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East Africa
EAST AFRICA has become infinately more accessible, with the opening of EASSy. theEastern Africa Submarine Cable Systemis an initiative to
connect countries in the region to the rest of the world using high-bandwidth fibre-optics.
The introduction of virtually instant communications is regarded as a
milestone in the development of the information infrastructure in the
region.
EASSy is planned to run from South Africa to Sudan, with landing points
in six countries, including Kenya and Tanzania, and connections to at
least five landlocked countries, including Ethiopia and Uganda.
These countries will no longer have to
rely on expensive satellite systems to carry voice and data services.
The project is being funded jointly by the World Bank and the
Development Bank of Southern Africa, and is due for completion later this year (2010).
In
advance of this significant boost to world trade, South London Export
Club has been working closely with UK Trade and Investment to find out
more about the opportunities available to members in four of the
principal countries involved in the initiative.
Ethiopia
COFFEE
and renewable energy are the most important exports of the fastest growing
non-oil producing state in Africa.
Ethiopia
is one of the world’s poorest countries, but it has enjoyed an average economic
growth rate of ten per cent a year over the past five years. While
rising international food prices will inevitably result in a downturn,
growth over the next 12 months is predicted to be at least seven per cent.
The
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a landlocked country situated in the
Horn of Africa and bordered by Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan. It
is Africa's second-most populous country and one of the oldest in the world,
yielding some early traces of human-kind.
Studies suggest that present-day Addis-Ababa, the nation’s capital, is the
place from where humanity began its migration to the rest of the world about
5.9 million years ago.
Once
known as Abyssinia, this relatively isolated, mountainous country
retained its independence throughout the European scramble for Africa in the
1880s.
And
by the mid 20th century it was the epitome of global co-operation, joining the
League of Nations in 1923 and in1945 becoming one of the 51 founding members of
the league’s successor, the United Nations (UN).
In
1936 the country briefly succumbed to Italian rule, but it was liberated in
1941 by partisans with British help, before regaining sovereignty in December
1944.
In
1952 the then president, Haile Selassie, orchestrated a federation with Eritrea
which he subsequently dissolved ten years later. The dissolution was seen by
some as an act of annexation and sparked the Eritrean War of Independence.
President
Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a Marxist/ Leninist military
junta deposed him and established a one-party communist state.
At
the beginning of the 1980s, a series of famines hit the country, affecting
about eight million people and leaving one million dead.
Opposition
to communist rule was rife, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and
Eritrea.
In
May 1991, anti-communist forces advanced on Addis-Ababa, but by then an ailing
Soviet Union was in no position to intervene to save the government.
In
1994, Ethiopia adopted a constitution that led to its first multi-party
elections.
According
to The Economist newspaper’s democracy index, Ethiopia is a hybrid
administration situated between a flawed democracy and an authoritarian regime
- it ranks 106 out of 167 countries (in descending order of democracy).
But
Ethiopia enjoys peace and relative prosperity; it has an excellent climate and
fertile soils – it benefits from its geographical position at the crossroads
between Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Life
expectancy has improved substantially in recent times – that of men is reported
to be 52 years and of women 54 years.
Addis-Ababa
is home to the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) – and to the African
Union, of which Ethiopia is also a founder member.
The
country offers attractive incentive packages to inward investors and couples
these with an absolute intolerance of corruption.
Trade
between Ethiopia and the UK has grown of late.
In 2007 Ethiopia was the UK’s 14th largest African market; and it’s third
largest in East Africa, after Kenya and Tanzania.
Ethiopia’s
main exports are coffee and electricity - its coffee resources are widely
regarded as ‘black gold’ and its abundance of fast-flowing water as its ‘white
oil’.
Agriculture
accounts for almost 41 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), 80 per cent of
exports, and 80 per cent of the labour force.
Production
is overwhelmingly by small-scale farmers and a high proportion of exports come
from the cash-crop sector – the country is the original source of the coffee
bean and coffee is its largest foreign-exchange earner.
It
plans to increase its revenue from coffee with new trademark deals around the
world, including one with the coffee-house chain, Starbucks.
Ethiopia
is Africa's second-largest exporter of flowers and supermarket-ready vegetables
and fruit.
Many
people believe it is environmentally better to grow flowers under the African
sun and air-freight them to cooler climates than it is to grow them in
expensively heated glasshouses closer to their intended market. With
three distinct climate zones, Ethiopia is an ideal location for world-class
highland and lowland flowers.
A
number of other economic activities depend directly on agriculture, such as the
processing and marketing of agricultural products.
Ethiopia
is the world’s tenth largest producer of livestock and as a by-product designer
leather goods like bags are becoming a big earner internationally.
Energy
is beginning to realise its full potential too.
The
construction of new dams and hydro-electric generators has allowed the country to
start exporting power to Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan.
Ethiopia
is also extracting more of its mineral wealth. It is hoping to find oil and gas
in commercial quantities, which would transform its economic prospects, but
political
instability in some of the most promising areas is hampering progress.
There
are some sectors of the economy that are reserved for Ethiopians only – financial
services is one. There are a number of private banks in the country but none is
in the hands of foreign interests.
Telecommunications
remains a publicly-owned monopoly. The government wants to extend the telephone
network to rural areas and it says this is not an attractive proposition for
private enterprise.
UK
Trade and Investment says:
In
2007, UK exports of goods to Ethiopia were worth £55m.
Following
its peace agreement with Eritrea, the World Bank and the European Union granted Ethiopia funds for
reconstruction and development.
Areas
of opportunity for British firms include consultancy – particularly in
engineering; energy; and telecommunications.
Exports
from the UK include: industrial chemicals; pharmaceutical products; professional
and scientific instruments; power generation plant; and transport equipment.
Our picture shows painting on leather: a traditional Ethiopian craft.
Kenya
KENYA is the economic and
communication hub of east Africa. The Portuguese were the first
Europeans to explore the area – Vasco da Gama arrived in 1498.
Portuguese rule focused on a coastal
strip centred on the port of Mombasa – its main aim was to wrest control of the
spice trade in the Indian Ocean from Arab merchants and to secure sea routes from
Europe to Asia.
But Portuguese influence was limited
by British and Dutch incursions during the 17th century.
Omani Arabs posed the most direct threat,
besieging fortresses, attacking naval vessels and expelling Europeans from
Kenya and Tanzania by 1730.
In turn, the Omani Arab presence was
checked by German and British seizure of ports and the creation of trade
alliances with local leaders in the 1880s.
But most historians date colonial
history in Kenya from the establishment of a German protectorate over the
Sultan of Zanzibar’s coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of
the Imperial British East India Company in 1888.
Germany handed its coastal holdings to
Britain in 1890, following the building of the Kenya-Uganda Railway.
During the railway construction era
there was a significant inflow of Indian people who provided the bulk of the
skilled manpower required for construction. The immigrants remained to form the
core of several distinct Indian communities.
During the early 1900s British and
other European farmers settled the interior central highlands and became
wealthy growing tea and coffee.
By the 1930s, the 30,000 white
settlers in the area were offered disproportionate political power based on
their contribution to the economy.
The area was already home to over a
million members of the Kikuyu tribe who lived as itinerant farmers.
The Europeans
were determined to protect their own interests and forbade tribesmen to grow
coffee – indigenous people were granted progressively less land in exchange for
their labour.
From October 1952 to December 1959
Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against
British rule.
The first
direct elections for Africans took place in 1957. The Kenya African National
Union (KANU) party was the victor and its leader, Jomo Kenyatta, formed a
government shortly before independence on December 12, 1963.
In 1964, Mr Kenyatta became the
country’s first president and remained in post until his death in 1978. He was
succeeded by Daniel arap Moi who ruled until 2002, when he was constitutionally
barred from running for re-election.
Mwai Kibaki succeeded to the presidency
in an election judged to be free and fair by local and international observers.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth
has been sluggish over the first 40 years of independence, but reached 4.3 per
cent in 2004 and 5.8 per cent in 2005.
Reforms, especially in the judiciary
and public procurement, led to the unlocking of donor aid and a renewed hope for
economic revival.
In November 2003 the International Monetary
Fund approved a three-year US$250 million Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility and donors committed a further US$4.2 billion in support over four
years.
In March 2004, Kenya and its partners
in the East African Community (EAC) – Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda – entered
into a customs union.
Kenya enacted privatisation legislation,
but the setting up of a privatisation commission has yet to be finalised.
The country has implemented civil
service reform and in 2007 it won the United Nations Public Service Reform
award. In the same year the government
unveiled Vision 2030, an economic blueprint with the potential to put Kenya in
the same league as the so-called Asian tigers.
The country enjoys a tropical climate.
It is hot and humid at the coast, temperate inland and very dry in the north
and north-east. It is usually cool at night and in the early morning – people
wear summer clothes throughout the year.
Nairobi has east Africa’s best
transport and communications infrastructure, and its best trained personnel,
although these advantages are less prominent now than in past years.
In 2006, the Chinese signed an oil
exploration contract with Kenya – the deal secures prospecting rights for China’s
offshore oil and gas company.
UK Trade & Investment says:
The UK has been Kenya's most important
trading partner since independence in 1963. It remains one of Kenya’s largest
suppliers, with a five per cent market share.
Exports of goods from the UK to
Kenya were valued at £216m in 2007 and services at £132m in 2006.
UK imports from Kenya were worth £255m
in 2007.
The UK is also the largest foreign
investor in Kenya. Over 60 UK companies have operations in Kenya, and
investments are estimated to be worth £1.5bn.
UK companies are active in most areas
of Kenya’s economy, but there are many opportunities in two of its fastest
growing sectors: horticulture, particularly the production of cut flowers and
supermarket-ready fruit and vegetables for export – where there is aggressive
marketing by the government to promote this sub-sector.
There is also enormous potential in telecommunications
due firstly to a Kenyan policy of liberalisation and secondly to the laying of
a fibre-optic cable from Mombasa to Fujaira in the United Arab Emirates. This will
allow infinitely faster connection to the Internet, reducing costs and promoting
universal use.
There are also opportunities in education
and training; financial services; and healthcare – and there may be additional
opportunities flowing from Kenya’s privatisation programme.
The Kenyan government welcomes and
actively encourages foreign direct investment.
Our picture shows Mount Kenya, the second-highest mountain in Africa
– a significant national landmark, after which the country is named.
Tanzania
THE NAME Tanzania is a portmanteau of Tanganyika, a large
mainland territory in east Africa, and Zanzibar, its neighbouring offshore
archipelago.
The two former British colonies came together in 1964 to form
the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar – later renamed the United
Republic of Tanzania.
Tanganyika was in German hands from the 1880s until 1919, when
post-World War I Accords and the League of Nations Charter designated most of the
Kaiser’s former colony as a British Mandate – a small area in the north-west
was ceded to Belgium and later became Burundi and Rwanda.
British rule came to an end in 1961 after a peaceful
transition to independence. At the forefront of change was Julius Nyerere, a
former schoolteacher and intellectual who entered politics in the early 1950s.
Soon after independence, Mr Nyerere's first presidency took
a turn to the left with the Arusha Declaration, which codified a commitment to pan-African
socialism, social solidarity, collective sacrifice and ‘ujamaa’ (familyhood).
Following the declaration, the Tanganyikan government
nationalised banks and many large businesses.
Meanwhile, Zanzibar gained independence in 1963. Following a
leftist coup that deposed the Sultan, the island-state merged with Tanganyika on
April 26, 1964 to become the nation of Tanzania.
The union was controversial among many Zanzibaris – even
those sympathetic to the revolution – but it was acceptable to both governments
owing to their shared political goals.
In the mid 1980s the Tanzanian government sought loans from
the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The conditions included a ‘structural adjustment’
that amounted to liquidation of the public sector; deregulation of the financial
and agricultural sectors; and a reduction in the scope of education and health
services.
From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s Tanzania's gross
domestic product (GDP) grew modestly, but human development indices fell and
poverty indicators rose.
In 1996 the government established its administration in
Dodoma, making it the country's capital – but Dar es Salaam remains the
commercial centre.
Today, Tanzania’s prospects for development look
increasingly promising, as its natural resources provide an excellent
foundation for future investment and economic growth.
The economy is mostly based on agriculture, which accounts
for more than half of GDP; provides about 85 per cent of exports; and employs about
80 per cent of the workforce.
Topography and climate, however, limit cultivated crops to
only four per cent of the land area.
The nation has many natural resources
including gold deposits, diamonds and natural gas – the issue is extracting and
processing them.
Industry is limited to processing agricultural products and
light consumer goods.
Tanzania has dozens of beautiful national parks – like the
world famous Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area – that generate
income, with a large tourism sector that plays a vital part in the economy.
Commercial production of natural gas from Songo Songo Island
in the Indian Ocean off the Rufiji Delta started in 2004, with natural gas
pumped through a pipeline to Dar es Salaam and the bulk of it converted to
electricity.
A new gas field is being brought on stream in Mnazi Bay.
Public sector and banking reforms have helped to increase
private-sector investment and growth. But short-term economic progress also
depends on curbing corruption and cutting back on unnecessary public spending.
Prolonged drought during the early years of this century has
severely reduced electricity generation capacity – some 60 per cent of
Tanzania's supplies are generated by hydro-electric schemes.
During 2006 Tanzania suffered a significant amount of electricity
rationing – known n the trade as load-shedding – because of a shortfall in
generated power.
Plans to increase gas- and coal-fired generation are likely
to take some years to implement.
Growth is forecast to increase to seven per
cent per annum and perhaps eight or more per cent in the near future. As of 2006, the estimated population is 38.3 million, with
an estimated growth rate of two per cent. Tanzania has a high unemployment
rate,which is about 67 per cent.
The African population consists of more than 126 ethnic
groups, only nine of which have more than one million members. The majority of
Tanzanians have Bantu origins, including some groups who were originally refugees
from nearby countries.
In the 1960s and 1970s thousands of Asians left the country,
frequently under duress. The United Kingdom is now home to 100,000 Tanzanians –
the world's largest overseas Tanzanian community.
There is no single official language, but Swahili fulfils
that role in practice, used for inter-ethnic communication and for official
matters.
After independence, English, the language of colonial
administration during the era of British rule, was still used for some official
matters, and is thus considered as a second official language.
There are many schools where English is the medium of
instruction, as it is in all the country’s universities.
UK Trade & Investment says:
In 2007, United Kingdom exports of goods to Tanzania
were worth £86m. In the same year UK imports from Tanzania were worth £31m.
The UK is the largest foreign direct investor in Tanzania –
some £230m over the past 11 years, mainly in agriculture and tourism.
The Tanzanian economy is dominated by agriculture, but UK
companies can find opportunities in sectors such as: healthcare; information
technology; infrastructure; mining; power generation; telecomms; and tourism.
Our picture shows a zebra, apparently fascinated by the annual migration of wildebeest in Tanzania's world-famous Serengeti National Park.
Uganda
THE
EARLIEST known human inhabitants in contemporary Uganda were hunter-gathers.
Between
about 2,000 and 1,500 years ago Bantu-speaking people, probably from central
and west Africa, migrated to the southern parts of the country.
These
groups brought and developed iron-working skills and new ideas of social and
political organisation.
Luo
and Ateker, entered the area from the north, probably beginning about 120
AD. They were cattle-herders and subsistence farmers who settled mainly in the
northern and eastern parts of the country.
Luo
migration continued until the 16th century, with some immigrants settling amid
Bantu people in eastern Uganda and others going to the western shores of Lake
Victoria in present-day Kenya and Tanzania.
Arab
traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast in the 1830s, followed in the
1860s by British explorers searching for the source of the River Nile.
Christian
missionaries of the Protestant persuasion entered the country in 1877, followed
by Catholics two years later.
The
United Kingdom placed the country under the charter of the British East Africa
Company in 1888, and ruled it as a protectorate from 1894, integrating several
other territories and chiefdoms in the ensuing decade to create the territorial
entity we know as Uganda by 1914.
The
country became an independent nation in 1962, with Milton Obote as Executive Prime
Minister. His government changed the constitution in 1963 to create a titular head
of state and a deputy – a president and vice-president.
In
1966, the Obote-dominated parliament changed the constitution once again to
allow Mr Obote to become president.
Elections
were then suspended, ushering in a 20-year era of coups and counter-coups that
would seriously damage the country’s development.
The
infamous Idi Amin took power in 1971, ruling the country with the military for
the following decade. President Amin's reign cost an estimated 300,000 Ugandan
lives. He forcibly removed the entrepreneurial Indian minority from Uganda,
decimating the economy. His reign ended in 1979 with the return of Mr Obote,
who was once again deposed in 1985, this time by General Tito Okello.
President
Okello ruled for six months until he was deposed in turn by the current
president, Yoweri Museveni.
Uganda
has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall,
and sizable deposits of copper and cobalt. The country has largely untapped
reserves of oil and gas.
Agriculture
is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80 per cent of the
work force, with coffee accounting for the bulk of export revenues.
Since
1986, the government has acted – with international help – to revive the
economy.
In
the period from 1990 to 2001 the economy grew because of continued investment
in the rehabilitation of infrastructure; improved incentives for production and
exports; reduced inflation; improved domestic security; and the return of
exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs.
But
continuing involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
allied to government corruption and slippage in the reform timetable raise
doubts about future strong growth.
In
2000, Uganda qualified for debt relief of almost US$1.5 billion, bringing the
country’s total debt relief so far to about US$2 billion.
According
to the International Monetary Fund, Uganda's gross domestic product (GDP) per
person reached US$300 in 2004 – much higher than in the 1980s but still only
half that of the sub-Saharan African average. Uganda’s total
GDP crossed the US$8 billion mark in the same year.
The
Ugandan government has used the country’s Securities Exchange, established in
1996, as an avenue for privatisation. All government treasury issues are
listed.
The
Capital Markets Authority has licensed 18 brokers, asset managers and
investment advisors including internationally known names such as African
Alliance, AIG Investments and, Renaissance Capital.
Foreign
capital inflows have risen recently. These are a mixture of private equity and family
remittances from Ugandans abroad which together have helped to stabilise the
foreign exchange rate for the past two years.
Floods have devastated farmers, laying waste to predictions of
increased food production – landslides have destroyed crops and flood water has
inundated food stores.
Respect
for human rights has improved significantly in Uganda since the mid 1980s, but
there are aspects that continue to cause concern – torture is still a
widespread practice among security forces; attacks continue on political
freedom, including the beating of opposition Members of Parliament that have
led to international criticism.
Recently,
social organisations have been trying to raise awareness about thousands of children
as young as eight kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army who were made to work
as soldiers and forced to kill.
UK Trade &
Investment says:
The
UK exported £47m worth of goods to Uganda in 2007. It is Uganda’s seventh
largest source of imports with a five per cent market share.
The
UK is one of the leading investors in Uganda – over US$500m since 1996.
Uganda
is a growing market and UK companies can find opportunities in many sectors,
including banking; consultancy; and engineering.
The
main exports are: road vehicles; office machines; professional and
scientific instruments; electrical machinery; and pharmaceuticals.
Agriculture
is the main growth area and associated inputs offer good prospects – such as
irrigation plant; agro-processing equipment; and spare parts.
Our picture shows Burton Street in the busy business district of Kampala, Uganda's capital city.
New paragraph
Poland
Krakow
Krakow is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland.
Situated in the south of the country, on the River Vistula, it
is the capital of the Lesser Poland region, which has a population similar to
that of south London (three million).
Krakow has traditionally been one of the leading centres of
Polish artistic, cultural and scientific life.
As a former national capital with a history dating back more
than 1,000 years, the city is a centre of national and international
tourism, attracting over seven million visitors a year.
Archaeological evidence suggests a settlement was already
established in the Stone Age.
Legend attributes the city’s founding to the
mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave formerly occupied by a
ravenous dragon.
Many knights attempted to oust the dragon by fighting it –
all without success. But Krakus fed it a poisoned breakfast, which killed it.
In 1364, Casimir II of Poland founded the University of
Krakow, the second oldest seat of learning in central Europe after the
University of Prague.
Krakow evolved
into a modern metropolis in the early years of the twentieth century – introducing
running water and electric trams in 1901. Between
1910 and 1915, the city and its surrounding communities gradually combined to become Greater Krakow (Wielki Kraków).
Austrian rule in Krakow ended on October 31, 1918 and the city set about restoring its role as an academic and cultural centre, establishing new universities and vocational
schools.
At the end of the Second World War, Krakow was mostly undamaged architecturally, but not academically – a new communist
administration put the intellectual community under total political control. Universities
were deprived of printing rights and their autonomy.
The government of the Peoples’ Republic of Poland also ordered
the construction of the country's largest steel mill in the city, which it
named after Lenin. Still working, but now owned by Mittal, the mill sealed Krakow's
transformation from a university city to an industrial centre.
The new working class, drawn by the industrialisation of the
city, contributed to its rapid population growth.
And in an effort that spanned
two decades, Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow and later Pope
John-Paul II, successfully lobbied for permission to build churches in the new
industrial suburbs.
Public transport is based around a dense network of tramway
and bus lines operated by a municipal company, supplemented by a number of
private minibus operators.
Local trains connect some of the suburbs. The bulk of the
city’s historic area is traffic free except for rickshaws and horse buggies,
but the trams run within a three-block radius.
Rail connections are available to most Polish cities. Trains
depart to Warsaw every hour. International destinations served include Berlin,
Budapest, Hamburg, Kiev and Prague.
John Paul II International Airport is
11 km (seven miles) west of the city – direct trains make the journey in just
15 minutes.
The annual capacity of the airport is estimated at 1.3
million passengers, but in 2007 more than three million people used it. The
passenger terminal is being extended and adapted to meet the
requirements of the Schengen Treaty.
Kraków is one of Poland's most important economic centres.
Its population has quadrupled since the end of the Second World War. Following
the collapse of communism, there has been a return to a traditional market
economy.
The private sector is growing. There are about 20 large
multinational companies in the city, including General Electric, Google, IBM
and Motorola. The unemployment rate was 4.8 per cent in May 2007, well below
the national average of 13 per cent.
Since joining the European Union in 2004, international
investment, tourism and the property market have grown toward the western European
average – residential property prices have doubled in three years.
In 2006, the Krakow city budget had projected revenue of more
than 2.1 billion zloty and projected expenditure of 2.3 billion zloty.
Krakow is seen by many as the cultural capital of Poland. It
was named European Union Capital of Culture for 2000.
Soccer is one of the
most popular games in the city, as it is in Poland as a whole.
Our pictures (top to bottom) show:
GRAND CENTRE: The alter in St Mary's Church was the largest of its kind in the world when the sculptor Veit Stoss completed it in 1484.
MATERIAL WEALTH: Cloth Hall is a grand monument to Krakow's mercantile success - in the 18th and 19th centuries the city was a haven for wealthy traders attracted by the quality of life in the city.
TRANSPORT HUB: The imposing main railway station, which sits in the pedestrianised heart of Krakow, offers hourly trains to Warsaw as well as serving international destinations such as Berlin, Kiev and Prague.
GREEN BELT: Planty Park follows the course of the former city wall to encircle the oldest part of the city with nature's own soft stole.
South Africa
Cape Town
CAPE TOWN is the largest city in South Africa and the second-most
populous (after Johannesburg). It is the country’s legislative capital, home to
the national parliament and many government offices. It is also the provincial
capital of the Western Cape
It is not certain when human-kind first occupied the area.
The earliest remains date back 15,000 years, but little is known of those first
settlers.
Jan van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape on April 6, 1652, where
he established the first permanent European settlement in southern Africa – a
supply station for the Dutch East India Company to victual merchant ships
sailing to and from East Africa, India and the Far East.
The city grew slowly due to a shortage of people. That prompted
it to import slaves from Indonesia and Madagascar, many of whom were the
ancestors of the first Cape Coloured communities.
The Dutch ceded Cape Town to Britain in 1814, when it became
the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony. Conflicts between the Boer
republics in the interior and the British colonial government resulted in the
Second Boer War of 1899 to1902.
Britain won the war and, in 1910, established the Union of
South Africa, bringing together Cape Colony with the two defeated Boer
Republics and the pre-existing British colony of Natal.
Cape Town
became the legislative capital of the Union, and later of the Republic of South
Africa.
The bulk of the city is contained in a natural amphitheatre bordered by
Table Bay and defined by Signal Hill, Lion’s Head, Table Mountain and Devil’s
Peak. The area includes the central business district (CBD), the harbour and a
number of residential suburbs.
In 1948, the National Party won power on a platform of racial
segregation or apartheid. This led to the classification of areas according to colour.
Formerly multi-racial suburbs of Cape Town were either purged of non-whites or
demolished.
From the 1950s, Cape Flats, to the south of the CBD, became
home to non-whites. forced by government legislation out of more central urban
areas into municipal townships.
In some cases, the government made no
alternative provision, forcing non-whites into informal settlements, or shanty
towns, also in The Flats.
The most infamous example was District Six. It was declared
a whites-only area in 1965: all housing was demolished and over 60,000 non-white
residents were forcibly removed to Cape Flats or Lavender Hill.
Under apartheid, the Cape was considered a "Coloured
labour preference area", to the exclusion of ‘Bantus’ – black people.
Cape Town's local government is in the hands of a 210-member
city council. The city is divided into 105 electoral wards; each elects one
member of the council directly, while the other 105 are selected from party
lists by proportional representation.
The city is the economic heart of Western Cape Province,
South Africa's second centre of economic activity and the third most successful
economic hub on the whole African continent.
The city is the regional
manufacturing centre of the Western Cape. It is also the primary airport and harbour
in the province.
Cape Town
enjoys booming real estate and construction markets: people buying summer homes
in the city and others relocating permanently have all pushed up prices.
The CBD is undergoing extensive urban renewal, with new
buildings and renovations taking place under the guidance of the Cape Town
Partnership.
The district is expecting private-sector investment of US$6 billion
over five years. A 35-floor tower called Portside will overlook the harbour,
while two buildings of more than 26 storeys will rise near the main railway
station.
Cape Town has four major commercial nodes: the CBD offers
the majority of jobs and office space. Century City, the Bellville/Tyger Valley
and Claremont districts are also well established and contain many offices and
corporate headquarters.
Among a myriad of professions and trades, the city is home
to advertising agencies, design houses, insurance, petrochemical and shipping companies,
publishers, retail groups, architects and fashion designers.
Many of the products are shipped through Cape Town
International Airport or the Port of Cape Town.
The province is a centre of
energy development for the country, with the existing Koeberg nuclear power
station fulfilling Western Cape's energy needs. Recently, energy companies have
discovered oil and natural gas deposits offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Western Cape is an important South African tourist
region: tourism accounts for 9.8 per cent of the province’s gross domestic
product and employs 9.6 per cent of its workforce.
In 2004, over 1.5 million international tourists visited the
area. Cape Town is the most popular international tourist destination in South
Africa and one of the most popular on the whole African continent.
Climate, setting, and a fully-developed infrastructure add to
well-known tourist attractions such as Table Mountain and Kirstenbosch National
Botanical Gardens.
The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, built on part of the
docks of the Port of Cape Town, is the city's most visited tourist attraction.
It is also one of the city's popular shopping venues, with several hundred
shops.
Part of the charm of the V&A, as it is locally known, is
that the port continues to operate and visitors can watch ships enter and
leave.
The V&A also hosts the Nelson Mandela Gateway, through which ferries
depart for Robben Island, the now disused prison where Mr Mandela spent much of
his incarceration.
The city was recently named as the most entrepreneurial in
South Africa, with the percentage of Capetonians pursuing business
opportunities almost three times higher than the national average.
Those aged between 18 and 64 were 190 per cent more likely
to pursue new business, while in Johannesburg, the same age group was only 60
per cent more likely than the national average to pursue a new business.
Cape Town International Airport serves both domestic and
international flights. It is the second-largest airport in South Africa and is
a major gateway for travellers to the Cape region. It has direct flights to
most cities in South Africa as well as a number of international destinations.
It recently opened a new central terminal building developed
to handle expected additional air traffic as tourist numbers rise. Other
renovations include a revamped domestic departure terminal, a new station for
the rapid transit system and a new double-decker access road.
The Port of Cape Town – specifically the V&A Waterfront –
made headlines in 2009 when plans to berth the liner QEII were announced. It is
expected that the liner will be located in the port for use as a floating hotel.
Primary and secondary schools are run by the Western Cape
Education Department. The city boasts three public universities: University of
Cape Town; University of the Western Cape; and Cape Peninsula University of
Technology.
The University of Cape Town is an English-speaking
institution with 21,000 students and an MBA programme ranked 51st by the
Financial Times in 2006; it is Africa’s top-ranked university – the only one to
make the world's Top 200 university list.
Cape Town's most popular sports by participation are
cricket, soccer, swimming and rugby union. The city has built a new 70,000 seat
stadium in the Green Point area as part of its soccer hosting arrangements for
the FIFA World Cup, to be held in various locations across South Africa from 11
June to 11 July 2010.
Cape Town will host nine 2010 World Cup matches: six first
round games, one in the second round, a quarter-final and a semi-final.
Now the city has Olympic aspirations: it is seeking the
South African Olympic Committee's nomination as the country’s bid city for the 2020
Summer Games.
It has experience of hosting major national and
international sports events, including the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 ICC
Cricket World Cup and world championships in sports such as athletics, canoeing,
cycling, fencing, gymnastics, hockey and weight-lifting.
Cape Town has well-defined seasons. In winter, which lasts
from May to September, cold fronts come in from the Atlantic Ocean bringing
heavy rainfall and strong north-westerly winds. The winter months are cool,
with an average minimum temperature of 7°C (45°F) and an average maximum of 17°C
(63°F).
Most of the city's annual rainfall occurs in winter, but due
to the mountainous topography of the city, amounts for specific areas vary
dramatically.
Summer lasts from November to March; it is warm and dry. The
peninsula gets a frequent strong wind from the south-east, known as the Cape
Doctor, because it blows away pollution and cleans the air.
High summer temperatures are mild, with an average maximum
of 26°C (79°F). Cape Town can be uncomfortably hot when the Berg Wind or
"mountain wind" blows from the interior for a couple of weeks in late
February or early March.
Durban
DURBAN is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality.
The city, called iTheku in Zulu, is the busiest port in Africa.
It is also the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal province and a major centre of tourism due to it's warm subtropical climate and length and sandiness of its golden beaches.
The city has a population of 3.2 million and a land area of 2,292 square kilometres (884.9 sq m), which is comparatively larger than other South African cities. The Durban metropolitan area has a large and diverse economy with strong manufacturing, tourism, transport, finance and government sectors.
Its coastal location and large port gives it comparative advantage over many other centres in South Africa for international trading. Durban's mild climate, warm marine current and culturally diverse population have proved a magnet for visitors.
There has, however, been little growth in the number of jobs provided by the area’s formal sector over the past 20 years. Manufacturing, which is second only to government in the number of jobs provided, has been shedding staff as firms restructure and become more capital intensive.
Despite a dynamic and growing small and micro business sector, the area has very high rates of unemployment, reaching over 30 per cent in some parts of the city. And there are few economic opportunities in the townships.
The central business district has experienced an economic decline, due to crime and grime - many firms have relocated to the Umhlanga area, north of the city, which has, in effect, become the principle business district.
Efforts are being made to attract business back to the city centre, with new commercial, residential and leisure developments.
Durban City Council hopes its efforts to clean up the business district and its preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup will act as a catalyst for economic regeneration.
SPORTS AID: Our picture shows a computer-generated impression of a new international sports arena that the council is building north of the city centre on a site adjoining the intersection of strategic road and rail routes.
The arena, which is due to open in April 2009, will either be named after King Senzagakhona, father of the much revered King Shaka Zulu, or after Moses Mabidha, a former general secretary of the South African Communist Party.
Johannesburg
JOHANNESBURG is the largest and most populous city in South Africa.
It is also the provincial capital of Gauteng, the country’s wealthiest province, which has the largest economy of any metropolitan region in sub-Saharan Africa.
The city is not one of South Africa's three capitals, but it is the country’s only global city and its commercial heart (pictured right).
Johannesburg is served by Oliver Tambo International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Africa and a gateway for international air travel to and from the rest of southern Africa.
The city is the economic and financial hub of South Africa, producing 16 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and accounting for 40 per cent of Gauteng's economic activity.
In a 2007 survey conducted by Mastercard, Johannesburg ranks 47 out of 50 top cities in the world as a universal centre of commerce - it is the only city in Africa to feature in the listing.
Mining in the Witwatersrand is the foundation of the economy, but its importance is gradually declining. Gold mining no longer takes place within the city limits, but most mining companies still have their headquarters in Johannesburg.
The city has a great variety of manufacturing facilities, including steel and cement plants. Many banking and commercial companies are also located in Johannesburg, as is Africa's largest stock exchange, the JSE Securities Exchange.
Due to its commercial importance, the city is the location for a number of government branch offices, as well as consular offices and other institutions that are usually found only in a country's capital.
There is also a large informal economy consisting of cash-only street traders and vendors who are largely missed in official statistics.
The Witwatersrand urban complex is a major consumer of water in a dry region. Its continued economic and population growth has depended on schemes to divert water from other regions of South Africa and from the highlands of Lesotho, but additional sources will be needed soon.
The container terminal at City Deep is said to be the largest 'dry port' in the world, with 60 per cent of the cargo that arrives by sea in Durban being forwarded to Johannesburg. City Deep is an officially declared industrial development zone.
Johannesburg's largest retail centre is Sandton City, while Hyde Park is one of its most prestigious. Other centres include Rosebank, Eastgate and Cresta.
And there are plans to build a substantial new centre, to be known as Zonk'Izizwe Shopping Resort - Zonk'Izizwe means All Nations in Zulu, indicating that the centre will cater for the city's diverse ethnic mix.
New paragraph
SLEC is sponsored by HSBC - the world's local bank
In
2007, UK exports of goods to Ethiopia were worth £55m.
Following
its peace agreement with Eritrea, the World Bank and the European Union granted Ethiopia funds for
reconstruction and development.
The UK has been Kenya's most important
trading partner since independence in 1963. It remains one of Kenya’s largest
suppliers, with a five per cent market share.
Exports of goods from the UK to
Kenya were valued at £216m in 2007 and services at £132m in 2006.
UK imports from Kenya were worth £255m
in 2007.
The UK is also the largest foreign
investor in Kenya. Over 60 UK companies have operations in Kenya, and
investments are estimated to be worth £1.5bn.
In 2007, United Kingdom exports of goods to Tanzania
were worth £86m. In the same year UK imports from Tanzania were worth £31m.
The UK is the largest foreign direct investor in Tanzania –
some £230m over the past 11 years, mainly in agriculture and tourism. 
The
UK exported £47m worth of goods to Uganda in 2007. It is Uganda’s seventh
largest source of imports with a five per cent market share.
The
UK is one of the leading investors in Uganda – over US$500m since 1996.
Krakow is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland.
As a former national capital with a history dating back more
than 1,000 years, the city is a centre of national and international
tourism, attracting over seven million visitors a year.
At the end of the Second World War, Krakow was mostly undamaged architecturally, but not academically – a new communist
administration put the intellectual community under total political control. Universities
were deprived of printing rights and their autonomy.
Kraków is one of Poland's most important economic centres.
Its population has quadrupled since the end of the Second World War. Following
the collapse of communism, there has been a return to a traditional market
economy.
CAPE TOWN is the largest city in South Africa and the second-most
populous (after Johannesburg). It is the country’s legislative capital, home to
the national parliament and many government offices. It is also the provincial
capital of the Western Cape
The CBD is undergoing extensive urban renewal, with new
buildings and renovations taking place under the guidance of the Cape Town
Partnership.
The district is expecting private-sector investment of US$6 billion
over five years. A 35-floor tower called Portside will overlook the harbour,
while two buildings of more than 26 storeys will rise near the main railway
station. 
The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, built on part of the
docks of the Port of Cape Town, is the city's most visited tourist attraction.
It is also one of the city's popular shopping venues, with several hundred
shops.
Part of the charm of the V&A, as it is locally known, is
that the port continues to operate and visitors can watch ships enter and
leave. 
Cape Town's most popular sports by participation are
cricket, soccer, swimming and rugby union. The city has built a new 70,000 seat
stadium in the Green Point area as part of its soccer hosting arrangements for
the FIFA World Cup, to be held in various locations across South Africa from 11
June to 11 July 2010.
Cape Town will host nine 2010 World Cup matches: six first
round games, one in the second round, a quarter-final and a semi-final.
DURBAN is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality.
JOHANNESBURG is the largest and most populous city in South Africa.