Light Manufacturing in Africa : Targeted Policies to Enhance Private Investment and Create Jobs.
Material type: TextSeries: Africa Development ForumPublisher: Herndon : World Bank Publications, 2012Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (162 pages)Content type: text Media type: computer Carrier type: online resourceISBN: 9780821389744Subject(s): Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Economic conditions -- Congresses | Industrial policy -- Africa, Sub-Saharan | Manufacturing industries -- Africa, Sub-Saharan | Manufacturing industries -- Government policy -- Africa, Sub-SaharanGenre/Form: Electronic books.Additional physical formats: Print version:: Light Manufacturing in Africa : Targeted Policies to Enhance Private Investment and Create JobsDDC classification: 338.4/7670967 LOC classification: HD9737.A3572 -- L54 2012ebOnline resources: Click to ViewIntro -- Half Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Overview: Light Manufacturing in Africa: Targeted Policies to Enhance Private Investment and Create Jobs -- Potential for Light Manufacturing: Creating Millions of Productive Jobs -- Case Study: Ethiopia -- African Competitiveness in Light Manufacturing and Possible Solutions from Asia -- References -- Part 1: Setting the Stage -- 1: Good Possibilities for Light Manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa -- Structural Transformation -- Light Manufacturing, Including Agribusiness, as a Possible Driver of Africa's Structural Transformation -- Does Sub-Saharan Africa Have a Comparative Advantage in Light Manufacturing? -- Africa's Performance in Light Manufacturing -- Strategy for a Competitive Light Manufacturing Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa -- Past Policy Prescriptions: An Intimidating "To Do" List -- A Selective and Practical Approach: Resolve the Most Critical Constraints in the Most Promising Subsectors -- Notes -- References -- Part 2: What Constrains Light Manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa? -- Main Constraints in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia -- Note -- References -- 2: Input Industries -- Effects of Input Costs on Competitiveness -- Why Are Input Costs Higher? -- Possible Solutions from Asia -- Policy Recommendations -- References -- 3: Industrial Land -- Effects of Industrial Land on Competitiveness -- Marketing of Goods: Land for Warehousing, Showrooms, and Trading Inputs and Outputs -- A Possible Solution from Asia -- Policy Recommendations for Africa -- Notes -- References -- 4: Finance -- Access to Finance and Firm Performance -- The Availability and Cost of Finance -- Why Is the Cost of Formal Finance So High and the Availability So Constricted? -- Possible Solutions from Asia -- Notes -- References.
5: Trade Logistics -- Why Are Trade Logistics So Important to Competitiveness in Light Manufacturing? -- Trade Logistics Performance -- Factors Leading to Poor Trade Logistics in Africa -- Possible Solutions from Asia -- References -- 6: Skills -- Entrepreneurial Skills -- Worker Skills -- Possible Solutions from Asia -- Notes -- References -- 7: Implementation -- Competition -- Public-Private Partnerships -- High-Level Government Commitment -- The Role of Development Partners -- Governance and the Political Economy of Reforms -- Part 3: Identifying the Potential and Easing the Constraints -- 8: Ethiopia as Exemplar -- Apparel: Solving Trade Logistics Issues -- Leather Products: Dealing with Shortages of Quality Leather -- Wood Products: Providing Technical Training and Developing Sustainable Wood Plantations -- Metal Products: Reducing the Cost of Steel and Providing Technical Training -- Agribusiness: Reforming Key Agricultural Input and Output Markets and Facilitating Access to Land and Finance -- Synthesis across the Five Subsectors in Light Manufacturing -- Implementing Reform -- Political Economy Issues -- Notes -- References -- Annex: The Study's Objectives and Methods -- Industry and Country Focus -- Methodology -- Enterprise Survey Studies -- Qualitative Survey -- Quantitative Survey -- Comparative Value Chain and Feasibility Analysis -- Kaizen Training -- Note -- References -- Index -- Back Cover.
This book examines how light manufacturing can offer a viable solution for Sub-Saharan Africa's need for structural transformation and productive job creation, given its potential competitiveness based on low wage costs and an abundance of natural resources that supply raw materials needed for industries. Based on five different analytical tools and data sources, the book examines in detail the binding constraints in each of the subsectors relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): apparel, leather goods, metal products, agribusiness, and wood products. Ethiopia is used as an example, with Vietnam as a comparator and China as a benchmark, and with insights from Tanzania and Zambia used to draw out lessons more broadly for SSA. The book recommends a program of focused policies to exploit Africa's latent comparative advantage in a particular group of light manufacturing industries - especially leather goods, garments, and agricultural processing. These industries hold the prospect of initiating rapid, substantial, and potentially self-propelling waves of rising output, employment, productivity, and exports that can push countries like Ethiopia on a path of structural change of the sort recently achieved in both China and Vietnam. The timing for these initiatives is very appropriate as China's comparative advantage in these areas is diminishing due to steep cost increases associated with rising wages and non-wage labor costs, escalating land prices, and mounting regulatory costs. Five features of this book distinguish it from previous studies. First, the detailed work on light manufacturing at the subsector and product levels in five countries provide in-depth cost comparisons between Asia and Africa that can be used as a framework for future studies. Second, the book uses a wide array of quantitative and qualitative techniques to identify key
constraints to enterprises and to evaluate firm performance differences across countries. Third, the findings that firm constraints vary by country, sector, and firm size led to a focused approach to identifying constraints and combining market-based measures and select government intervention to remove them. Fourth, the solution to light manufacturing problems cuts across many sectors: solving the manufacturing inputs problem requires solving specific issues in agriculture, education, and infrastructure. African countries cannot afford to wait until all the problems across sectors are resolved. Fifth, the book draws on experiences and solutions from other developing countries to inform its recommendations.This book will be very valuable to African policy makers, professional economists, and anyone interested in the economic development, industrialization, and structural transformation of developing countries.
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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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