Words of the President
Dear TCI friends,
In these days, Africa is drawing the attention of the international media and the interest of millions due to the 2010 FIFA World Cup celebrated in South Africa. The tournament is certainly a great opportunity for a continent that does not always attract international coverage and is often ranked in the bottom when it comes to most economic and development issues.
Even though The Economist recently published quite an optimistic article on Africa's economic progress in the last decade, the continent still remains to have only a limited number of success stories to share with the international community which is interested in the local regional development. Nevertheless, the impression I received during the previous two TCI related visits to Africa made me more optimistic. As a matter of a fact, the African members in our organisation have notably inspired my optimism. Cluster practitioners' community in Africa is regionally active, and the signals I receive from our network are encouraging.
Clustering approach to economic development is regarded with an increasing interest by different African policy makers. Countries like Senegal, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Ghana among others are now promoting active policies focused on microeconomic areas and clusters in particular. South Africa, where TCI held its first annual conference in the continent in 2008, has been using clusters for more than a decade now and has well-structured cluster initiatives in clothing and textile, ICT, marine engineering, boat building and food processing, among others. In other countries like Tanzania, a number of cluster initiatives, often linked to natural resource assets, are being put in place. Ghana, which recently hosted the second Pan African competitiveness Forum (PACF), an initiative launched by several TCI members, is engaged in a cluster mapping exercise. Finally, Uganda, whose government has just allocated 250,000 USD for universities to support the promotion of cluster initiatives, will host the next PACF meeting in February 2011.
All these initiatives that might appear somehow trivial in another place are extremely important for a continent like Africa.
The fact is that cluster approach is a particularly useful and a viable mean for the economic growth in Africa. First of all, it promotes endogenous development approach in a context often characterized by external interventions not always centered in real local needs. Secondly, because current cluster initiatives in Africa often count on the support of universities and research institutes, this could be a good way to upgrade the knowledge content of the small-scale industry, often developed only in the local environment. Finally - and here is where international organizations and, in some way also the TCI Network, could play an important role - these initiatives aim to connect incipient local networks to global value chains and international clusters in specific industries.
A small number of African cluster practitioners were already present at the conference where TCI was founded in Barcelona in 1998. Since then, the continent has always been represented in our global annual meetings. In TCI we are particularly proud of this history and we'll continue to promote Africa well beyond this current moment of international visibility that South Africa is enjoying. For the time being, let's enjoy the world cup and hope it gives even more hope and motivation to Africa.
Alberto Pezzi
TCI President
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