Browsing by Subject "trade"

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    Open Access
    Impact of air connectivity on tourism, FDI and trade: insight from the Western Cape
    (2020) Nonyati, Sibusiso; Alhassan, Abdul Latif
    This study investigated the impact of air connectivity on macroeconomic factors, specifically tourism, FDI and trade in the Western Cape, based on quarterly data from 2010 to 2018. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds approach for cointegration was used to assess whether long-run relationships existed between air connectivity and tourism, FDI and trade. The ARDL bounds test found a cointegrated relationship between air connectivity and tourism, FDI and trade respectively. Air connectivity was found to have a positive and significant long-run relationship with tourism This also supports the literature findings that air connectivity improves countries' accessibility and increases tourist arrivals from various markets. This confirms that air connectivity leads to an increase in the number of international tourists visiting the Western Cape, which contributes significantly to the tourism industry and the Western Cape economy. In addition, air connectivity was observed to have a positive but statistically insignificant long-run relationship with FDI and trade respectively. Therefore, this study concludes that air connectivity plays a key role in the economy, specifically regarding tourism through the facilitation of more tourists into the Western Cape. Furthermore, although the study showed positive and insignificant relationships between air connectivity and FDI and trade respectively, air connectivity is related to FDI and trade and these relationships require further investigation. Therefore, it is recommended that policymakers and decisionmakers on the African continent need to have initiatives that support the improvement of air connectivity, especially given that Africa has only a 2.2% market share of global air passengers and less than 10% of the continent's population uses air transport. Other African countries and regions should use a similar approach to what the Western Cape has done to improve the air connectivity between Cape Town and the rest of the world. In addition, investment in airports and airport-related infrastructure is critical and necessary, as poor airport infrastructure has been cited to be one of the obstacles in improving air connectivity in the continent. Furthermore, the development of an air connectivity index for the continent is required. This index will have to take into account the availability of data and the African context. Where data does not exist, a robust plan for the collection of data will also have to be developed. Lastly, the regulation of the aviation market needs urgent attention, starting with an Open Skies policy. The deregulation of air access could play a significant role in improving the African Continent's air connectivity.
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    Open Access
    Regional integration in SADC: the role of BRICS countries
    (2022) Hazar, Cenk; Chitonge, Horman
    The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of bilateral BRICS-SADC trade connections on SADC's regional economic integration. The issues that were explored included among others whether or not the SADC countries' trade relations with BRICS countries contribute to SADC's goal of promoting deeper regional economic integration. The impact of the trade relations with BRICS countries on the development of intra-SADC trade has been analysed, as development of intra-trade is one of the most important factors that can ensure economic integration of SADC region. This research applied the dependency theory in order to articulate what type of trade relationship exists between SADC and BRICS countries. This research was a desktop study that relied on existing secondary data gathered by the United Nations Comtrade. In order to engage with the issues of trade relations, the study explored how exported and imported goods between member countries are dealt with. The research therefore has analysed trading operations between BRICS nations and SADC countries through using data from the United Nations Comtrade database. The United Nations Comtrade database has been used as the principal source in analysing trading operations between BRICS and SADC states. Statistics of commerce within SADC countries as well as outwardly with BRICS are based on taking SADC countries as the reporting countries in the UN Comtrade trade statistics. While BRICS operations are expected to contribute to the growth of African countries, there appears to be substantial concerns about BRICS countries, particularly China, influence expanding in SADC region with several studies claiming that establishing economic contacts – particularly with China, has led to de-industrialisation in SADC. The region appears to be sliding more into large-scale reliance on resource exports thus creating deeper dependence on raw material or primary product exports. This study expounded the core argument that trade relations of SADC countries with those of the BRICS may actually be hindering the development of intra-SADC trade and ultimately SADC economic integration progress. This research found that BRICS countries' trade relations with SADC countries are not compatible with the specified targets for SADC regional economic integration. While Russia and Brazil are BRICS countries with low trade volumes within SADC region, China has the largest portion of bilateral trade with SADC region. This investigation also found that it is highly possible that trade with China and India has a negative impact on the domestic economic development of SADC countries especially their infant industries since it curbs the domestic industries' opportunities to achieve the expected benefits in the integration process. Another outcome of the analysis is that SADC intra-trade rate, which is already limited, remains extremely low if South Africa is excluded from intratrade statistics – pointing out that South Africa dominates trade within SADC region.