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Foreign Firms in Africa Use International Standards to Boost
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Morley, David - The Cambridge introduction to creative writing (2011) - libgen.li
| Foreign Firms in Africa Use International Standards to Boost Higher-Value Exports from the Continent An Indian-owned firm in Tanzania decided to export organic cashew nuts as anew product. The company made the necessary investments in processes to comply with the requirements of food quality and safety standards for organic cashew nuts. For organic products, informational requirements are high, and standards help to reduce the information costs to produce goods that require more sophisticated technology such as the production of organic food products. The process of gathering information is costly for this type of firm in Africa. Firms trying to export to China, Europe, and India have to research technical specifications and preferences that prevail in those countries. To get information on how to establish anew organic product line, this firm contacted its machinery supplier, who provided the firm with all the required standards to establish it. A Swiss company has helped the firm to implement the process and provided technical assistance. In addition, the firm is finalizing the setting of the new process line to produce this organic cashew nut, following the standards of the buyer as well. Thus, the firm complements the information on production standards from the supplier of the machinery with the additional health and safety standards from the buyers. Source: World Bank staff. 05-Chap5:05-Chap5 10/10/06 11:14 AM Page 277 278 AFRICA ’ S SILK ROAD : CHINA AND INDIA ’ S NEW ECONOMIC FRONTIER industry in India, and the role the diaspora played in its evolution. A group as small as 200 professionals can provide reliable business and technologies linkages with the rest of the world. Replication of successful experiences in smaller countries will be more difficult, however, because they maybe unable to reach a critical mass of influential people in any given sector (for example, medicine, engineering, large corporations, and so forth). However, migration in the form of foreign investors hiring of workers from their home countries may slowdown the transfer of technology in the host country. As more skilled workers are transferred to host countries, foreign investors operating there have diminished incentives to be engaged in skills and technology transfers to local businesses or employees through either subcontracts or hiring (see box 5.14). Chinese Bilateral Initiatives for Technology Transfers to Africa The China-Africa Cooperation Forum was established in 2000 as a framework for dialogue between China and African countries. During the First China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Beijing (October 2000), the forum established a series of long-term economic partnerships in the fields of agriculture, light industry, infrastructure construction, and information technology. In January 2006 the Chinese government issued an official TABLE 5.10 Download 5.17 Mb. Share with your friends:
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