Tuesday, October 19, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines:

African countries need to boost regional trade and investment to keep pace with growth in other emerging economies that have large consumer bases, such as India and China, said South Africa's Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies on Monday.
In an interview in Cairo on a high-level, bilateral State visit, Davies said that Egypt and South Africa are trying to seal a Cape-to-Cairo free trade agreement that could help reduce dependence on flagging European economies. He explained that, as single countries, South Africa and Egypt "do not begin to touch the sizes of the domestic market of China and India, but as a grouping from Cape to Cairo, we do start to hit that league."
South Africa, faced with a strengthening rand that has hit its main export and manufacturing sectors, is eager to diversify its trade with emerging markets, particularly as "seismic changes in the world economy" make it more pressing Davies said.

Remittances into sub-Saharan Africa are expected to rise by 2% this year despite a faltering world economy, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
Remittance flows represent a significant share of gross domestic product for Kenya and many African countries.
"Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa exceed $21-billion and are forecast to grow by almost 2% in 2010, despite a weak global economy," the World Bank said in a study on estimates of remittance flows launched jointly with Kenya's central bank.
A recent bank survey showed that 14% of adult Kenyans regularly receive an average of $735 in remittances from abroad a year.

The South African government has stressed that there is sufficient "flexibility" in the formulation of the country's electricity master plan to accommodate a vision for a large-scale solar park in the Northern Cape. This, despite a glaring misalignment between the 5 000-MW Upington plan and the draft integrated resource plan, or IRP2010, which was published in early October.
The draft document suggests that only 600 MW of solar capacity should be developed by 2019, and that various renewable-energy technologies, worth a combined 7 200 MW, be introduced between 2020 and 2030 in addition to projects selected under the first phase of the renewable energy feed-in tariffs, as well as 3 800 MW of additional wind energy, to be introduced from 2014.
But Energy Minister Dipuo Peters argued that it would be "woefully wrong" for this to be interpreted to mean that government was not committed to the solar park, the prefeasibility study for which was completed with the support of the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Also making headlines:

The Department of Transport says that the Constitutional Court did not rule that Section 23(1) of the Road Accident Fund, which limits the period to lodge a claim to three years, was unconstitutional.
The leader of Niger's ruling military junta extends a purge of his inner circle, by sacking the head of the State's secret service.
Social Development Minister Edna Molewa says that agriculture is key to rural economy development.
And, Sudanese political parties agreed to hold a fresh census, new elections and rewrite the constitution, if the south secedes as expected in less than three months.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.