Avasant invited to thought leadership workshop organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat for sharing insights on service trade and discuss strategies to harness the potential of service trade in Africa

Los Angeles, California. July 3rd, 2014. "Trade services integration into the national development framework could address the developmental challenges of Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC)", recommended Dr. Pradeep K. Mukherji at the Commonwealth Seceratariat Workshop on Maximizing the potential of Services Trade: Priorities for Africa, held on 10-12 June 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya. As an eminent thought leader on the subject of global trade in services, Dr. Mukherji shared insights on ‘How to institutionalize support to enhance Trade in Services' and ‘What play Africa can have in the BPO Global Value Chain'. The event was co-sponsored by COMESA, and had participation from over 20 countries from COMESA and EAC regions. COMESA is a free trade zone with nineteen member states stretching from Libya to Swazilandand. EAC is an intergovernmental organisation comprising five countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The workshop provided a platform to brainstorm various facets of services trade through: 1. Sharing experiences and ideas to harness the potential of services for sustainable economic transformation. 2. Discussing approaches to address constraints in services trade and competitiveness 3. Providing a platform to share current and planned support that countries can draw on to initiate or complement the country-level efforts to enhance services trade. 4. Making recommendations on the priority actions to stimulate services trade in Africa. As an advisor, Avasant engages with African governments in creating industry roadmap, capacity development and policy formulation initiatives, that are aimed at developing trade in sevices sector and creating job opportunities for the citizens in the sector. Avasant is engaged with Commonwealth Seceratariat in developing services sector development and promotion strategies and was invited to the Pan -Africa Services Trade Workshop to share its perspectives. About Avasant Avasant, a leading US-headquartered global management consulting firm with areas of expertise in strategic outsourcing, technology consulting, and globalization strategies, has operations in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Based in Los Angeles, California, Avasant's talented team of consultants, lawyers and technologists average over 20 years of industry experience, and have conducted more than 1,000 engagements in over 40 countries. Avasant drives customer value through the use of proprietary consulting and advisory methods, which have been refined over decades of real-world transaction and engagement experience. www.avasant.com Contact Avasant Marketing marketing@avasant.com