Africa : how to enhance regional integration and economic growth ?

Salutations Thank you for the invitation to address the 2018 Africa Think Tank Summit  in this memorable city of Rabat. I thank in particular, the OCP Policy Center and the Think Tank and Civil Societies Program of the University of Pennsylvania for hosting the Summit with the theme “Deepening Expertise and Enhancing Sustainability: Insight into Contemporary Challenges Facing African Think Tanks”. Rabat, Morocco has been the sprouting ground of numerous agenda-setti ...

These days, the word "crisis" is gaining a new urgency around the globe… Crisis of humanity, of water, hunger, poverty, climate. Crisis of war, destruction, terrorism. And a crisis of thought, intellectual exchange, theories transfered into reality. And a crisis of think tanks, eventually, although their work matters, since it sends signals, offers proposals and applicable solutions.  In that context, Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and Board member of the ...

The recently signed African Continental Free Trade Agreement represents a countercurrent to protectionist tendencies across the Atlantic and the Pacific, and may well move the economic integration of the African continent forward. Translating the vision into action, however, will call upon signatories to undertake deeper domestic reforms and to confront specific challenges related to the agreement itself. This brief explains why the agreement is important for Africa and identifies p ...

Ce mardi 21 Mars 2018, quarante-quatre chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement réunis à Kigali (Rwanda) signaient l’accord de création de la zone de libre échange continentale (Continental Free Trade Area, CFTA). Cet accord historique marque la volonté des Etats africains d’aller vers la mise en place à l’échelle du continent d’un marché commun où les échanges de biens et de services seraient libres et la circulation des capitaux et des personnes sans contraintes. Tels que précisés dans la ...

Brazil and Morocco have been engaged in different forms of trade negotiations and committed to liberalize their trade, as they have concluded several bilateral and multilateral trade agreements whether within the WTO or in specific framework. This paper analyzes different facets of trade relations between Brazil and Morocco and assesses the potential for deeper trade integration between these two key players in the southern Atlantic. Trade flows between Brazil and Morocco have been ...

Este documento presenta un breve resumen de los principales aspectos asociados a la construcción de una matriz de insumoproducto interregional para Colombia. Los resultados sugieren que hay unas diferencias importantes en las regiones colombianas. También sobresale la importancia de la proximidad geográfica en los efectos de cambios en la demanda final sobre el producto de otras regiones. Esto resalta el papel del espacio y las distancias en las disparidades regionales. ...

Current technological developments in manufacturing are likely to lead to a partial reversal of the wave of fragmentation and global value chains that was at the core of the rise of North-South trade from 1990 onwards. At the same time, China – the main hub of the global-growth-cum-structural-change of that period - may attempt to extend the previous wave through its “One Belt, One Road” initiative. ...