Manufacturing development: Undergarments: Africa's only important export item Accra, March 3, GNA - The 2003 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Report has singled out the manufacturing of undergarments as the only important export item in Africa among manufacturers in world trade. "Even then, its share in total African exports is only 1.7 per cent with Mauritius and Swaziland accounting for over 85 per cent of the total exports of this product." The Report, which was jointly launched recently by the Third World Network (TWN) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), painted a rather bleak picture for the continent, saying even though Africa had remained commodity-dependent, it has fallen behind other regions in the world in exports of non-fuel primary commodities. It noted that 17 of the 20 most important export items of Africa were primary commodities and resource-based manufacturers. The Report said while the structure of developing country exports had changed significantly over the past two decades, Africa has hardly benefited from the boom of manufactured exports. Africa's share in world merchandise, according to the Report, fell from 6.3 per cent in 1980 to 2.5 in 2,000 in value terms. "Similarly, its share of total developing country merchandise exports fell to almost eight per cent in 2,000, while its share in manufacture remained at below one per cent," it said. By comparison, Asia's share of global merchandise exports increased from 18 per cent in 1980 to 22 per cent in 2000, while its share of total developing country merchandise exports increased from almost 60 per cent to 72 per cent over the same period. Asia's global manufactured goods trade increased threefold, reaching 21.5 per cent in 2000. Published Mar 07, 2004 - 10:28 AM