South African government speech on hemp

[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
GOD bless South Africa. Now there's a country with leaders who are forward-thinking when it comes to legalizing industrial hemp. It's obvious that they see billions (in dollar$) of reasons to grow said plant. I urge you to take a peek at this amazing speech. Here's a teaser to whet your appetite:

Tonight, we are here to celebrate the first retail and marketing outlet to be established by Hooked on Hemp SA, a black owned small business which acts as convenors of the Human Resource Development programme in the National Hemp Initiative. Ultimately, it is hoped to roll House of Hemp out to the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, the three provinces where hemp grows the best in South Africa.

The products you will see this evening at the House of Hemp will surprise you in their diversity, ranging as they do from men's and ladies' fashion wear through to home d飯r, stationery, building materials and beauty and health products. All manufactured from hemp, they are produced for House of Hemp by small scale entrepreneurs from previously disadvantaged communities, with the assistance and support of the CSIR. {source}

Go South Africa go! [Read more]

Great business news from South Africa

[Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]
WITH FIFA's World Cup competition due to arrive on South Africa's shores in 2010, there's no doubt that business is booming like never before. Optimism along with a deep rooted pride is in the air of Africa's most advanced economy. I will definitely have to take a visit down to SA some day to see what all the buzz is about.

Also, it'd be nice to chat with some of their IT professionals since those guys can hold their own against the best in the world. I'm basing this on some IT projects I've seen that originated from over there. Hmmm, I wonder if their authorities will let me into the country after I wrote this article bitching about a particular telkom company: Telkom South Africa: Can a Company be this Hated? Hey, I tell it like it is. :-)

Any how, I urge you to peek these exciting stories coming out of SA that make excellent Go Africa go! material. Go SA go! :-)

SA breeds an exploding middle class
Optimism pervades the country as millions haul themselves out of poverty. In most societies in the world, it takes four to five generations for a person to rise from poverty to affluent middle-class status. In South Africa, a raft of surveys shows this is happening within a single generation. Experts say the American dream, which has lasted for more than 100 years, is starting to wane, while the South African dream is being born. {Read more}

SA's stock exchange on a high
2006 was another record-beating year for South Africa's JSE, with foreigners buying a record net R73.7-billion worth of local shares, the All Share index rocketing 38% - in the process reaching numerous new all-time highs - and the AltX exchange for smaller companies reaching critical mass just three years after its birth. Bloomberg reported this week that overseas investment in South African stocks hit a record high for the second year running in 2006, with foreigners investing a net R73.7-billion in the JSE - up by 47% from 2005 - buying R480.8-billion of shares and selling R407.1-billion. {Read more}

SA scores for ease of business
South Africa ranks among the top 30 countries in the world in the World Bank's Doing Business 2007 report, released in Washington on Tuesday. Doing Business is an annual report that measures the ease of doing business in 175 economies around the world. This year's report measured the effect of 213 reforms that reduced the time, cost, and hassle for businesses to comply with legal and administrative requirements.
"The report is a critical tool for developing countries to determine where more reforms are needed," said World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz. {Read more}