Africa > East Africa > Djibouti > Business / Trade

Business / Trade in Djibouti

  • Africa: 'Market Information Gap Threatens U.S.$400 Billion Intra-Africa Trade'

    BOTSWANA, 2017/07/14 Access to data across African economies, which has been hindered by the fragmented nature of the respective markets, is currently threatening a $400 billion intra-Africa trade potential. Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) said the present transactions price at $170 billion remained their due to wide gap in market data, which presently needs to be closed to foster accelerated trade integration. Meanwhile, the size of intra-African trade could be doubled from the current level of about $170 billion per year to almost $400 billion by addressing the issue of availability of market data on the continent.
  • Tripartite Free Trade Area plods along slowly in Africa

    BOTSWANA, 2017/06/24 Trade between African nations has long been outstripped by intra-regional trade in other parts of the world – for Africa as a whole, intra-regional trade is between 10% and 13% of total trade. This is far lower than in regions such as the EU, where about 60% of trade is between member states, and the Association of South-east Asian Nations, which has a rate of about 25%. Intra-regional trade in North America is put at about 40%. However, the ratification of the Tripartite Free Trade Sector(TFTA) – potentially later in 2017 – could help change that and push the development of additional intra-regional trade increase. A pan-regional free-trade zone, the TFTA stretches from Cairo to Cape Town and encompasses 26 African nations. Africa’s Tripartite Free Trade Area would reduce regional tariffs and create a pan-African single market, to aid development and cash in on a growing middle class in the continent. But with member countries often belonging to multiple economic areas, progress is both complex and slow, as Kit Gillet reports.  
  • Importers threaten to increase prices of goods if government implements tax to fund African Union

    BOTSWANA, 2017/06/15 Importers have threatened to increase the prices of goods if the government implements the 0.2% import tax to fund the AU. Mr Samson Awingobit Asaki, Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, told the Ghana News Agency that the implementation of the tax would increase the cost of operation for importers. Mr Asaki added that at the same time as it happens like that, they would have no other choice than to transfer the cost onto the prices of goods for the consumers.
  • Djibouti moves to galvanise trade development

    DJIBOUTI, 2017/03/14 Construction has begun on a new free trade area in Djibouti, part of a broader government initiative to improve the country’s business environment and capitalise on its access to major regional consumer markets like Ethiopia. In the zone Ground was broken in January on the Djibouti International Free Trade Zone (DIFTZ), which will target a broad range of industries, inclunding ICT and construction equipment, electronics and light industry. Once operational, the 4800-ha, $3.5bn zone will be the major facility of its kind in Africa, located 23 km south of Djibouti city.
  • Economic integration is helping boost trade and investment in Africa

    BOTSWANA, 2016/05/13 The collapse of virtual borders is one of the majority remarkable things to have happened in our lifetimes. In the world of cyberspace, time and distance have become almost peripheral considerations at the same time as it comes to doing business. Services from software development to accounting can be delivered across the world in the blink of an eye. Next business leaders will struggle to imagine an era at the same time as communication was neither immediate nor virtually free.
  • East Africa trading bloc ranked high in regional integration

    DJIBOUTI CITY, 2016/04/04
  • East Africa: Region's Exports to EU Face Tough Conditions

    ITALY, 2015/09/13 Mistrust has emerged part the East African Community partner states over Tanzania's commitment to the Economic Partnership Agreement that would give the region's goods business-free access to European markets. Tanzania is likely to delay the signing and ratification of the EPA document on the grounds that it was rushed through. Dar es Salaam has threatened not to sign the transaction before its concerns on contentious issues are addressed. The region has until December 31 to sign the transaction with the European Union or go back to the negotiating table.
  • Djibouti, Turkey Reach Investment Deal

    DJIBOUTI CITY, 2013/10/09 Djiboutian Minister of Economy and Industrial Finance Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh and his Turkish counterpart this week signed a bi-lateral accord to promote and protect investments between the two nations, the Djibouti Data Agency reported Thursday (September 26th). Dawaleh and Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan signed the agreement in Mersin, Turkey, where economic, trade and investment ministers from Turkey and Arab League states held a two-day summit.