Launch of the economic report on Africa (ERA) 2015

Abstract

The 2015 edition of the Economic Report on Africa, “Industrializing through Trade”, will be launched on the side of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance and Economic Development in the United Nations Conference Centre. The report builds on the key messages of the previous editions of ERA focusing on industrialization and structural transformation. Both ERA 2013 and ERA 2014 emphasized the role of trade in fostering industrialization, both at the regional and the global level, and underlined the importance of implementing trade policies in Africa, mainly aimed at overcoming market and institutional failures that hinder export competitiveness. This year’s report further explores the question of how trade can serve as an instrument for accelerating industrialization and structural transformation in Africa.