Past Projects
Trade & Growth Dynamics
15 June 2004
A Strategic Assessment of the South African Motor Vehicle, Parts and Accessories sector
This strategy document endeavours to analyse the South African automotive assembly and components industry's major market and production trends and dynamics as a mechanism for identifying current industry constraints and opportunities/challenges. It is comprised of six sections. Section 1 provides…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2004
Creating Employment and Economic Wealth Through Developing the South African BPO&O sector
Business process outsourcing and offshoring (BPO&O) is a major global trend, with a significant positive impact in developing countries that have the required skills, cost advantage and infrastructure. Over the next 4-5 years, a window of opportunity exists for South…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
South Africa has experienced significant liberalisation during the 1990s on the political as well as economic front. Starting with the first democratic elections in 1994, the economy has undergone liberalisation of internal and external financial markets, labour markets and trade…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
The Edge Institute Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are at the centre of several current policy debates, both nationally and internationally, ranging from music piracy and geographical indications in wine labelling to generic alternatives for patented pharmaceuticals. In order to engage…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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Telecommunications services are an important focus for most industrial countries in the current round of trade talks in services. Initial negotiating positions and country requests by these industrial countries all call for full liberalisation of the sector. SADC countries have…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2003
Botswana Financial Services
Botswana's financial sector is relatively small, reflecting the small size of the market and perhaps the thorough approach to licensing and supervision. The size of the sector in relation to the economy (as measured by the ratio of broad money…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2003
Botswana Telecommunications Services
The Botswana telecommunications sector is made of four major stakeholders. The Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) is the sectors' regulator. The Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC), a government owned company, provides fixed lines. Two private companies, Mascom Wireless and Vista Cellular provide…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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Negotiations on the liberalisation of telecommunications form an important part of service negotiations in the Doha Round. The negotiations cover all aspects of the telecoms sector, including fixed line public networks, mobile networks and the full range of value-added network…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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This report attempts to provide an overview of South Africa's industrial landscape during the 1990s, focusing on growth and sectoral shares in value-added at a detailed 46-sector level. Use is made of the TIPS South African Standardised Industry Database, which…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
Telecommunications services are an important focus for most industrial countries in the current round of trade talks in services. Initial negotiating positions and country requests by these industrial countries all call for full liberalisation of the sector. James Hodge reports…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2003
Cancun Ministerial Conference ends without agreement
The Cancun Ministerial Conference ended on 14 September after Chairperson Luis Ernesto Derbez concluded that members remained entrenched on the "Singapore" issues. Shortly before 18:00 Cancun time, Mexican Trade Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez formally closed the Fifth Session of the…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2003
Air and Road Transport in Botswana
In this report we make an assessment of the transport sector in Botswana by analyzing policy and performance in the air and road transport sectors. The study had several other objectives among which was to identify reform needs for the…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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The international commodity market is increasingly characterized by a fall in the relative value of products mainly due to increased competition. Because of the competitive pressures in the global market place, it is not surprising that exporters from economies that…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
This report attempts to provide an overview of South Africa's industrial landscape during the 1990s, with specific emphasis on growth and sectoral shares in exports at a detailed 46-sector level. If one of the objective of the policies adopted during…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
In spite of the trade liberalisation efforts that have characterised the 1990s, it is apparent that imports by the manufacturing sector have remained more or less constant in real terms, whereas imports by agricultural industries have witnessed a decline in…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
Only a handful of sectors have shown an increase in their demand for labour, amongst others, Leather Products, Plastic Products, Wood and Wood Products, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Printing and Publishing, Medical Services, Basic Chemicals and Other Chemicals and Television…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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Rapid technological change has impacted on the provision of telecommunications in South Africa, as in other countries. The increasing capacity of fibre optic networks, the growing powers of computers, the growth of satellite communications and other broadband developments are major…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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This paper assesses the economy-wide impact of implementing and financing a universal or basic income grant (BIG) in South Africa. The various financing scenarios suggested by the proponents of the grant are presented, and these are compared using an applied…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
15 June 2002
Cancun: Crisis or Catharsis?
During September 10-14, 2003, WTO members met in Cancun for a mid-term review of the Doha Round of trade negotiations, launched in November 2001. Trade ministers entered the 5th WTO Ministerial divided on agricultural and non-agricultural negotiating modalities, on whether…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2002
Information Technology and Producer Services - A Source of Economic Development: The South African Case
This paper discusses one aspect of the somewhat discredited "new economy" namely the impact of information and communication technologies on the growth in volume and diversity of producer services. It provides an analysis of data on developments within transport, communications,…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2002
Debating Privatisation of Network Utilities in South Africa: Theories, Fables, Facts, Other
The government of South Africa comes across clear in enunciating its goals for the reform of public enterprises. According to the Minister of Public Enterprises, “restructuring” is the generic term taken to represent the set of strategies employed by the…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2002
Energy Services, WTO GATS Negotiations and Energy Market Regulation and Liberalisation in South Africa
This paper is essentially a scoping exercise to explore the type of issues that might arise for South Africa in WTO energy service negotiations. The background to the current round of negotiations in energy services is explained, including the uncertainties…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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01 January 2002
A Standard Computable General Equilibrium Model For South Africa
The paper reports on the construction and testing of a Standard International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) computable general equilibrium model for South Africa. A 1998 social accounting matrix (SAM) for South Africa is compiled using national accounts information and…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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01 December 2001
The SADC Textile and Garment Industries: Constraints & Opportunities. Myopia or Global Vision?
This report is the culmination of a study of the textile and garment industries in the member states of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Based on fieldwork mostly done between October 2000 and April 2001, the project produced country…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2001
Towards a Workable Rural Development Strategy
The paper puts forward a workable rural development strategy. It shows on which principles, which historical realities and which statistical facts such a strategy should be based. It looks at what the government is doing to promote rural development and…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2001
The Role of the Small and Medium Enterprise Sector in Latin America: Implications for South Africa
The current economic setting in most Latin American countries suggests that if the small and medium enterprise sector does not perform well during the next couple of decades, overall economic performance will also be unsatisfactory, especially in the areas of…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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The reform of the financial sector has been an important component of the structural adjustment programmes pursued by developing countries, whereby reform entails reducing government involvement, freeing up financial markets, and strengtheningfinancial institutions. In Southern Africa, however, the financial systems…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
The banking sector in South Africa is highly concentrated. When there is high concentration, it is necessary to examine the effects on efficiency and prices. In this paper, we discuss the fact that there are various types of efficiency in…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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01 January 2001
A Future for Labour in the Global Economy
From the standpoint of labor around the world the problem with globalization is not that it lowers market-determined wages and reduces employment - it is as likely to do the opposite, and which it does will vary from country to…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2000
Service Sector Dynamics and Service Regulation
In most industrialised economies, service sectors do not only show high growth rates of output and employment : they also go through dramatic changes with respect to use of technology, innovation, and regulatory frameworks. Service sector performance becomes more and…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
15 June 2000
Failing or Not Aiming to Grow? Manufacturing SMMEs and their Contribution to Employment Growth in South Africa
South Africa’s recent integration into the world economy provokes the question about its potential for building competitive advantage and prosperity at the local level in the context of an increasingly globalised economy. The experience of prospering localities in industrialised countries,…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
15 June 2000
Trade In Transport Services: South Africa And The General Agreement On Trade In Services
This document has been prepared for the Trade and Industrial Policy Secretariat (TIPS) in light of the imperative for South Africa to prepare its negotiating mandate at the discussions around the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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A narrow unemployment rate of 21.2% and a broad unemployment rate of 36% in 1997 in South Africa indicate a substantial number of working age people who did not work in the last seven days but would accept a job…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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The South African Competition Act of 1998, implemented on 1 September 1999, establishes a range of criteria for evaluating mergers and company practices that are deemed to harm economic efficiency, among other objectives. In particular, the Act prohibits a range…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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Low investment levels in the South African economy are consistently identified as the principal factor behind suboptimal growth rates. Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of investment there is relatively little analytical research available in South Africa on the…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 2000
Production and Technology Changes, Restructuring, and Employment in the Plastics Sector
The paper utilises data from a survey of plastics firms and six firm case studies to examine the relationships between production and technology changes, and employment. The analysis examines associations between different factors influencing firms in making such changes and…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
15 June 2000
South Africa's International Cost Competitiveness
The purpose of this paper is to assess South Africa’s international price and cost competitiveness, particularly with regard to labor costs, and to examine the quantitative relationships between South African cost competitiveness and tradeperformance. South African export and investment performance…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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The aim of this paper is to explore some of the major differences in the ways in which governments influence the process of skill formation. In particular, we focus on the ways in which governments use the market as a…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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15 June 1999
Examining the Cost of Services Protection in a Developing Country: The Case of South Africa
In the lead-up to the next round of WTO talks, some commentators have argued that developing countries should liberalise their service industries for their own benefit and not just in response to industrial country demands. This paper critically explores this…
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Trade & Growth Dynamics
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