Presenters:

• Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist, Africa Region
• Raju Singh, Lead Economist for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,  Equatorial Guinea and Gabon
• Charles Kunaka, Senior Trade Facilitation Specialist, PRMTR
• Dominique Njinkeu, Lead Trade Facilitation Specialist and TFF Program coordinator, PRMTR
• Mombert Hoppe, Trade economist, PRMVP
• Gilberto de Barros, Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, AFTFW
• Olivier Hartmann, Transport Specialist, PRMTR
• Peter Ngwa Taniform, Transport Specialist, AFTTR

Chair: Gregory Binkert, Country Director for Cameroon, Central African Republic,
           Gabon, Equatorial Guinea

Central Africa holds the key to regional integration as a connector of regional trading blocs in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). The region performs poorly in international trade and competitiveness rankings; this can be attributed to several inter-related factors including inadequate physical accessibility, poor regulatory transit systems, low level of human and institutional capacity. Success in regional integration in Central Africa could stimulate economic growth and intra-regional trade for the entire continent. Full realization of Central Africa’s potential, however, requires a transformative trade facilitation agenda that is informed by proper diagnostics and carefully designed interventions. This BBL will explore options for such a transformative agenda in the framework of the implementation of the Africa Strategy and the World Bank Group strategy.

Presenters' Bios:

• Shantayanan Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Africa Region. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics for the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, and of the South Asia Region.  He was the director of the World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he was on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.The author or co-author of over 100 publications, Mr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general equilibrium modeling of developing countries. Mr. Devarajan received his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
  
  
• Raju Singh is the Lead Economist for Central Africa, based in Yaoundé - Cameroon. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Singh held positions at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, at the Swiss Ministry of Finance in Bern, and at Lombard Odier & Cie (private banking) in Geneva. He was also a consultant for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, working with the central banks of Rwanda and Tanzania, and taught at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
  
  
• Charles Kunaka is a Senior Trade Specialist for the International Trade Department of the World Bank.  He works on trade facilitation and logistics.  He is presently leading the compilation of a toolkit on the management of trade corridors.  He is working also on logistics in lagging regions and on the role and impact of bilateral agreements on road transport services.  Before joining the World Bank, Charles led regional efforts to harmonize transport systems and polices in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.  Charles has a PhD in transport economics and policy.
  
  
• Dominique Njinkeu is a Lead Trade Facilitation Expert and the Program Coordinator of the Trade Facilitation Facility (TFF) – a Trust Fund managed by the International Trade Department of the World Bank. He was previously the Executive Director of ILEAP and worked for the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) in Nairobi, Kenya as the Deputy Director of Research. He also held research positions at the council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal, and the Government of Cameroon. He taught at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, the Université Laval, Quebec, and at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He holds a Masters in Sience in Agribusiness Economics, a double major Masters in Science in Statistics and Economics, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
  
  
• Mombert Hoppe is an economist at the World Bank. Previously, he worked as an economist for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Ghana. His work focuses on political dialogue and economic analysis in the area of international trade, particularly on West and Central Africa. He holds a D.E.S. in European Economic Studies from the Institute of European Studies in Brussels and a Masters in International Economics from the University of Maastricht.
  
  
• Olivier Hartmann joined the World Bank Group in July 2010 as Transport Expert for the Trade Facilitation Facility (TFF), a trust fund managed by the World Bank’s International Trade Department. Prior to that, he was involved in trade facilitation and multimodal transport in Sub-Sahara Africa. He was the Secretary General of PMAESA, the port industry association for Eastern and Southern Africa. Olivier contributed to the development of the model Transport Observatory for the Northern Corridor which serves the landlocked countries of East Africa from the port of Mombasa.
  
  
• Peter Ngwa Taniform is a Transport Specialist for the Africa Region Transport Department of the World Bank.  He is presently supporting the CEMAC Transport and Transit Facilitation project and the West and Central Africa Air Transport Safety and Security projects. Besides this function, he is leading the Road safety component of the CEMAC Transport and Transit Facilitation project. He equally serves as the Bank’s regional coordinator for the TOTAL/World Bank -Africa Road Safety Initiative for the Central Corridor: ‘Douala-Bangui’, ‘Douala-Ndjamena’. Peter holds a Master of Science degree in Transport and Road Engineering.