151. The Significance of Mineral Processing Activities and their Potential Impact on African Economic Development.
- Author
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Bocuom-Kaberuka, Brigitte
- Subjects
MINERAL industries ,ECONOMIC development ,ECONOMIC conditions in Africa - Abstract
The question of transforming primary products for export, including local mineral processing has been addressed by successive development plans in African countries. Few projects have been realized so far. This study examines the potential impact of mineral processing activities on industry linkages and growth prospects for countries in Africa. Lessons from 'success stories' among developing nations confirm that the choice of mineral processing as an industrialization strategy will be associated with large, complex, and long-term investments, which call for sound macroeconomic policies and adequate legislative frameworks, if the potential development benefits of such activities are to be realized. Effective implementation also requires the avoidance of over-rapid absorption of export earnings. Strongly enforced policies are needed to ensure that export earnings effectively contribute to growth through domestic investments and savings. Also, a call can be made for greater involvement of the private sector or to privatization in order to quickly respond to ever increasing market demands. Moreover, opportunities for greater transformation of mineral commodities seem to be limited by a number of interrelated factors, which reduce to questions of market access, financing, management, long-term domestic supplies of inputs such as skilled labour and technology, and most importantly, the difficulty of making profitable investments, given high import costs. The analysis thus suggests that given the right combination of domestic conditions, gains from trade are likely to follow from expanding mineral processing capabilities as well as from improving related processing technologies. L'importance de la transformation des matières premières pour le développement économique africain y compris la valorisation locale des minerais a été soulignée dans divers programmes de développement. Cependant, peu de réali... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1999
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