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September 2008

Vol.17 No.09

Region:

EPA concerns push Comesa to merge with SADC

© MRB Sept 08  Heads of state in SADC, the Southern African Development Community, and Comesa, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will agree to form a single trading bloc at a meeting next month.  The impetus comes from recent negotiations with the European Union on Economic Partnership Agreements EPAs that threatened to further fragment regional blocs.

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ECONOMY

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Region:

Credit crisis contagion unlikely but commodity prices hit home

© MRB Sept 08 Economists are mostly sanguine that the region's exposure to the international credit crisis  will remain relatively limited. However, a further fall in commodity prices as a result of the knockon effects of the squeeze will hit emerging economies.

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Zimbabwe:

World Bank makes haste slowly to rescue economy

© MRB Sept 08 Unblocking the road to new loans and investment will depend on conviction in the West that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has gained real power in the transitional government deal signed this month. However, by the end of the month no government had yet been formed and the rescue package remained little more than a consultants' contract.

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Mozambique:

Growth rate slows to 6.7 percent as agriculture falters

[© MRB Sept 08] Mozambiques growth rate has slowed this year, partly due to disappointing results in agriculture. According to the governments balance sheet for implementing the 2008 social and economic plan, in the first six months of the year total production grew by 6.7 percent compared with the January-June period of 2007.

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Zambia:

Acting president attaches himself to economic legacy

[© MRB Sept 08] Acting President Rupiah Banda used the opportunity of a national address on radio and television on September 9 to both buttress the policy direction of the late president Levy Mwanawasa, and to canvass for support in the upcoming presidential election.

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Region:

Tanzania, Rwanda seek to boost mutual investment

[© MRB Sept 08] Tanzania has aigned a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rwanda in a bid to boost trade and attract investment between the two states.

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AGRICULTURE

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Region:

Hopes fade for biofuel export bonanza as EU blows cool

© MRB Sept 08 Rising food prices and the cold winds of the world financial crisis are blowing away enthusiasm for African biofuels and dissipating regional hopes that this could be a new export bonanza. Instead the focus is now on producing biofuels for domestic use in the face of oil price rises and shortages.

Late this month members of the European parliament voted to slash the EU target proposed last year for the use of biofuels.

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International:

Western anti-GM lobby 'holds back African farming'

[© MRB Sept 08] The anti-GM lobby in rich Western countries is holding back the development of modern farming technology which could help feed Africa, Britains former top scientist said this month.

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Malawi:

Success of farm subsidies bolsters debate against IMF policy

© MRB Sept 08 UNCTAD the UN's Conference on Trade and Development and the International Monetary Fund look set for a direct confrontation over agricultural development policy after the resounding success of Malawi's subsidized farm production policy, made directly against IMF advice.

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Region:

Change in rainfall pattern will hit farmers

[© MRB Sept 08] At least six countries in Southern Africa could receive poor rainfall during the critical planting season starting next month, says an early forecast for the 2008/09 agricultural season.

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International:

China's focus shifts to African farms

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COMMODITIES

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South Africa:

State diamond trader in crisis as Mbekis man goes

© MRB Sept 08 Only seven months after its launch in February, South Africa's State Diamond Trader SDT is in crisis.  The SDT's CEO, Abbey Chikane, has left his position following the expiry of his contract. Political observers noted that Chikane's departure foreshadowed the resignation of Thabo Mbeki as president and believe it is just the start of a clearout of many of his friends and allies.

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Congo:

Just 14 wartime mining contracts satisfy government

[© MRB Sept 08] The government has announced that only 14 of the 61 wartime mining contracts under review has passed muster and that those remaining will have to be renegotiated.

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International:

Metals plunge on recession fears

[© MRB Sept 08] Metal prices plunged to near two-and-a-half year lows at the end of the month as mounting fears of a global recession overshadowed US efforts to finalise a US$700 billion bailout.

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INFRASTRUCTURE

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Zambia:

Chinese firm to spend $400m on power project

[© MRB Sept 08] Sino Hydro of China will spend $400 million to expand Zambias Kariba North Bank power station under a deal in which 85 percent of the money will be provided by Exim Bank of China. Commerce and Trade Minister Felix Mutati said the expansion would start in October but he did not say when the project would be completed.

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Mozambique:

US$2.5 billion for new power line

[© MRB Sept 08] Mozambiques publicly owned electricity company, EDM, in partnership with as yet unspecified funding agencies, plans to invest US$2.5 billion in a new electricity transmission line from the western province of Tete to Maputo.

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International:

EU to help Africa expand energy sector

[© MRB Sept 08]  The EU is to help African countries expand their electricity networks and promote energy interconnections between Africa and the EU, such as a Trans-Saharan gas pipeline.

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Congo:

Libya offers to build oil pipeline

[© MRB Sept 08] Libya Oil Holding will build and operate a 140km oil pipeline between the port of Muanda on the Atlantic coast and the port of Matadi, on the Congo river. The Libyan company says it will invest up to US$300 million in this project but there has been no news on when construction will begin.

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AID

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Zimbabwe:

Food emergency becomes critical in November

© MRB Sept 08 Millions of Zimbabweans now face hunger in the coming months because of the holdup in imports of food aid. The country could run out of cereals by early November, according to current estimates by Fewsnet, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

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Mozambique:

Donors confirm budget support

[© MRB Sept 08] Donor pledges to Mozambique for 2009, in both direct budget support and project aid, have risen by US$72 million, mainly due to fluctuations in the dollar exchange rate. The sums were announced on September 18 at the end of a month-long review of progress between the Mozambican government and its 19 Programme Aid Partners (PAP). These are the donors and funding agencies that provide at least part of their assistance in the form of direct budget support.

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SECURITY, RISK

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Congo:

Military situation deteriorates as Kinshasa urges MONUC on

© MRB Sept 08 Concerns are rising that the Goma peace deal signed earlier this year between the national army and all the militias operating in the Kivu provinces is falling apart.

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Congo:

Security sector reform is failing says French think-tank

[© MRB Sept 08] The reform of the DR Congos security sector involving the UN, the EU, the US, South Africa, Angola and many other players is failing to meet its objectives, according to a new report from the Paris-based Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI).

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International:

Private security companies welcome regulation deal

[© MRB Sept 08] The Washington-based lobbying group for private security companies, International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), has welcomed a deal signed this month on regulating the activities of private military and security companies during conflict.

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Swaziland:

Leading activists die in bomb blast

[© MRB Sept 08] Two leading anti-royalist activists have been blown up, apparently on their way to plant bombs. Police made the announcement after the results of parliamentary polls were released in an election that was criticised by international observers for its lack of political freedom.

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