Services Trade – Why it matters to Africans (WTO Public Forum)

There is a growing realization that services trade is the way to go for many African countries facing acute job-creation challenges arising from the “youth bulge”. Services are more labour-intensive and create more jobs for women than other sectors. Also, services typically do not require massive investments in infrastructure, which should make this sector particularly attractive to the 18 landlocked countries of Africa and to small firms seeking to enter global value chains.

However, there is a dearth of evidence on the role of services trade in the economic development of poor African countries. This session will pool evidence from CBI’s projects in the services sector in LDCs and case studies of services trade by the ICTSD and other partners to provide a clearer picture of the contribution of services trade to growth, jobs and structural transformation in Africa. The session will also highlight the unexploited potential in the services sector and discuss how this potential could be leveraged for sustainable development, including through capacity building, regulatory reform and development assistance.