AfDB - “Cooperation between China and Africa is welcomed by the two sides,” Donald Kaberuka, president of African Development Bank (ADB), said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua.

China and Africa should further “deepen and improve” their mutually beneficial cooperation, said Kaberuka, who will make a four-day official visit to China starting from Wednesday, at the invitation of China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

Kaberuka spoke highly of the cooperation between China and Africa and between the two banks, saying “China has been an active member of the ADB since it joined the bank and the African Development Fund (ADF) in 1985.”

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/afdb-president-sino-african-cooperation-common-desire-of-both-sides-5577/

As the global economic cycle moves to recovery, there are grounds for optimism that sub-Saharan Africa’s performance relative to the rest of the world will be better than in the past, the IMF says.

But the world slowdown is exacting a heavy toll that is all the more harmful given endemic poverty.

In its Regional Economic Outlook for the subcontinent, the IMF says that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is set for a recovery to mirror that projected for the rest of the world. The report adds that while average per capita incomes should escape the sustained reductions that marked previous downturns, living standards for some may deteriorate markedly and there may be some acute increases in poverty.

Policies in most SSA economies seem to be responding more positively to the current global economic crisis better than they have in the past, the report states. Fiscal and monetary policies have helped counter the effects of the slowdown and the region seems to have generally avoided the major macroeconomic instabilities that followed previous global downturns.

“The effective use of counter-cyclical macroeconomic tools marks a new era in the policy environment of sub-Saharan Africa,” Antoinette Sayeh, Director of the IMF’s African Department, said in a press briefing.

Read more – http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2009/CAR100309B.htm

Sunday, Istanbul, 5 October 2009 – Japan and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have committed a grant of USD 1,000,000 to the African Training and Management Services Project (ATMS) from the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA). In a ceremony organized on the side of the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul, a grant agreement was signed today by AfDB Private Sector Operations Director, Mr. Tim Turner and ATMS Chairman Mr. J. Berteling.

The technical assistance contribution from FAPA will be used to sponsor Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa through capacity building services to grow and succeed, and to create employment opportunities. Specifically, FAPA funds will be applied through the ATMS Foundation to provide interim-management / placement services and in-situ training to SMEs to address management skills shortcomings. These services are provided by AMSCO (African Management Services Company), the executing agent of the ATMS project, which carries out the operational part of the ATMS project.

The ATMS project is an ongoing unique collaboration between the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), each with a specific role in the project. The ATMS Project is structured as a UNDP Regional Project, while the IFC acts as the Executing Agency and AfDB as the Regional Cooperating Agency, supported by the African governments. The project consists of two interrelated components: AMSCO BV and the ATMS Foundation.

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/japan-and-afdb-commit-usd-1-million-technical-assistance-grant-for-sme-capacity-building-in-africa-5156/

Recent trends in global financial markets, in particular the rapidly diminishing availability of capital experienced worldwide, are having an increasingly adverse impact on African countries and on the Bank’s clients.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has been at the forefront of efforts at analyzing the crisis’ impact on Africa.

It has, among other things, published a paper, titled: “Impact of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis On Africa”, presenting a preliminary assessment of the ongoing financial crisis’ impact on African economies.

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/topics-sectors/topics/financial-crisis/

Zimbabwe’s economy is set to grow by 3.7 percent this year, ending nearly a decade of dramatic decline, the World Bank said Friday.

“The economy appears to be on the right foot,” World Bank economist Rogers Dhliwayo told reporters.

World Bank estimates put growth this year at 3.7 percent, just shy of the finance ministry’s forecast of 4.0 percent growth.

After years of world-record hyperinflation, Dhliwayo said prices declined by 10.3 percent between January and May, following government’s decision to abandon the local currency.

Prices have risen slightly since June, due mainly to higher oil prices and to the strengthening of the rand against the dollar, which has made imports from South Africa more expensive, he said.

Business surveys showed that companies were slowly stepping up their operations, which should lead to job growth, he added. UN estimates last year put unemployment at 94 percent.

The World Bank released the estimates as it announced a grant of seven million dollars to help 300,000 poor Zimbabwean farmers buy maize seed for the upcoming planting season.

The aid will target farmers who did not grow enough food to support their families last year, said David Rohrback, senior agricultural economist at the Bank.

Zimbabwe last year produced about 1.2 million tonnes of maize, but requires 1.8 million tonnes to feed its population, the Bank said.

The country was once a food exporter, but farming has been decimated over the last decade following President Robert Mugabe’s chaotic and violent land reforms, which saw blacks resettled on white-owned farms in a bid to address colonial-era inequities.

But the new farmers often lacked experience and government support, while the reforms were tinged with political violence, undermining the agricultural-based economy.

Report from HAT News / AFP