Tuesday March 20, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Shannon de Ryhove

Making headlines:

The Department of Trade and Industry’s initiative to create special economic zones (SEZs) may potentially provide significant and sustained economic benefits, but is also fraught with pitfalls that could undermine its efficacy, Free Market Foundation executive director Leon Louw said. Having studied and written about SEZs across the world, Louw said that thousands of SEZs, which included special trade zones of all kinds, were failures. Speaking at an Africa Institute of South Africa seminar on SEZs, he said South Africa had already had a number of unsuccessful initiatives over the past 50 years, including the Apartheid-era ‘growth points’ and ‘border industries’, as well as more recent industrial development zone projects at Coega in the Eastern Cape, Richard’s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal and the OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng.

With just five days to go for nations to put forward nominees to lead the World Bank, there are few signs the US has finalized its choice to lead the global development lender. The US has held the presidency of the Bank since its founding after World War Two, while a European has always led its sister institution – the International Monetary Fund. But Washington has yet to publicly identify a candidate and some observers think the delay could signal that the White House is having a hard time convincing high-level officials to take the job. The White House and US Treasury Department have declined to comment.

West Africa's top regional decision-making body urged member States to back Mali with military equipment and logistics in its fight against northern rebels, but also said it would launch mediation efforts within days. Fighting erupted in Mali's north in mid-January after heavily armed fighters from Libya last year poured into the remote desert zone, where complaints of marginalisation and insecurity have long simmered. The current uprising, led by Tuareg fighters, is the most heavily armed yet and comes as the region is grappling with the growing threat of fighters linked to al Qaeda and a food crisis threatening millions with hunger.

Also making headlines:

Guinea Bissau's former head of military intelligence was shot dead at a bar in the capital Bissau overnight just hours after a peaceful Presidential vote, witnesses and a security source said.

And, the Doha Round of trade talks is unlikely to succeed but progress can be achieved in getting international agreement in areas such as trade facilitation, WTO chief Pascal Lamy said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.