TIPS recently completed a study investigating the impact of the controversial Eskom electricity supply agreement with Aluminium mining conglomerate BHP Billiton using a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) methodology to assess the costs and benefits to society of cancelling the special pricing agreement (SPA) that Eskom has with BHP Billiton. The CBA considered the following scenarios (i) Continuing with the current electricity arrangement (ii) Removing the electricity subsidy permitted to the BHP aluminium smelters and allowing the electricity price they pay to adjust to megaflex rates, and (iii) Comparing scenarios (i) and (ii).

The focus of this Development Dialogue will be to present the quantitative aspects of this research. The Development Dialogue calls for an interesting discussion as this is a hotly debated issue in South Africa at the moment, with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) having received a request from Eskom in 2012 to investigate its contract with BHP.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dinga Fatman has a Masters degree in Economics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He joined TIPS in 2011 to provide research assistance in the industrial policy pillar. His Masters dissertation topic was entitled: “Labour Regulations and Firm Performance in South Africa”. Dinga's general research interests involve South Africa's investment climate issues and advanced econometrics.

TIPS recently completed a study investigating how South Africa can improve the strategic use of its technical infrastructure (which include SABS, NMISA, SANAS, and NRCS) in a way that maximises enforcement by creating linkages with other measures such as import controls, consumer protection and customs and administrative procedures in order to grow the local manufacturing sector and facilitate manufacturing exports.

This Development Dialogue presents an overview detailing the importance of technical regulations in protecting local manufacturers and consumers, but also looking at how globally these regulations can/are being used as a form of protection.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Mbofholowo Tsedu is an Assistant Programme Manager for the Industrial Development pillar at TIPS primarily focused on trade and industrial policy issues. Mbofholowo has been engaged in numerous industrial policy-related studies including on designation, local content reporting, sector strategies and localisation. He also has been responsible for providing supplementary research support to TIPS's other pillars. Mbofholowo has an economics degree from the University of Pretoria and is currently completing a MSc programme focused on Industrialisation, Trade and Economic Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

TIPS recently completed a study investigating how South Africa can improve the strategic use of its technical infrastructure in a way that maximises enforcement by creating linkages with other measures such as import controls, consumer protection and customs and administrative procedures in order to grow the local manufacturing sector and facilitate manufacturing exports.

The main the main technical institutions of South Africa are SANAS – the South African National Accreditation System; NRCS – the National Regulator of Compulsory Specifications; SABS – the South African Bureau of Standards; and NMISA – the National Metrology Institute of South Africa.

This Development Dialogue presents an overview detailing the importance of technical regulations in protecting local manufacturers and consumers, but also looks at how globally these regulations can/are being used as a form of protection.

Main Speaker: Mbofholowo Tsedu

Mbofholowo is an Assistant Programme Manager for the Industrial Development pillar at TIPS primarily focused on trade and industrial policy issues. Mbofholowo has been engaged in numerous industrial policy-related studies including on designation, local content reporting, sector strategies and localisation. He also has been responsible for providing supplementary research support to TIPS's other pillars. Mbofholowo has an economics degree from the University of Pretoria and is completing a MSc programme focused on Industrialisation, Trade and Economic Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.

Mining Review Africa - Issue 3 March 2013

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Seminar by Milford Bateman: Moving from failed 'anti-developmental' microcredit to a 'developmental' local financial system in South Africa: exploring the key institutions, problems and prospects.

About the speaker

Milford Bateman is a freelance consultant on local economic development policy. Since 2005 he has been Visiting Professor of Economics at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia. He has PhD from University of Bradford, UK, and was a UK University-based lecturer in East European economics and a consultant on local economic development policy, before becoming a full-time consultant on local economic development policy working on local economic development policy and programme design and across Eastern Europe, Middle East, China, South Africa and Colombia. Dr Bateman has published widely on issues of local economic and social development through several edited books on entrepreneurship and SME development and a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is the author of Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism published by Zed Books in 2010. 

Why is inequality so unequality across the works? And why is it so difficult to do something about it in middle income countries?- Seminar by Jose Gabriel Palma

Jose Gabriel Palma is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics, Cambridge University. He has a D. Phil in Economics from Oxford University, a PHD from Cambridge University (by incorporation) and a D. Phil in Political Science from Sussex University. He worked during the Government of Salvador Allende in the nationalisation of the copper industry, and after his graduate work in the UK he worked as a lecturer at the universities of London, Sussex, Oxford and Cambridge. He has published articles and books dealing with the economics of developing countries, with a strong focus on Latin America and Asia. He has also written extensively on inequality, financial liberalisation and financial crises, industrial policy, the history of ideas in development economics and politics, and Latin American economic history.

Background reading

Project name: Regulatory Entities Capacity Building: Review of Regulators Orientation and Performance

Client: Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg

Funder: Economic Development Department

Duration: 2013 - March 2014

Summary

Effective performance by economic regulators is important for growth and development. In recognition of the importance of their role, the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg has commissioned the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development to undertake a research and capacity building project for economic regulators in South Africa. The Regulatory Entities Capacity Building Project involves a review of the performance of the economic regulators as well as identifying the constraints impacting their performance. The University of Johannesburg aims to use the information from the reviews to create customised training course in regulatory economics for both employees of the economic regulators in South Africa and for students.

TIPS conducted three sector reviews for the project, including the electricity sector and the renewable enery sector.

The emphasis of these reviews was on understanding the issues at a practical level, looking at how the regulator has been able to address the challenges it has faced, and how it can be assisted to improve, including from learning from other regulators.

Review of Regulation in the Electricity Supply Industry

Review of Regulation in Renewable Energy

PUBLISHED ARTICLE

South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer (REIPP) procurement programme is hailed worldwide as a model for renewable energy procurement. Its success is far from experimental and haphazard and points directly to lessons acquired prior to, and during, the launch and running of the programme. This article explores the journey of the REIPP procurement programme and draws critical lessons from the process. It discusses the success of the REIPP procurement programme in developing the renewable energy sector in South Africa, drawing seven key lessons that explain this success and exploring the remaining challenges. The article shows that, despite the need for further improvements and continual optimisation, the development of the REIPP procurement programme has been a positive illustration of successful policy and regulatory learning processes.

Lessons from South Africa's Renewable Energy Regulatory and Procurement Experience

South Africa has significant possibilities to grow its ship repair and boat building industry, with a large market in need of such services and a base from which the South African industry can emerge. These industries are labour intensive and have linkages to a range of other sectors.  There are, however, a number of constraints that hold back the growth of the industry. Sheila Farrell will present the outcomes of a TIPS research project, which looked at the challenges facing the boat building and ship repair industry and the opportunities for the industry.

About the speaker

Sheila Farrell is an experienced international ports consultant who has undertaken around 120 port consulting assignments in more than 50 countries, most of them concerned with port economics and finance, tariff setting, port reform and privatisation, and regulation. Several of the projects have been linked to the development of port-related industries. She has over 40 years of experience of port and shipping consultancy. As well as working as a port consultant, she is also a Visiting Professor in Port Operations Research at Imperial College London. She is a member of an EU-funded multi-national group of academics undertaking a four year research programme into improving the effectiveness of public private partnerships (PPPs) in transport, and has written two books on the subject of financing transport infrastructure. She also writes and teaches on economic and financial issues relating to ports.

Introduction to Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Modelling  

Workshop, 27-31 October 2014, Pretoria

CGE modelling is one of a number of approaches to economy-wide analysis that have become accessible and practicable as data and computer based techniques have developed. An increasing number of economists use this framework to analyse real world issues that were previously approached through less comprehensive partial equilibrium methods. As part of their commitment to ensuring that Southern Africa benefits from these development, TIPS has (co)presented a series of related short workshops over the past thirteen years. The current workshop is part of this on-going programme.

The workshop is designed specifically for people who need to use the results of economy-wide models to inform their analysis of real world issues. It will integrate theory, real world data, hands-on computer work and real-world applications. In particular, participants will be:

• Introduced to the micro, macro and trade theories that underlie typical CGE models;
• Provided with an overview and practical examples of Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) and of parameter and elasticity estimation methods which typically provide the data on which CGEs are built;
• Taken through various applications with special emphasis on the economic interpretation of results;
• Exposed to issues involved in using models for specific applications such as the analysis of trade, public finance, regulation and environmental economics.

The models have been set-up to run through an Excel interface, with the specialised modelling language (GAMS) running in the background. This is designed to keep the focus on the economics rather than the technicalities of modelling. The applications use models developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and are adapted by the workshop instructors to suit the Excel interface for a range of southern African economies. Participants will apply what they learn to a group mini-project which will be presented at the end of the workshop.

The workshop is targeted at those who need to understand the potential and limitations of the use of these approaches without themselves becoming modellers. As such it should appeal to policy makers and analysts in both the public and the private sectors, to students and to academics. The workshop will also provide a foundation for those who wish to become modellers by taking future workshops on actual modelling techniques.

No previous exposure to CGE modelling is required, although it will be an advantage if participants be familiar with SAMs and have a very good understanding of Excel.

Workshop leaders are Dirk Ernst van Seventer and Rob Davies.

Workshop fees (which includes teas, coffees and lunches): R12 000 (excl VAT) for South African resident participants, R12 000 for African participants and those from other developing country and R17 500 for other participants.

Registration closing date is Friday 15 August 2014. Seats will be reserved until the payment closing date of 19 September 2014.The offering of the workshop is dependent on attracting a minimum number of 15 students by the time of the payment closing date while the maximum number of students is 20. Note that TIPS will not make refunds after the payment due date unless the workshop is cancelled. TIPS' invoice documentation (tax clearance, bank clearance, etc) will only be sent on request by registered post. It is therefore important to make sure that TIPS is on your organisation's list of preferred suppliers and to factor-in sufficient time for these processes.

If you are interested in attending this workshop please complete the application form below and send to:

Dirk Ernst van Seventer (denves@xtra.co.nz)

or

Rob Davies (robdavieszim@gmail.com)

The aim of this workshop is to build research and policy capabilities in the South African government to better understand the dynamics of value chains and in so doing, to contribute to employment growth and productivity enhancement through upgrading.

The workshop will address the following issues:

• What are value chains? What differentiates them from simple input/output economic linkages?
• How are value chains governed, and by whom, and how does this affect the capacity to upgrade?
• What role do standards play in value chains?
• Given intense competition, how do value chains upgrade and in what directions?
• How does an understanding of value chain dynamics help firms to position themselves sustainably in various profitable end markets?
• How can value chains be aligned to support and promote policy design and implementation?

The workshop will focus on four value chains which are representative of other sectors:

• Capital equipment into the mining sector (also relevant to oil and gas and related sectors).
• Automobile assembly and components (also relevant to other assembly and metalworking
• industries).
• Clothing and textiles (also relevant to footwear, furniture and other consumer products).
• Agro-processing (relevant to a range of other soft commodity based sectors).