Question

what role does international shipping play in the socio-economic development of Africa. please provide your answer in not less than 2 pages with reference.

Answer 1

The current pace of globalization gives no choice to small developing countries: they must integrate into world markets if they wish to succeed. Africa has more than its fair share of small poor economies because of fragmentation that it inherited from European colonizers, making Africa the continent most prone to ethnic-based conflicts. Yet, African countries impose the heaviest artificial barriers around their borders on top of this. It’s time to change this. Except for the two dominant economies––South Africa and Nigeria––the continent is made up of countries that have small domestic markets, limited economic diversification, and generally poor connectivity with neighboring countries, reducing proximity between economic agents within Africa, and between Africa and the rest of the world.

Everybody in the world benefits from shipping, yet few people realize it. We ship food, technology, medicines, and memories. As the world’s population continues to grow, particularly in developing countries, low-cost and efficient maritime transport has an essential role to play in growth and sustainable development.

International Shipping helps ensure that the benefits of trade and commerce are more evenly spread. No country is entirely self-sufficient, and every country relies on maritime trade to sell what it has and buy what it needs. Much of what we use and consume in our everyday lives either has been or will be transported by sea, in the form of raw materials, components or finished articles.

Maritime transport is the backbone of global trade and the global economy.

The jobs and livelihoods of billions of people in the developing world, and standards of living in the industrialized and developed world, depend on ships and shipping. The shipping industry has played an important part in the dramatic improvements in global living standards that have taken millions of people out of acute poverty in recent years. It will be just as critical for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the plan agreed by all global leaders last year for people, peace, planet prosperity and partnership.

Yet the vast majority of people are unaware of the key role played by the shipping industry, which is largely hidden from view.

The focuses on the critical link between shipping and the everyday lives of people all over the planet. The International Maritime Organization plays a vital role as the international regulatory body for an industry that spans the globe.

The importance of shipping in supporting and sustaining today's global society makes it indispensable to the world and to meeting the challenge of the agenda for Sustainable Development. The other benefits International shipping does in the socio-economic development of Africa is as follows:

• Establishing “African Economic Areas” that would tie the economic interests of leading and lagging countries in each regional neighborhood tightly together.
• Allowing and maintaining the free movement of labor, capital, goods, and services within these areas.
• Maintaining and protecting access routes between land-locked countries and outlets for trade, and providing the political space to support investment in regional infrastructure.
• A big increase in aid for improved social services and other life-sustaining infrastructure aimed at raising living standards and creation of portable human capital in lagging countries.
• Increased financial support for growth-sustaining infrastructure—ports, transport links, information and communication technology—in the leading countries where economic takeoff is most likely, as well as infrastructure to link the markets of large leading countries with labor, capital, goods, and ideas in smaller neighbors.
• Preferential access to the markets of high-income countries for sub-Saharan Africa’s exports, without strict rules of origin or eligibility criteria that impede rapid growth of trade in intermediate inputs with other developing economies.

The transportation sector such as international shipping is a strong factor in terms of economic and regional balanced development, as well as also having a great influence on national integration to the world economic market. International shipping constitute an important economic activity in any country. The higher the throughput of goods and passenger’s year-on-year, the more infrastructure, provisions and associated services are required. These will bring varying degrees of benefits to the economy and to the country. International shipping are also important for the support of economic activities in the hinterland since they act as a crucial connection between sea and land transport. As a supplier of jobs, International shipping do not only serve an economic but also a social function. In terms of load carried, seaway transportation is the cheapest and most effective transportation system compared to other systems. Industries require a safe and cheap means of exporting finished goods and importing raw materials.