higher growth, lower inflation, and reserve accumulation. This will present the Government with an opportunity to make progress in key reforms and public investments associated with the Transformation Agenda for job creation, diversification, and more effective governance, says the World Bank in its new Nigeria Economic Report (NER) launched in Abuja on Monday. Sounding a cautionary note, however, the NER says that Nigeria's economic growth has not automatically translated into better economic and social welfare for Nigerians.

Lagos: Is it really fair what is going on between China and Africa of which Nigeria is key? While proponents of China’s dominance of Africa trade and investment believe the continent has seen a lot of benefits infrastructure-wise, other critics argue that the relationship has been purely a mercantile transaction between business elites and politicians. But there are enough grounds to insist that China’s business interest in Africa and, indeed, Nigeria, does not, in any way, weigh against the continent, which has recorded some tangible benefits from the Asian Tiger’s huge investment and aid.

Paris:  Income inequality increased by more in the first three years of the crisis to the end of 2010 than it had in the previous twelve years, before factoring in the effect of taxes and transfers on income, according to new OECD data.  The analysis says that the welfare state has cushioned the blow for many but warns that further social spending cuts in OECD countries risk causing greater inequality and poverty in the years ahead.  After taxes and transfers, the richest 10 per cent of the population in OECD countries earned 9.5 times the income of the poorest 10 per cent in 2010, up from 9 times in 2007. The gap is largest in Chile, Mexico, Turkey, the United States and Israel, and lowest in Iceland, Slovenia, Norway and Denmark.