Globalization
is the trend of increasing integration of economies in terms not only of goods
and services, but of ideas, information and technology. Globalization means
trade liberalization, free capital mobility, privatization, commercialization
and the empowerment of transnational corporations (TNCs). With the strong wave
of globalization sweeping across the globe today, a qualitatively new world
economy is fast emerging. This is most dramatically apparent in the area of
finance, where average daily foreign exchange transactions grew from $15
billion in 1973 to $1.2 trillion in 1995, and international capital flows now
exceed trade flows by 60 to 1. It is also now becoming common place for
anonymous institutional investors to influence currency rates, the availability
and price of international capital, and interest rates in economies miles away
from their operational bases. The trend is all embracing, the framework of
rules within which economic activity takes place is increasingly defined in the
international framework of the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, and G7
summits, and is heavily influenced by regional trading blocks such as APEC, the
EU and NAFTA. Globalization is both a cause and a consequence of the
information revolution. It is driven by dramatic improvements in
telecommunications, exponential increases in computing power coupled with lower
costs, and the development of electronic communications and information
networks. These communications technologies are helping to overcome the
barriers of physical distance.
To
participate in the global economy, African nations are supposed to open up
barriers to foreign investment, reduce corporate regulations and taxes, as well
as other disincentives to vibrant economic activities. That is where AfricaConnect comes in to working with all African leaders and businesses in ensuring
that globalization begins in