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With the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), regional economic integration in Africa has captured international attention and raised high hopes. In the new book "Regional Integration, Trade and Industry in Africa", the present state of economic integration on the continent is explored in the context of global trade and plans to foster industrialization. This policy brief authored by Helmut Asche summarises the book's main findings.

Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced substantial growth and poverty reduction in the past two decades, yet as this process has not been based on industrialisation it is unlikely that it is sustainable in the longer term. Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa should consider structuralist industrial policies, yet these policies should avoid a top-down approach and rather rely on a structured and inclusive public-private dialogue. As mature light industries, such as textiles, can be good for mass employment, but allow little technological learning, reliance on a dual core of industries, that is labour-intensive industries alongside a smaller knowledge-intensive core, appears as the best developmental fit.

Auf Anforderung ihres Direktoriums hat die Weltbank im Spätsommer 2005 dargelegt, wie sie sich die Umsetzung der Beschlüsse besonders von Gleneagles zur Erhöhung der Entwicklungshilfe vorstellt. Das Ergebnis sind der Africa Action Plan (AAP) und seit Februar 2006 der Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF). Aufbauend auf einer sehr optimistischen Sicht der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Afrikas will die Bank die Ergebnis- und Partner-Orientierung ihrer Arbeit verstärken. Im unerklärten Wettbewerb der Geberorganisationen sieht sie sich damit als Verwalter und Koordinator steigender internationaler Hilfe qualifiziert. Als bedeutendste Neuerung stellt die Bank im AAP ihre drivers of growth/shared growth -Agenda zur Wachstumsförderung heraus. Neu ist daran im Wesentlichen die geplante Aufstockung des jahrzehntelang geschrumpften Infrastruktur-Portfolios. Die wirtschaftliche Diagnose, die Selbsteinschätzung der Bank und die sektorale Schwerpunktsetzung lassen eine ganze Reihe von kritischen Fragen offen.

On request of its Executive Directors, the World Bank rolled out, in later summer 2005, how it envisages implementing decisions, in particular those taken in Gleneagles, on raising official development assistance (ODA) to Africa. The result is the Africa Action Plan (AAP) and, as of February 2006, the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF). Building on a highly optimistic view of Africa’s political and economic development, the Bank’s aim is to strengthen the result and partner orientation of its work. In the undeclared competition among donor organizations, the Bank thus sees itself qualified for the role of administrator and coordinator alike, of a rising international development aid. The Bank points to its drivers-of-growth/shared-growth agenda as the most important innovation in the AAP. What is new about the agenda is, basically, the plan to scale up the Bank’s infrastructure portfolio, which had been shrinking for decades. The Bank’s economic diagnosis, self-assessment, and definition of sectoral priorities leave quite a number of critical questions for discussion.