Online tool set to boost businesses

‘African trade to benefit’ from new application

ANEW online tradeboosting tool that makes it easier for businesses in developing countries to identify and target market opportunities has been unveiled by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Paris.

The Export Potential Map is a user-friendly, free tool that takes much of the guesswork and second-hand intelligence out of trading decision-making.

The ICT’s latest intervention is considered vital to the development of African trade, promising particular value in developing inter-regional trade. The map makes it faster and easier for traders in emerging economies to connect to one another and the world.

The Export Potential Map is described by ITC executive director Arancha Gonzalez as “an innovative tool that will enable developing countries and their companies to make better export decisions based on rigorous economic analysis”.

The map ensures that companies, even the smallest and most remote, can target new markets with knowledge of trade costs and expected demand. “This allows policy-makers and trade support institutions to optimise the policy environment and support programmes for existing and would-be exporters,” Gonzalez said.

She cites a World Economic Forum trade report that listed 109 countries reporting that they found identifying potential markets as one of the top three problems when exporting.

The map evolved from the need to identify and transmit robust scientific trade analysis in a digestible manner.

“It started when the Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries approached us with a request to assess the export potential of 64 countries,” Gonzalez said.

“We used the opportunity to enhance the work we had already put in motion focusing on innovation and the latest technology.”

The map “is the world’s largest database on exports and imports and its market access map is the largest database on tariffs and other requirements.

“Collecting and analysing data so that it becomes trade intelligence is time-consuming and costly, so we are grateful to our funders, especially the EU, which understands that this initiative is a useful means to translate opportunities into more trade on the ground,” Gonzalez said.

“We are now developing a sister method that will explore the export potential of services.

“This matters because data on trade in services is scarcer than for trade in goods.

“Our reward comes when policy makers use the tool to make better and more sound decisions on trade, when trade promotion organisations provide better services to their customers and when SMMEs [small, micro-and medium-sized enterprises], especially in poorer countries, are better-placed to increase and diversify their trade.” — DDC