Economic Development in Africa Report 2013

This report focuses on how to strengthen the private sector to boost intra-African trade. It argues that for African countries to reap developmental gains from intra-African trade and regional integration, they will need to place the building of productive capacities and domestic entrepreneurship at the heart of the policy agenda for boosting intra-regional trade. It also examines the challenges for regional trade posed by among others the non-implementation of regional trade agreements and provides new insights on how to enhance implementation of existing agreements. Furthermore, it highlights distinctive features of Africa’s enterprise structure that have to be addressed to promote regional trade and discusses how to boost intra-African trade in the context of developmental regionalism.