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PRZOOM - /newswire/ -
Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa, 2010/02/28 - As regional economic communities in Africa gain strength, they will present unique opportunities in the largest potential consumer market in the world.
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Africa is a continent of 53 nations. As such, exploring business opportunities can be quite overwhelming. However, investors can target specific Africa regions explore opportunities to make the effort more manageable while still having plenty of flexibility and options. To introduce the African economic regions, Afribiz introduces a new information series, “Economic Outlook for African Regional Economic Communities.”
Lauri Elliott, Chief Strategist for Bizconcierge, says “by focusing business or investment activities in a region, entrepreneurs and investors are creating a diversified portfolio of opportunities as they would across sectors. While the regional economic communities might unify African countries in a region to leverage economic activity, each country still has its own unique potential.”
The info series covers the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The series starts with the EAC, which includes the countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The highlight for the EAC this year is the official formation of its common market with around 120 million people.
The second article in the series highlights the economic conditions in SADC. SADC was particularly hard hit by the recession and growth contracted as a whole in 2009, but 2010 sees a positive turn around. In 2011, excellent performance is expected from some member countries like Botswana with forecasted economic growth at over 8%.
“From a strategic perspective, focusing investments and ventures not only on specific countries but on regions is a way to leverage assets. If portfolios are developed well, assets can even be leveraged into BRIC countries, which are dramatically increasing their economic and trade activities in Africa,” says Elliott. For example, Bharti of India is looking for strategic assets in Africa with its recent offer for Zain’s Africa operations. The right choice of African assets may also draw the strengths of other global regions to a portfolio.
About Afribiz
Afribiz (afribiz.info) is a “new economy” communication and community ecosystem focused on promoting increased economic opportunity and successful trade between Africa and the world, as well as between African countries. The driving factor is to support broad-based economic development through for-profit enterprise based on open, inclusive markets.
The ecosystem includes provisioning of information, intelligence, and insights about business and investments in Africa. Afribiz uses web, multimedia, print, radio and TV platforms to interact with the public and its members. It is a key brand of BizConcierge PTY LTD of South Africa.
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