Size, Population and Basic Economic Indicators of SADC Economies
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World Trade Organisation (WTO) driven agreements, specifically those involving reduction in tariff and non-tariff barriers in world markets, have created a framework for an open trading system worldwide. More open trading systems have also been created by reforms that most countries have taken on their own or as part of bilateral or regional agreements. In most sub-Saharan African countries, opening up of markets to international players come into significant prominence in the early 1980’s due to the implementation of World Bank led structural adjustment and market liberalization policies. According to Kherallah et a.l (2000) as well as Crawford (1997) many African countries were in the late 1970s hit by prolonged economic crisis caused by continuous decline in industrial production and commodity prices as well as stagnating agricultural sectors, the main stay of most of the economies. This resulted in persistent deterioration of balance of payment accounts. Crawford (1997) observed that many governments during this time reacted to the situation by implementing measures that ended up fuelling rather than solving the problem. He outlined some of the measures taken which included increased import tariffs, restricting access to foreign exchange, increased control of imports through licensing requirements as well as extension of price controls.
By the early 1980’s it was clear that the future economic growth potential of most African countries was under severe threat. This forced most of them to accept World Bank sponsored structural adjustment and market liberalization policies which were specifically aimed at reversing balance of payments deficits and declining economic growth rates. This entailed a reversal of most of the initial measures taken to deal with the problem. New measures included elimination of government control over input and output marketing as well as prices and reduction in foreign exchange controls (Kherallah et al. 2000). According to Crawford (1997), structural adjustment programs were also aimed at broadening of the economic base of the countries. It was noticed at the time that many African countries were over dependent on a few agricultural commodities for their export trade. Diversification of the economic base was seen as a way of ensuring that the economies would in future be able to withstand external shocks such as sharp falls in world prices of commodities and adverse weather conditions.
Increased forces of globalisation over the years have resulted in intensified efforts aimed at increasing their participation and competitiveness in the world markets. A lot of policies and programs have been formulated specifically aimed at international trade promotion. Most of the countries actively participate in the shaping of world trade systems through their membership to the World Trade Organisation.
Although many countries in Africa have over the years actively pursued efforts aimed at growing their countries involvement in international trade there is a general lack of studies aimed at examining how the countries’ have faired and the reasons behind their performance. There is also lack of sufficient studies on trade promotion efforts pursued over the years.
This chapter aims at examining international trade promotion efforts in Africa with a special focus on countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) regional group. The group was established in 1992. SADC was preceded by the Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADC) which was formed in 1980. SADC is made up of 15 Southern Africa countries namely Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The specific objectives of the chapter are to (a) examine global, regional and country trends in import and export trade (b) investigate export promotion efforts in the SADC region (c) understand export promotion challenges in the region and (d) provide recommendations on how best to manage the challenges.
This study involved a review of secondary sources of information and analysis of secondary data. A number of sources were used in the analysis including publications by governments as well as regional and international bodies such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization and SADC secretariat. Use of multiples sources of information and data is highly recommended in desk research as it helps in ensuring the reliability and validity of the findings. Malhotra (2007) noted that use of multiple sources of information also helps in making it easy to assess validity of each source by comparing it with other sources covering the same issue. The World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance database of World Bank was the main source of statistical information used in the trend analysis of imports and exports. The database was chosen mainly because of its comprehensiveness and in order to avoid difficulties associated with use of non-standardised data, especially data from different countries that may be reported in different currencies which make comparisons difficult.
The rest of the chapter has been divided into four main sections. The first section looks at the importance of exports particularly in the context of SADC countries. This is followed by a discussion of export promotion efforts in the region. The third section provides a trend analysis of exports and imports at global and regional level as well as at SADC member country level. The fourth section looks at export promotion challenges in the region and suggests ways in which governments can manage these challenges. The chapter concludes by providing a summary of the key observations made in the analysis. It is important to note that the focus of this chapter is more at the macro-level and not at individual business level.
The fifteen member countries making up the Southern Africa Development Community are all developing economies. According to the World Bank classification of countries, 8 of the 15 members countries are classified as least developed countries. These are Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. The United Nations (2005) least developed countries are countries characterised by three main things namely low gross national income (GNI), weak human assets and high degree of economic vulnerability. Maringwa (2009) observed that as undeveloped economies most SADC member countries see trade as an important instrument for economic growth. There are many ways in which international trade and exports in particular can help in economic development of the member countries. These include generation of foreign exchange reserves, improving individual country’s competitiveness internationally, as well as in creation of employment.
SADC member countries rely on export earnings for their foreign exchange reserves. These reserves are critical to financing imports and improving a country’s balance of payment. One important characteristic of SADC countries is that most of them are dependent on primary products for their exports. The production of these primary products often requires machinery and other inputs that are not manufactured domestically. Generation of foreign reserves thus enable member countries pay for their imports some of which are critical to the generation of exports.
Gunsel et al (2010) observed that countries get concerned with deterioration in balance of payments because it often results in loss of currency value. Although in theory devaluation of a currency is supposed to help in improving the competitiveness of a country’s exports by making locally produced goods cheaper, for countries that are heavily dependent on imports to produce their exports as is the case with most SADC countries, devaluation of currency does not always have the desired positive effect.
Exports help in promoting international competitiveness through, among other things, improved production efficiencies that are made possible by increased opportunities to exploit larger economies of scale (Ahmed et al. 2008). Exploitation of economies of scale is often a major problem in most SADC countries due to the small sizes of their industries and low purchasing power. Table 1 provides statistics on the size of each SADC member country in terms of total population and total GDP at current prices. As can be seen from the statistics except for South Africa, the GDP at current prices of all SADC countries has for the past three decades remained below the US$100 billion. Thus despite most of the countries having high population figures, their output as reflected by GDP is very low. The low GDP at current prices are indicative of low purchasing power of the people in general. At regional level, Table 1 shows that the GDP at current prices for the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa is less than a quarter of GDP for developing countries from East Asia and the Pacific as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.
Country | Country Size (Sq km) | 2010 Total Population (millions) | GDP current US$ (billions) | ||
1990 | 2000 | 2010 | |||
Angola | 1,246,700 | 19.1 | 10.3 | 9.1 | 84.9 |
Botswana | 581,730 | 2 | 3.8 | 5.6 | 14.9 |
Democratic Republic of Congo | 2,344,858 | 66.0 | 9.3 | 4.3 | 13.1 |
Lesotho | 30,355 | 2.2 | 0.54 | 0.75 | 2.2 |
Madagascar | 587,041 | 20.7 | 3.1 | 8.5 | 8.7 |
Malawi | 118,484 | 14.9 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 5.1 |
Mauritius | 2,040 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 4.6 | 9.7 |
Mozambique | 799,380 | 23.4 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 9.6 |
Namibia | 824,292 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 12.2 |
Seychelles | 455 | 0.09 | 0.37 | 0.61 | 0.94 |
South Africa | 1,219,090 | 50.0 | 112.0 | 132.9 | 363.9 |
Swaziland | 17,364 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 3.7 |
Tanzania | 947,300 | 44.8 | 4.3 | 10.2 | 22.9 |
Zambia | 752,618 | 12.9 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 16.2 |
Zimbabwe | 390,757 | 12.6 | 8.8 | 6.7 | 7.5 |
Sub-Saharan Africa | - | 854 | 301.4 | 343.8 | 1,123.6 |
Developing countries - Latin America and the Caribbean | - | 583 | 1,159.5 | 2,137.98 | 5,123.2 |
Developing countries – East Asia and the Pacific | - | 1,962 | 670.8 | 1,727.2 | 7,630.5 |
World Average | - | 7,021.8 | 21,921.24 | 32,249.68 | 63,256.97 |
Size, Population and Basic Economic Indicators of SADC Economies
Rapid growth in exports compared to imports also helps in ensuring economic stability of a country and building international investors’ confidence. In SADC countries such investment is needed in order to finance more large scale production activities most of whose output is often sold in international markets. Growth in exports has thus the ability to trigger more investment in a country which can create more exports in an upward spiral cycle. Bothma (2011) further observed that export marketing brings with it opportunities for technology transfer through exposure in targeted international markets to new technologies, new designs and new products. All this helps to improve the competitiveness of a country’s output.
In promoting exports, SADC countries are also interested in ensuring that export growth is accompanied with improved structural transformations including growth in employment levels. Exports directly contribute to job generation through high volumes often associated with export orders. Production of large volumes will often entail the need to expand the labour force. Exporting also contributes indirectly to job generation through creation of backward and forward business linkages. Increased export production volumes result in increased purchase of raw materials used in production. If the suppliers of the raw materials are based in the domestic market, this will also often entail the need for them to increase their labour force in order to cater for increased demand for their products. It is for this reason that exports are linked not only to growth in national output but also improvements in standards of living.
There are thus many benefits associated with increased export activity at country level especially in relation to its potential to enhance society’s well being. It is therefore not surprising that export development is at the centre of growth and development deliberations of SADC countries. Member countries have in place policies and programs aimed at stimulating export growth. The section below outlines some of the initiatives being undertaken in order to boost SADC member countries’ involvement in international trade through growth of exports.
According to Seringhaus (1986) export promotion refers to all public policy measures that actually or potentially enhance exporting activity from a national, industry or firm perspective. Mpinganjira (2004) noted that there are three main ways in which governments promote exports. These are through economic cooperation with other nations; pursuing business-friendly fiscal measures and through provision of export assistance programs.
Trade agreements are part of almost all economic cooperation initiatives that countries enter into at both bilateral and multilateral level. As an intergovernmental organization responsible for ensuring deeper integration of member countries, SADC realises the importance of enhancing cross border trade and investment in the realisation of its objectives. The SADC protocol on trade signed in 1996 sets among its objectives to further liberalise intra-regional trade in goods and services; contribute towards improvement of the climate for domestic, cross-border and foreign investment as well as the establishment of a Free Trade Area in the region (SADC, 1996). In order to achieve the set objectives SADC countries specifically committed themselves to easing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade between them. For example, under the protocol member states are not allowed to apply export duties on goods to other member states. Member states also agreed under the protocol on a phased reduction and eventual elimination of import duties for goods and services originating from member countries.
Apart from the SADC grouping many member countries have preferential access to other markets through their membership to other regional agreements. For example Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa are all members of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU). Established in 1910, the five members of SACU form a common customs area in which tariff and non-tariff barriers are removed on trade in products originating from member countries and a common external tariff is applied to non- members (SACU, 2007). Tanzania is a member of East African Community (EAC) which has five member countries in it including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The treaty for establishment of EAC was signed in 1999. Its main objective is to widen and deepen co-operation among member states and to this extent EAC countries established a customs union in 2005 and a common market in 2010 (EAC, 2012). The Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a grouping of currently 19 member states. The other members of COMESA are Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Rwanda, Sudan and Unganda (COMESA 2012). Formed in 1994, COMESA is a large economic trading unit working diligently on, among other things, elimination of tariff and non tariff barriers for products originating from member states. At the time of its establishment COMESA preplaced the Preferential Trade Area which was established in 1981. 14 of its current members are part of the COMESA free trade area which started with 9 members in the year 2000 (Ndiho, 2011). From this, one can see that each SADC member country is part of at least one other regional grouping whose aims include promotion of international trade.
SADC member countries also have bilateral and multilateral trade agreements with other groupings and individual countries such as the European Union and USA. Some of the agreements included the ‘Everything But Arms’ initiative and the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) respectively. Under the ‘Everything But Arms’ initiative which was adopted in 2001, products from Least Developed Countries (LCDs) except arms and ammunitions are granted duty free access to the EU market (European Commission [EC], 2012). Under AGOA which was signed into law in 2000, beneficiary countries in sub-Saharan Africa are provided with the ‘most liberal access to the US market available to any country or region with which they do not have a Free Trade Agreement with’ (ITA, 2012). Economic cooperation and integration have thus been actively used by SADC countries for the purposes of promoting its exports.
Fiscal policy measures including policies on exchange rates and tax can significantly impact on export success. When it comes to exchange rates, the major concerns are the value and volatility of currency relative to currencies of major trading partners. While some countries work hard to reduce the value of their currencies in order to make their exports competitive on the international market and make imports expensive, for most SADC countries the major concern is ensuring that there is relative stability in exchange rates. This is due to the heavy reliance on imports such as fertilizers to produce exports. Devaluation in exchange rates is such cases does not produce desires positive effects on exports. It is for this reason that countries in the region are increasingly using the ability to open foreign dominated accounts as an incentive targeted at exporters. Under this incentive exporters are allowed to retain a specified percentage of their export earnings in a foreign dominated account which they can use to finance their imports. In terms of tax incentives, duty drawback schemes on imports used to generate export sales are the commonly used incentive by member countries. The scope for targeting tax incentives to exporters in the region is however constrained by WTO Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing measures (Masters, 2006).
Export Assistance Programmes are mainly targeted directly at individual firm level. They include export service and market development programs (Kotabe and Czinkota, 1992). Diamantopoulos et al. (1993) noted that export marketing assistance is mostly provided in the form of information in order to reduce uncertainty in the process of decision making. Each of the SADC countries has a dedicated government unit or government supported organisation whose main responsibility is to work with the business community in provision of export assistance services and implementation of the country’s export policy. Examples of such organisations are the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority, the Malawi Export Promotion Council, the Mauritius Export Development and Investment Authority and the Instituto para a Promoção de Exportações (IPEX) in Mozambique. Common services provided by such organisations include export training and counselling services targeted at both exporters and non-exporters, dissemination of international sales leads, provision of assistance with representation on their country’s business community at international trade fairs, as well as collecting and making available to businesses market access information including details relating to documentation needed for exporting.
Each year, Southern African governments are investing a lot both financially and non financially in export promotion programs. The extent to which such investments are yielding benefits can only be known through a detailed analysis of international trade activities. The section below provides such an analysis by firstly looking at developments at both the global and regional level as well as at country level.
Discussed in this section are trends over time in member countries’ export earnings; export products including the share of manufacture to total merchandise exports as well as destinations of exported products. According to World Bank (2012) the total value of world merchandise exports was at 3.4 trillion US dollars in 1990. World merchandise trade statistics as presented in table 1 show that efforts to promote international trade globally have been bearing a lot of fruit. According to the statistics the total value of world exports reached 5.17 trillion US$ in the year 2000 and 15.21 trillion US$ in 2010. This represents 338 percentage growth in export value over the past two decades. Trade statistics for Sub-Saharan Africa show a significant upward trend in export earnings over the years. The level of growth in earnings is actually higher than the world average. For example, at 343,155 million US$, Africa’s export earnings in 2010 were 402 percent higher than in 1990. In terms of its share of world trade, the figure is however only 2.25 percent in 2010 which is marginally higher than its share of 1.97 in 1990. According to table 1, the statistics show a decline in level of contribution of developed countries to world merchandise trade. According to the statistics, at US$2,440,032 million in 1990, developed countries contributed 70 percent to world trade. At US$ 7,997,507 in 2010, developed countries contributed 53 percent to world merchandise export trade.
World Trade Statistics at country level, show that despite some fluctuations in export earnings, all countries in the region have on average been in the last two decades on a general upward path in their export earnings. Statistics however show clear continued domination of a few countries in SADC’s export earnings. For example, at 81,821 million US $ in 2010, South Africa export earnings represent 47.3 percent of SADC’s total export earnings. The top five exporting countries in 2010 as measured by export earnings in the SADC region were South Africa; Angola; Zambia; Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana. One common characteristic of SADC top export earning countries is that they all have significant mineral/oil reserves in them.
Presented in table 2 are also import trade statistics. From the statistics it is clear that except for the top exporting countries, international trade in the majority of SADC countries is characterised by persistent negative trade balances. Of more concern is the widening of trade deficits in most of the countries registering persistent trade deficits.
Export diversification has been one of the major trade goals of Africa. For a long time a African countries have recognised the need to diversify their exports particularly into manufactured products. Growth in manufactured products presents a good opportunity for African countries to significantly raise their export earnings. This is because primary exports unlike manufactured products are associated with slow growth in global demand as well as relatively low elasticity of demand. There is thus always concern that an increase in supply of primary commodities will result in a decline in export prices. Table 3 presents statistics on the contribution of manufactured exports to total trade in the years 1990 and 2010 as well as information on the top export products. Table 3 shows that 69 percent of world merchandise exports in 2010 were manufactured products. The figure for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 was 30.8 percent. This means that about 70 percent of merchandise exports from Sub Saharan Africa are primary commodities. In general, Sub-Saharan African countries and indeed SADC countries have not managed over time to significantly transform the structure of their exports from primary to manufactured products. It should however be noted that countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius ad South Africa had 45 percent or more of their merchandise exports as manufactured goods. Despite this the concern with most of these SADC countries is the heavy reliance on export earnings coming from a few products. For example, statistics shows that in 2010 about 80% of Botswana export earnings in 2010 came from diamond and nickel while 62.2% of Lesothos’ export earnings came from footwear and clothing. Of more concern are countries such as Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Seychelles who had in 2010 less than 10 percent of export earnings coming from manufactured products.
1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | ||
World Exports | Exports | 3,473,231 | 5,171,030 | 6,456,422 | 10,489,632 | 15,211,311 |
Developed countries % of world exports | Exports | 2,440,032 70% | 3,561,498 69% | 4,129,803 64% | 6,149,288 59% | 7,997,507 53% |
Sub-Saharan Africa | Exports Imports | 68,368 57,641 | 76,681 78,497 | 94,489 81,808 | 199,158 173,195 | 343,155 308,353 |
Angola | Exports Imports | 3,910 1,578 | 3,642 1,468 | 7,921 3,040 | 24,109 8,353 | 53,500 21,500 |
Botswana | Exports Imports | 1,784 1946 | 2,142 1,911 | 2,675 2,081 | 4,425 3,161 | 4,693 5,657 |
Democratic Republic of Congo | Exports Imports | 2,326 1,739 | 1,563 871 | 807 683 | 2,403 2,690 | 5,300 4,500 |
Lesotho | Exports Imports | 62 672 | 160 1,107 | 220 809 | 651 1,410 | 820 2,200 |
Madagascar | Exports Imports | 319 651 | 507 628 | 824 1,097 | 855 1,706 | 1,090 2,650 |
Malawi | Exports Imports | 417 575 | 405 475 | 379 532 | 508 1,165 | 1,066 1,900 |
Mauritius | Exports Imports | 1,194 1,618 | 1,538 1,976 | 1,557 2,093 | 2,143 3,157 | 2,239 4,402 |
Mozambique | Exports Imports | 126 878 | 168 704 | 364 1,158 | 1,783 2,408 | 3,200 4,500 |
Namibia | Exports Imports | 1,085 1,163 | 1,409 1,616 | 1,320 1,550 | 2,070 2,577 | 4,052 5,360 |
Seychelles | Exports Imports | 56 186 | 52 233 | 194 342 | 340 675 | 400 650 |
South Africa | Exports Imports | 23,549 18,399 | 27,853 30,546 | 29,983 29,695 | 51,626 62,304 | 81,821 94,040 |
Swaziland | Exports Imports | 556 663 | 866 1,008 | 910 1,046 | 1,770 1,900 | 1,550 1,700 |
Tanzania | Exports Imports | 331 1,027 | 682 1,675 | 734 1,524 | 1,679 3,287 | 3,687 7,830 |
Zambia | Exports Imports | 1,309 1,220 | 1,040 700 | 892 888 | 1,810 2,558 | 7,200 5,321 |
Zimbabwe | Exports Imports | 1,726 1,847 | 2,118 2,660 | 1,925 1,863 | 1,850 2,350 | 2,500 3,800 |
World Merchandise Trade: Imports and Exports a trend analysis
Share of manufactures to total merchandise exports | Major export commodities | |||
1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2010 | |
World Exports | 72.3 | 74.5 | 69.0 | |
Sub-Saharan Africa | - | 30.7 | 30.8 | |
Angola | 0.1 | 0.02 | - | Petroleum products and diamond (80%), coffee, sisal, fish, timber, cotton. |
Botswana | - | 89.6 | 79.5 | Diamonds (68.4%), nickel (10.9%), meat and edible meat offal’s (3.4%), ores, slag and ash (2.3%) |
Democratic Republic of Congo | - | - | - | Diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, wood products, crude oil |
Lesotho | - | 94.9 | - | Foot wear, articles of apparel and clothing (62.2%), electrical machinery, equipment and parts (16.4%) Beverages, spirits and vinegar (5.2%) |
Madagascar | 14.4 | 52.2 | 48.2 | Coffee, Vanilla, Shell fish, Sugar, textile, Chromate |
Malawi | 5.1 | 7.4 | 9.0 | Tobacco (53%), uranium, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, peanuts |
Mauritius | 65.8 | 80.8 | 60.2 | Clothing and textiles, sugar, cut flower, molasses, fish |
Mozambique | - | 6.7 | 2.0 | Aluminium, prawns, cashews, cotton, sugar, citrus, |
Namibia | - | 6.7 | 2.0 | Diamonds (25.5%), Ores, slag and ash (16.3%), fish and crustaceans (13.7%), meat, edible offal and live animals (6.1%) Vehicles (6%), Zinc and articles thereof (4.9%), |
Seychelles | 0.2 | 5.0 | - | Canned tuna, frozen fish, cinnamon bark, copra |
South Africa | - | 53.8 | 46.6 | Gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment, fruits and nuts. |
Swaziland | - | 54.4 | - | Soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn, |
Tanzania | - | 19.6 | 24.1 | Gold, coffee, cashew nuts, |
Zambia | - | 10.7 | 6.3 | Copper/cobalt (64%), electricity, tobacco, flowers |
Zimbabwe | 30.9 | 28.1 | 36.4 | Platinum, cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles and clothing. |
International Merchandise Trade: Export Composition
In general the high levels of dependence of most SADC countries on a few export products or for many of them on primary products is that it increases the vulnerability of countries to shocks arising from volatile international prices.
Country/ Region | Destination | 1990 | 2010 | 2010 Top export destinations |
Angola | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 90.4 0.5 | 42.1 3.7 | China (42.8%), USA (23%), India (9.5%), France (4%). |
Botswana | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | - - | 73.1 18.8 | UK (55%), South Africa (12.9%), Norway (9.3%) |
Democratic Republic of Congo | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 87.3 7.1 | 25.8 25.7 | China (46.9%) Zambia (23.3%), USA (10.4%), Belgium (4.2%) |
Lesotho | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | - | - | South Africa (48.9%), USA (31.8%), Canada (15.1%) - 2009 |
Madagascar | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 88.1 4.9 | 72.1 5.3 | France, USA, Germany, China, UK. |
Malawi | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 76.8 15.0 | 49.1 22.3 | Belgium Canada, Egypt, Germany, USA, |
Mauritius | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 95.6 2.2 | 80.8 14.6 | UK, France, USA, Madagascar, Italy |
Mozambique | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 71.4 3.0 | 64.0 25.9 | Netherlands (52.7%), South Africa, Portugal, China, Zimbabwe |
Namibia | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | - | - | South Africa, UK, Angola |
Seychelles | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 96.0 1.2 | 71.6 10.0 | Saudi Arabia, France, UK, Italy, Germany |
South Africa | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 89.0 6.5 | 56.1 14.9 | China, USA, Japan, Germany, UK, India |
Swaziland | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | - | - | South Africa (56.7%), USA (6.8%) and Mozambique (3.9%) |
Tanzania | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 64.6 7.8 | 38.4 19.6 | Switzerland, China, South Africa, |
Zambia | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 72.0 7.8 | 59.4 19.1 | Switzerland, China, South Africa, DRC |
Zimbabwe | High income economies Sub-Saharan Africa | 62.0 31.7 | 29.4 47.3 | South Africa, Netherlands, Switzerland |
Sub-Saharan Africa | Sub-Saharan Africa | 7.2 | 12.2* | |
Developing Asia | Developing Asia | 33.3 | 37.6 | |
Advanced economies | Advanced economies | 76.3 | 66.4 |
Export Destination Percentage of the Region/Country Total Trade
Table 4 presents details relating to analysis of destination of exports from the SADC region. The results show that developed economies are the major export markets for the SADC region. The results also show an expansion over the years in Intra-Sub-Saharan Africa trade. As noted before, promotion of regional trade is one of the priority goals of the region. Intra-Africa trade is particularly attractive to many of the smaller land locked economies in the SADC region mainly because of the tremendous challenges that they face in trading at inter-continental level.
It should however be pointed out that at 7.2 percent in 2010 intra- Sub Saharan trade is significantly lower that that of many other regional economic groupings. According to table 4 intra-regional trade in 2010 among developing counties in Asia was at 37.6% while that for advanced economies was 66.6 percent. The table also shows heavy dependence of many SADC countries on a few countries for the export trade. For example in 2010 over 40 percent of exports from Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland went to a single country.
The analysis above shows that SADC countries have only marginally benefited from the massive growth in exports that the world as a whole has experienced over the past twenty to thirty years. A number of challenges face SADC’s ability to significantly grow its export earnings. The section below outlines some of these challenges and provides suggestions on how the region can deal with them in order to grow its share in world export earnings.
There are many challenges to export promotion in the SADC region. In order to effectively deal with them, it is important for countries to focus on the whole value chain associated with exporting. It is for this reason that this section looks at the challenges by focusing on what happens from the production side to the demand side of export products.
Of particular concern when it comes to production related challenges are issues relating to production capacity and diversification. Mpinganjira (2004) noted that many firms in Africa shun away from international markets. Some of the major reasons found for doing so were lack of capacity to produce the large quantities often demanded in international trade and inability to produce products of export quality. Governments need to critically look at ways of enhancing production capacity within their countries by among other things providing strategic support to industries targeting export markets such as having earmarked financial support investments in export related production activities. Governments in the region also need to pay particular attention to ensuring access to technologies critical for quality assurance purposes.
On the production side, there is also need for SADC countries to critically look at ways in which they can diversify their exports. Programs that support industrialisation of the economies can go a long way in growing SADC countries share of manufactured products to its total export trade. It should however be acknowledged that for many SADC countries, industrialisation may take long to realise. Thus while pursuing this strategy, countries need to also look at ways of diversifying their primary exports to avoid over dependence on a few commodities. The argument put forward is that any form of diversification in SADC exports is likely to provide them with a better shield against fluctuations in commodity prices on the international market.
On the demand side, the challenges are mainly related to finding ways of diversifying target markets for exports as well as assisting companies with identifying buyers internationally. African countries have for long relied on Western countries, in particular European countries as their major export markets. Afari-Gyan (2010) noted that Africa’s dependence on Europe can be traced back to colonial days when the structure of Africa trade was determined by the need for raw materials to supply the manufacturing sector in the colonising countries. Decades after independence, Africa has not significantly changed the composition of its exports. The economic crisis experienced by European countries has resulted in increased calls for Africa to diversify its markets and avoid the pitfalls associated with overreliance on a few markets. China and India are increasingly being looked at as alternative markets to be aggressively pursued. China in particular has demonstrated a lot of interest in Africa by significantly growing its investments and ties in the continent over the past five years. It is however important to note that just like Europe, China and India’s interest in Africa is on its natural resources and not manufactured products. Nevertheless Africa needs to take advantage of the demand coming from these countries in order to not only grow demand for its exports but also diversify its markets. One way in which it can do this is by negotiating preferential trade agreements with the new major trading partners.
SADC governments need to also realise that it will take more than negotiation of preferential trade agreements for actual demand to be created. One thing that needs to be critically looked at are ways of assisting local companies get a foothold in the targeted markets. While provision of information including trade leads cannot be discounted, governments need to invest in international buyer-seller meetings. Such meetings assist companies develop close working and personal relationships with international business partners. Close personal relationships established during such meetings can go a long way in helping secure ongoing business deals.
Well functioning infrastructure system including a good road, railway and air networks are essential for trade facilitation. According to Mbekeani (2007) poor infrastructure significantly adds to making exports from many African countries uncompetitive on the international market by adding to costs and time taken to move goods to target markets. The UN Economic Commission Report (2012) reported that less than 25 percent of African roads are paved. The report further states that Africa’s maritime ports productivity is only 30 percent of the international norm and that costs are high. The Economic Times (2012) reported that poor infrastructure make transport costs in Africa 60 percent higher on average than the average for developed countries.
With over 90 percent of the volume of cargo in the SADC region transported by road and a good number of its members being land locked countries a good road infrastructure is essential. Thus efforts to grow Africa’s exports need to include major infrastructural developments with the countries as well as improving on efficiencies in the region’s major ports. Unless these issues are addressed SADC countries will continue to face high costs of production for their exports thus making it hard for the region to compete and grow its export earnings.
While the improvements in the macro-economic environment are essential in establishing a conducive environment for international trade participation, improvements in this area will be meaningless if individual firms are not persuaded to take up exporting. Effective export assistance programs thus become essential as they can help deal with issues affecting firms at the individual firm level. Past studies on export assistance programs however often report that most firms find export assistance programs provided by government or its agencies not be very useful to their needs. Mpinganjira (2004) noted that most export promotion bodies in Africa suffer from poor funding and that this limits their ability to help businesses. It is important for government to strengthen the area of export assistance programs in their export development strategies. They need to not only ensure that export promotion bodies are well supported but also that they are taken to task to show returns on investment. This will also help in minimising wasted expenditures on their part.
Export promotion bodies need to realise that firms can only make use of their services if they perceive them to be useful. It is thus important that export promotion programs are developed based on a good understanding of the needs of the business community. In doing so export promotion bodies need to bear in mind that firms go through different stages in the internationalisation process. The needs of firms at different stages are likely to be different. Assistance programs have to take this into consideration.
The focus of this chapter is on international trade promotion efforts in countries making up the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). As developing countries, the promotion of international trade, exports in particular, is regarded as one of the main ways in which SADC countries can ensure sustained economic growth. This is because through international trade these countries earn much needed foreign exchange necessary for them to finance their imports. Exports are also an effective way in which the countries can improve their production efficiencies, generate employment and grow investors’ confidence and ensuring economic stability.
Preferential trade agreements, pursuance of business friendly fiscal measures as well as provision of export assistance services are the key measures taken by SADC countries in order to improve on their chances of realising the many benefits associated with international trade. An analysis of changes in SADC member countries involvement in international trade shows that the measures taken have yielded some benefits. Of particular note is the growth in export earnings experienced by all SADC countries over the past two decades. It is however important to note that there are still many areas of concern when one looks at SADC’s export performance. Some of these concerns relate to the fact that the level of growth in export earnings in most of the member countries is far below the world average and the average for developing economies in general. Many countries in the region continue to experience persistent trade deficits, the region in general has not registered much success in export diversification both in terms of range products exported as well as major markets for export products. Of much concern in this regard is the fact that many SADC countries have not managed to significantly grow their share of exports of manufactured products.
Continued efforts to grow SADC’s international trade performance need to address a number of challenges facing export promotion in the region. Specifically governments need to find ways of diversifying their export products by providing strategic support to export production activities in non-traditional products; take measures aimed at ensuring that firms have easy access to technologies necessary for quality control; invest more in assisting companies identify buyers in not only the current major export markets but also exploring demand in new markets. Governments have to also work towards investing a lot in improving trade related infrastructures including transport networks and ensuring adequate funding of export assistance programs while at the same time demanding returns on investments from the export promotion bodies.
Changes in SADC’s trade performance heavily depend on a better understanding of the current trade situation and taking measures to address any challenges. The analysis provided in this chapter has assisted in providing a better picture of the situation. Lastly, the chapter has also provided some recommendations on what needs to be done in order to improve on SADC’s international Trade Performance.
Internet of Things (ToT) is a form of Internet connecting into physical devices and objects. Internet of Things is a combination of several technologies such as real-time analysis and machine learning. Everyone from everywhere in this world can connect to each other via the Internet. Interactions are mostly done from the World Wide Web. It is interesting that nowadays, the Internet can not only connect to the web but can also connect to smart card, security, online banking, health care, education, and so on.
\nIn addition, the Internet of Things can generate chances for new services and sales, which can be more efficient for the business sector. For the government, according to economic growth factors, there are five main pillars for policy making: (1) hard infrastructure; (2) soft infrastructure; (3) service infrastructure; (4) digital economy; and (5) digital society and knowledge. The digital economy seems to be outstanding these days because the economic growth no longer depends on production and consumption or touchable goods; rather, it additionally depends on intangible goods.
\nThe educational system in current economic and social conditions are forced to use as in the Age of “Information Technology”. The growth rate is increasing in the area of knowledge because of the trend “lifelong learning,” which the old style may not be able to support the creation of a career for a new generation anymore. Professionals must always adjust and be ready to learn. The industry must develop the skills of employees to be appropriate.
\nThe learning style that is suitable for the information age is a model that can bring technology to use by learning appropriately with the interests and abilities of each individual. This resulting is called “New Learning Style (NLS)” such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) for the masses or other learning channels whether they are videos, audios, social media, or games. It shows a good opportunity for the new generations to choose a learning style that suits them the most.
\nWill this method be widely used in Thailand consistent with the behavior of Thai’s new generation? There is a high chance that the new generation will be able to access it, including causing learning changes in the near future.
\nThe knowledge that young generations need more is “working skills and life skills” in daily life, respectively, by means of additional knowledge using media such as videos, audios, social media, etc. with Internet connectivity. For the comments from young generations on using online media, it is recommended to have a variety of learning topics especially for the classroom in particular applied in various fields of subjects for instance, in Economics of Information Technology; it is a study of overall economics in the age of technology, structure of markets and information technologies, product and price differentiation method, costs associated with changing technologies, economies of scales, effects of network, product standards, the effects of linked product system, effects of development an transformation of technology toward the economic and industrial policies. In Creative Economy, students learn ideas of economic motivation on the fundamental of integrating between education, creativity and the use of intellectual property to link with culture and accumulated knowledge of sociology, technology and new inventions. In International Business Management, it is a study of basics theory of international business management, international merger and acquisition, opportunities for export and import, analyzing strategies and competitiveness of the international organizations, etc.
\nDigitized educational system can be used to present as creative media providing many pictures, but less content. To support on this issue, instructors should have knowledge of the subjects taught using an online media to make it more interesting and more accessible for students.
\nHowever, the major problems and obstacles in learning are related to attitude differences, individual tastes, and judgment of teachers and learners. These obstacles are a result of development of analytical thinking skills to promote learning via a combination of media-interactive learning such as social media videos, together with traditional media such as movies. Inspiration and diverse learning are main factors that can actually be a motivation to learn for the younger generation.
\nWhen implementing each learning platform, using the media selection suitable for the needs and context of the end user should be considered. One approach outstanding today is on preparing to benefit from the learning materials fully with examples of ideas to know “Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs)” [1]. To study MOOCs, learners should be provided with a mentor system, and MOOCs with industry sector practice must be implemented. With technological advances, coupled with economic and social dynamics, causing changes in all learning channels, technology is known as the key driver, whether it is artificial intelligence (AI) that causes significant changes in every platform or otherwise. Automatic chat program will be the other channel, which can be divided into the following main groups: gathering knowledge and exchanging knowledge between students with diverse knowledge and experiences.
\nSome part of the world, using the technology of games like AR VR to promote learning and in the same time using social media for the benefit of learning like technology and tools to help learning activities. Moreover, promoting the use of audio media creates equality in learning for all groups of people. It should encourage Thai people to know the source of Thai audio books for benefits.
\nNot only the university but also every government institution, all public organizations, and private sectors must follow bureaucratic frameworks to do the paper work and follow the bureaucratic forms. When a project is coming out, every procedure of the project must be written and recorded as paper work. The importance of paper work is to serve as evidence and all papers should be coded and recorded in the book. This is to confirm that every step is seen by every department and checked many times.
\nFor example, for a project proposal, first of all the budget of that activity will be planned before the year of budget (for public institutions that follow the bureaucratic frameworks, the year of budget will begin on October 1st, this year, and will end on September 30th, next year). The plan’s details need to be discussed at the conference, so papers will be printed to distribute to every member at the conference. Next, when it is time to start the project, the project needs to draw on many topics such as declaration of intentions, costs, evaluation, and schedules. After the project has been approved, all the papers are collected and kept as evidence. When the project ends, an evaluation is required. The evaluation can be in a paper form or a writing form. The number of papers in this process depends on the number of participants. All processes that have been stated are made by papers.
\nFigure 1 illustrates the process of a project procedure; every step requires paper work. After the project ends, all papers are kept as physical evidence. No or few papers are scanned and transferred into a digital file. After that, all papers become physical “dark data” or the information that we no longer use, but we cannot eliminate them completely because they will, sometimes, be used later. However, the amount of papers causes the problem of managing. Also, it becomes difficult to search the old papers. The importance of paperwork: In the bureaucratic system, it is important to keep papers because they can be used as evidence and references for other departments, private institutions, and citizens. The papers also can be used for legal protection. In addition to private sectors, some companies do not have sufficient space to keep all the papers, so they quickly adapt to the new technologies to change the forms from physical files to digital files.
\nBrief process of project procedure.
However, there are problems of having paperwork. Because these papers can be used by many people in the organization, the papers can be lost or moved. Possibly, in terms of human capital, people lack the knowledge of managing papers. In the worst case, when the organization loses papers, it is hard to find them or recreate paperwork, and cost for recovery is incurred. Hence, it is important to transfer papers into digital forms to facilitate the organization. In governmental institutions, paperwork still exits, and some of the governmental institutions fully have paperwork or few digital files. It is a risk to have only paperwork.
\nThe Faculty of Science, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand, [2] announced that one faculty consumes 1700 ream or 850,000 pages annually. It costs about almost 200,000 baht per year 0r 6286 US dollars. If the amount of paper consumption reduces, the environment will be saved and the cost of operation inside the department can be minimized. Figures 5 and 6 show the change in society in terms of technological approach and many organizations still have remained the same. To show the evidence, according to [3], overproduction of paper cause significantly to pollution, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions.
\nFor the recommendation, we put the data of the projects and other information into the digital system, it will consequently reduce the cost of operation because data are transferred from physical to digital. Moreover, it makes channels of access of data better and easier, and it can reduce cost of transportation because data can be accessed everywhere. This would be beneficial to all government, business cooperation, and people in both macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives [4]. Figure 2 shows a cloud for education. Users can log in to their accounts and upload documents, and other users who are authorized can also download the information. “Cloud is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.”
\nCloud for education.
Moreover, if the data are transferred into the digital forms, it can be copied unlimitedly when we want to distribute. This can lead to zero marginal cost. The zero marginal cost refers to marginal cost of producing one additional unit that does not make any additional cost. The cost that we need to handle is the cost of the system [5].
\nThe importance of the educational sector must be those who play an important role in learning management for “Quality of Learners (OL)”. OL is to enable students to manage their own learning. There are push-factors to positively change the students. It may come from technological development, social changes, career changes. New generation children must have the ability to work [6, 7]—if there is a need for both advanced skills and critical thinking to support the future world.
\nFor the proper educational system, students should be assigned homework properly. The assignment needs to be adapted to meet the needs and necessities of Thai society and the young generation, focusing on developing learners to be able to create innovation and create work together with personal skills [8]. Linking the order process with innovation is essential in every part of the educational system and that must be immediately and quickly changed together with the assignment through exchange of learning.
\nDeveloping a basic service platform of communication and providing the application can make more convenience and efficiency to all people in the system as follows: E-School or Electronic-School: Faculty of Technology used to improve public administration efficiency combining with increase transparency and reliability; and Smart School.
\nE-school has been developed to the point that at least two groups such as to support staff and to enable students to connect to work learning and teaching without adhering to the boundaries of duties and responsibilities in accordance with the mission of the faculty, but taking into account the benefits of the service provider as the location [9].
\nThe goal is to deliver quality services to students in the form of “digital interaction” between departments such as Student2University (S2U); University2University (U2U); University2Student (U2S), and Student2Student (S2S).
\nAn example for convenience is that students are allowed to complete their assignment anywhere as long as it is done before the due date. Students do not have to hand in their assignment in the professor’s room. The file that they submit is an electronic file. This does not waste a natural resource like paper. In Section 2.2, the effects of using a large number of papers that could cause natural damages has already been demonstrated.
\nFigure 3 shows details of an assignment via Google Classroom (free), date of submission, and date of post by professor. This platform not only helps professors to check the date of online submission from students and but also helps to decrease paper work and wasted papers. Also, all data are recorded. Interestingly, the file that students submit can be checked and reviewed by other organizations such as
Online classroom & assignment via Google Classroom.
In an academic field, plagiarism is considered as a serious crime. Almost all institutions set serious regulations against plagiarism. Figure 4 demonstrates the similarity of the student’s paper, as shown by the Turnitin website. In general academic rule, similarity must not exceed 20–30% for undergraduate students, 10–20% for graduate students, and 10% for PhD students. This rule depends on the faculty and the professors’ consideration. It is, therefore, noticeable that merging new technologies helps teachers and learners in many aspects of academic files.
\nTable of assignment submission via Turnitin.
This does not benefit the education system only. The example intentionally aims to show how systematic the task allocation is. The platform of digital task allocation can be applied to all governmental institutions and private sectors to increase work efficiency and productivity. There is interesting statistical evidence why we should adopt a digital workplace. According to [10], approximately 64% of employees accept a lower wage if they are allowed to work away from office. Online social network generates more than 7% productivity to organizations. When the organizations use the social media tools, it increases 20% of employee satisfaction.
\nMany institutions adopt computer games as one channel of teaching; AR and VR technologies in games are used to promote learning. Teachers try to use social media for the benefit of learning unlike in the past and also use audio media creating equality in learning for all groups of students. Future classrooms should be brought up to speed to change educational system [11]. There are three significant aspects: The first is children; the environment around the children involves a lot of technology, which has both disadvantages and advantages; however, most disadvantages are causing children to become more hyperactive and autistic. The second is the use of smartphones all the time, adversely affecting their own health. The third aspect is the positive development of gadgets including the rapid emergence of features resulting in the behavior of people changing and making the classroom more attractive.
\nIn recent times, the young generation thinks that having a classroom or learning from school is unnecessary. The young generation can learn via smartphone causing the question ‘If we allow technology to play a role and learn too much classes or platforms, knowledge based on schools or universities, will be depleted and important. Earlier there would be awareness about the educational reform system, but focused on teacher development. No one could talk about the classroom, where the teachers were irreplaceable.
\nThe teacher is like a warrior fighting to win, but he or she must make a good army commander, but we forgot to develop weapons for teachers—they are left with a weapon that is like the rusting spear to the warrior. When he or she does a career related to the design experience, there is a lot of knowledge about using modern technology media. The right discussion will meet good results. The variables normally use to comment be skills, experiences and knowledge which those should be used to make the classroom considered as “a weapon development for teachers” in the modern age.
\nIn addition to this classroom set, there will be special characteristics that allow teachers and students to learn together. The technology available in the room will help spark creativity that can be lead to displaying creative ideas [12]. For example, the room has a laser projector projected in bright light with an image extension technology. Can those be connected to a creative environment for students to see the real thing? The actual size is better than sitting on the chair and reading only the textbook. To support the technology that will plug and support dimensionless classroom activities, teachers and students must hold hands and walk together. There are so many activities that the teachers can change the classroom and make it look like an exhibition, allowing students to work on their own experiences. The process of real work will help students to discover their identity and aptitude including the practicing skills to deal with tasks.
\nHigh school and university are different. University students focus deeper in their interested fields than when they were high school. University’s structures: Instructors or professors are responsible for the students in many ways. It is more than just coming to teach and check everything the students finish. The professors have to prepare lecture notes, research, do quality assurance of the course, draft and organize the university activities, be an advisor, and teach. That is why professors do not just only teach and do research as many people believe they should do.
\nFigure 5, [13], shows the percentage of population using the Internet for the period 2010–2016. In 2010, only 22% of Thai population accessed the Internet. Six years later, in 2016, the number of Thai population accessing the Internet is 47%, which is higher than the 45% of the world population. [14] Figure 6 also goes in the same direction as Figure 5 and shows the number of mobile cellular subscriptions that has been increasing. Especially, in Thailand, the number has long been raising beyond the world’s average. In other words, 1 Thai person probably has more than 1 mobile phone.
\nIndividuals using the Internet (% of population).
Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people).
It is interesting that Thailand has adapted to the Internet and smart phones faster than the rest of the world’s average. From this statistical evidence, we can expect that Thailand would have probably transferred analogue system to the digital system. However, for the educational system, Thailand has just started to turn the education system into the digital system.
\nTo illustrate the statement above, almost every Thai university is a national university, which has been highly supported by Thai government to become “autonomous university.” The term “autonomous university” refers to be an independent organization under the bureaucratic framework. In other words, being an autonomous university lets the university to re-engineer itself to be stay with the flow and up-to-date based on the current market demands, which are changing all the time and faster than before. However, online education and “mobile students” seem to be far from here though it should have been fundamentally implemented already. Thai universities have long offered traditional classes that students have to attend, and some courses still use paper works for the entire period of the course. Because of being autonomous universities, some universities have made their system stricter than before. The term “strict” means that every procedure and process inside the university must be recorded and printed out. Some procedures that should not be with the paper work still appear. The paper work actually takes time and effort. The paper work can cost a high opportunity cost relative to other work that the Thai professor should do. The opportunity cost means the loss of gain from other alternatives. For example, you spend 4 hours for the paper work, but you can exercise and read some good books for 4 hours.
\nMoreover, professors have various tasks in one day. As it has been stated before, Thai professors do not just teach and do research. In addition, every student must have a professor as an advisor for his entire student life. Professors must spare their time for other students who enroll to their course.
\nFigure 7 illustrates from the survey that university students make an appointment and request on meeting with professors face-to-face. The results from survey are interesting that every Thai university student chose face-to-face. However, for other ways to communicate with professors, we have new technologies to make easier communication such as Line Application and E-mail, but less than or equal half of the numbers of students use these applications.
\nThe ways Thai university students contact their professors.
When we compare the growth number of accessibility of Internet and mobiles with the way students contact their professors, the number of digital tools and digital services that students use for contacting their professors go in different directions. From previous illustrations, we can see some inefficiencies from not adapting new technologies. For example, in students’ side, students do not much adopt the digital technology in the educational way, and it can convey to how professional they are. For professors’ point of view, it is difficult to manage their schedule because students come to ask for face-to-face appointments. Sometimes, professors can possibly get distracted when they are working in their room. Additionally, this can be a major problem for professors if the class they teach contains a large number of students.
\nThis, therefore, comes to the recommendation that the university should promote and announce digital techniques to the class and add some regulations. This can reduce the difficulty of professors. Students also benefit from this such as knowing how to formally contact with professors, becoming more professional, and using a way to communicate while they are in the university to apply for the jobs. Some research points out that using digital goods and digital services assists better learning experience as the digital goods and services represent a medium for communication [15].
\nHowever, the table of survey can be conveyed beyond the university concerns. Educational institutions should fundamentally be a pusher to everyone to perceive and learn to use new technologies. Also, they should provide some skills to all learners. The learners are not limited to students only.
\nThai education guidelines should be managed to solve problems appropriately and creatively. It will be able to proceed in many ways, especially integrating the content of digital learning in the context. Knowledge management in institutions has a variety of characteristics, depending on the context of the organization. Some institutions look to manage their knowledge when they are related to strategies or practices, so they focus on knowledge generation and knowledge storage. If it focuses on practice, we can apply the knowledge by integrating the factors involved in information technology conjunction with the importance of personnel in the institutions. Therefore, it is a form of knowledge management from the foundations by bringing ideas from different sources to adapt in the context of their own institutions.
\nI am grateful to all those I have had the pleasure to work with during writing of this book chapter. Each of the members of my teaching assistant team, especially Mr. Jirayut, has provided me extensive professional guidance and supported me a great deal with scientific academic articles in general. I would especially like to thank MS. Nina Kalinic Babic, Author Service Manager. As a supporter, she has given us credit for writing the book chapter.
\nThe members of my family have been more important to me in the pursuit of this book chapter. I would like to thank my parents whose love and guidance are with me in whatever I pursue. They are the ultimate role models. Most importantly, I wish to thank my loving and supportive husband, Sa-ard, and my single wonderful child, Thanapat, who provide unending inspiration.
\nEdited by Jan Oxholm Gordeladze, ISBN 978-953-51-3020-8, Print ISBN 978-953-51-3019-2, 336 pages,
\nPublisher: IntechOpen
\nChapters published March 22, 2017 under CC BY 3.0 license
\nDOI: 10.5772/61430
\nEdited Volume
This book serves as a comprehensive survey of the impact of vitamin K2 on cellular functions and organ systems, indicating that vitamin K2 plays an important role in the differentiation/preservation of various cell phenotypes and as a stimulator and/or mediator of interorgan cross talk. Vitamin K2 binds to the transcription factor SXR/PXR, thus acting like a hormone (very much in the same manner as vitamin A and vitamin D). Therefore, vitamin K2 affects a multitude of organ systems, and it is reckoned to be one positive factor in bringing about "longevity" to the human body, e.g., supporting the functions/health of different organ systems, as well as correcting the functioning or even "curing" ailments striking several organs in our body.
\\n\\nChapter 1 Introductory Chapter: Vitamin K2 by Jan Oxholm Gordeladze
\\n\\nChapter 2 Vitamin K, SXR, and GGCX by Kotaro Azuma and Satoshi Inoue
\\n\\nChapter 3 Vitamin K2 Rich Food Products by Muhammad Yasin, Masood Sadiq Butt and Aurang Zeb
\\n\\nChapter 4 Menaquinones, Bacteria, and Foods: Vitamin K2 in the Diet by Barbara Walther and Magali Chollet
\\n\\nChapter 5 The Impact of Vitamin K2 on Energy Metabolism by Mona Møller, Serena Tonstad, Tone Bathen and Jan Oxholm Gordeladze
\\n\\nChapter 6 Vitamin K2 and Bone Health by Niels Erik Frandsen and Jan Oxholm Gordeladze
\\n\\nChapter 7 Vitamin K2 and its Impact on Tooth Epigenetics by Jan Oxholm Gordeladze, Maria A. Landin, Gaute Floer Johnsen, Håvard Jostein Haugen and Harald Osmundsen
\\n\\nChapter 8 Anti-Inflammatory Actions of Vitamin K by Stephen J. Hodges, Andrew A. Pitsillides, Lars M. Ytrebø and Robin Soper
\\n\\nChapter 9 Vitamin K2: Implications for Cardiovascular Health in the Context of Plant-Based Diets, with Applications for Prostate Health by Michael S. Donaldson
\\n\\nChapter 11 Vitamin K2 Facilitating Inter-Organ Cross-Talk by Jan O. Gordeladze, Håvard J. Haugen, Gaute Floer Johnsen and Mona Møller
\\n\\nChapter 13 Medicinal Chemistry of Vitamin K Derivatives and Metabolites by Shinya Fujii and Hiroyuki Kagechika
\\n"}]'},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:'This book serves as a comprehensive survey of the impact of vitamin K2 on cellular functions and organ systems, indicating that vitamin K2 plays an important role in the differentiation/preservation of various cell phenotypes and as a stimulator and/or mediator of interorgan cross talk. Vitamin K2 binds to the transcription factor SXR/PXR, thus acting like a hormone (very much in the same manner as vitamin A and vitamin D). Therefore, vitamin K2 affects a multitude of organ systems, and it is reckoned to be one positive factor in bringing about "longevity" to the human body, e.g., supporting the functions/health of different organ systems, as well as correcting the functioning or even "curing" ailments striking several organs in our body.
\n\nChapter 1 Introductory Chapter: Vitamin K2 by Jan Oxholm Gordeladze
\n\nChapter 2 Vitamin K, SXR, and GGCX by Kotaro Azuma and Satoshi Inoue
\n\nChapter 3 Vitamin K2 Rich Food Products by Muhammad Yasin, Masood Sadiq Butt and Aurang Zeb
\n\nChapter 4 Menaquinones, Bacteria, and Foods: Vitamin K2 in the Diet by Barbara Walther and Magali Chollet
\n\nChapter 5 The Impact of Vitamin K2 on Energy Metabolism by Mona Møller, Serena Tonstad, Tone Bathen and Jan Oxholm Gordeladze
\n\nChapter 6 Vitamin K2 and Bone Health by Niels Erik Frandsen and Jan Oxholm Gordeladze
\n\nChapter 7 Vitamin K2 and its Impact on Tooth Epigenetics by Jan Oxholm Gordeladze, Maria A. Landin, Gaute Floer Johnsen, Håvard Jostein Haugen and Harald Osmundsen
\n\nChapter 8 Anti-Inflammatory Actions of Vitamin K by Stephen J. Hodges, Andrew A. Pitsillides, Lars M. Ytrebø and Robin Soper
\n\nChapter 9 Vitamin K2: Implications for Cardiovascular Health in the Context of Plant-Based Diets, with Applications for Prostate Health by Michael S. Donaldson
\n\nChapter 11 Vitamin K2 Facilitating Inter-Organ Cross-Talk by Jan O. Gordeladze, Håvard J. Haugen, Gaute Floer Johnsen and Mona Møller
\n\nChapter 13 Medicinal Chemistry of Vitamin K Derivatives and Metabolites by Shinya Fujii and Hiroyuki Kagechika
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