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More Information:
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OECD: The Outlook for Africa
Presentation:
Javier Santiso, Deputy Director of the
OECD Development Center
Céline Kauffman, Economist, OECD Development Center, African Economic Outlook
Discussant:
Antoine van Agtmael, President and Chief Investment Officer of Emerging Markets Management, L.L.C. and Emerging Markets Investors Corporation |
The event took place on Monday, May 22, 2006
Capitol Hill Club, Private Dining Room 1
300 First Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
Event Description:
We welcomed Mr. Javier Santiso and Mrs. Céline Kauffmann, who join us from the OECD Development Center to launch the African Economic Outlook, as well as The Rise of China and India: What’s in it for Africa? in this presentation of OECD: The Outlook for Africa.
The fifth edition of the African Economic Outlook offers a comparative panorama of the economic, political and social evolution of 30 African economies from 2005 to 2007, covering 87 per cent of the population and 90 per cent of the continent’s revenue. It also assesses progress towards achieving the MDGs and displays a statistical annex, bringing together data collected locally in each country and original indicators.
A pressing need for Africa is to move from volatile to sustainable growth. Economic activity in Africa is estimated to have risen by nearly 5 per cent in 2005, reaping windfall gains from booming prices and rising production of oil and minerals. However, growth is still fragile, as diversification and thus internal sources of growth fail to emerge. Sustainable development will depend on the ability of African countries to capitalize on current windfall gains, the effectiveness of government policies to mobilize resources for long-term growth, as well as the quality of donor support.
Deficiencies in transport infrastructure represent a major hindrance to growth, prosperity and private-sector development. This year's edition of the African Economic Outlook provides an in-depth analysis of this critical topic for Africa’s development prospects and highlights some positive initiatives towards transport infrastructure provision. The public sector needs a redefinition of its role in planning and regulation. In addition, measures to encourage private-sector participation and international donor involvement in the sector are all necessary.
African countries are not simply spectators to the economic rise of China and India, they are party to it. The Rise of China and India: What’s in it for Africa? demonstrates how the growing economic power of China and India is already influencing the growth patterns of African countries, particularly oil- and commodities-exporting ones. As world prices for commodities rise, producer countries in Africa and throughout the world will gain, but there is more to the story than that. Some African countries are redirecting part of their trade and other relationships from their traditional OECD partners to China and India. The book explores the consequences of this, and comes to some surprising conclusions.
What’s at Stake for Africa? is a must-read for anyone who is concerned with the changes in the world economy being brought about by the extraordinary economic growth of China and India. Not only do they represent over a billion workers, but these workers are also consumers and investors. As China and India consolidate their positions in Africa, the results could be unexpected and dramatic.
Biographies:
Javier Santiso has been the Deputy Director and Chief Development Economist at the Development Centre since December 1, 2005. Mr Santiso, who is a Spanish and French national, began his career in 1995 at the Latin American Centre, University of Oxford. Tenured as Research Fellow at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), he also served as a Senior Expert Associate on Latin American Emerging Markets for Crédit Agricole Indosuez (now Calyon) before becoming, in 2002, Chief Economist for Latin America and Emerging Markets at the Economic Research Department of Madrid-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) where he managed a team of 50 economists spread in 9 different countries.
Editor-in-chief of Problèmes d’Amérique latine, Mr Santiso is the author of over 30 articles on international economy. Published in leading academic reviews, they have primarily focused on developing and emerging economies. His most recent published book is entitled "Latin America’s Political Economy of the Possible: Beyond Good Revolutionaries and Free Marketeers”, Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press, 2006 "(also published in French, “Amérique latine: révolutionnaire, libérale, pragmatique”, Paris, Autrement, 2005).
Mr Santiso holds BA, MA and PhD degrees from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and finished his doctoral studies in development economics at St Anthony’s College, Oxford University. He also holds an MBA from HEC School of Management (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales) in France, and an Executive MBA from IESE Business School (Executive Corporate Program for Business Leaders) in Spain.
Céline Kauffmann, currently the team leader for the OECD Development Centre work on the African Economic Outlook (AEO) project, joined the Development Centre in November 2000. She has special expertise in the socio-economic conditions of French-speaking African countries. She is in charge of the AEO macroeconomic forecasting model and is co-author of the AEO focus chapter, Privatisation in Sub-Saharan Africa (2002/2003), Energy Supply and Poverty (2003/2004) and Financing SMEs Development in the latest 2004/2005 edition.
She previously participated in the statistical analysis and the drafting of chapter 5 of the 2000 Transition Report on “Labour Markets, Unemployment and Poverty During the Transition” at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Office of the Chief Economist (London). Ms. Kauffmann holds a PhD in Economics from the Université Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. She has previously worked at the London School of Economics.
Antoine van Agtmael has been President and Chief Investment Officer of Emerging Markets Management, L.L.C. and Emerging Markets Investors Corporation (EMM/EMI) since their creation in 1987, and he is also a Director of Strategic Investment Partners, Inc., one of the investment advisory firms that forms part of the Strategic Investment Group since their creation in 1987. Prior to his current position, Mr. van Agtmael was Deputy Director of the Capital Markets department of the International Finance Corporation ("IFC"), the private sector oriented affiliate of the World Bank. Previously, he was a Division Chief in the World Bank's Treasury operations, Managing Director of Thai Investment and Securities Ltd. ("TISCO"), one of Thailand's leading merchant banks, and Vice President and International Lending Officer at Bankers Trust Company. While at IFC, he founded the IFC Emerging Markets Database and was active in the promotion and structuring of a number of emerging market funds. He is also the author of "The Emerging Markets Century: World Class Companies and Strategies to Watch" (Simon & Schuster, forthcoming, 2006).
He was an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center and taught at the International Management Institute in Geneva, the Harvard Institute of Politics and Thammasat University, Bangkok. He holds an M.B.A. from New York University, an M.A. in Russian and Eastern European Studies from Yale University and a B.A. (Econ. Cand.) in Economics from the Netherlands School of Economics.
He is a Trustee of The Brookings Institution and is also chair of their International Advisory Council.
For more information, please contact Susan Fridy,
OECD Washington Center, 202-785-6323
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