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The African Union (AU) should leverage Chinese technology to reap maximum benefits from the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement next year, said Albert Fiatui, Executive Director of the Center for International Maritime Affairs (CIMA ) in Ghana. .
Speaking with Xinhua, he noted that the mutually beneficial cooperation between Africa and China will help the rapid economic transformation of Africa with the entry into force of the AfCFTA agreement.
“Africa cannot trade with itself alone and be successful, so Africa needs China as much as China needs Africa. I think the AU has its own plan to make sure that the relationship with China is closer so that once we can produce and take advantage of our resources, we export to China so that we can get the necessary income that is required for our own business. development, ”he said.
The AfCFTA that was scheduled to start in July had to be postponed to next year due to the COVID-19 outbreak and there are concerns that may affect the outlook for the strategy.
But the expert believes that the pandemic has not had a devastating effect on the continent, so the AfCFTA will see a smooth takeoff in January.
“When COVID-19 started, the projections that were made were that Africa would be the hardest hit, but it turned out that we have handled it much better than the other giants. With all the evaluations we’ve done so far, we think it can take off and work. So I think, to a large extent, COVID-19 is here to stay and we all have to manage it, but then we have to go ahead with this deal and enjoy the benefits, “he said.
The expert further emphasized that, as part of the benefits, Ghana and the rest of the African continent will open up to the international community and urged several governments to provide incentives to small businesses so that they can compete in the global market to generate the economy. transformation envisaged by the AfCFTA agreement.
The Secretary General of the Ghana Traders Advocacy Group (TAGG), Nana Poku, expressed her optimism that the AfCFTA agreement will be of immense benefit to local businesses and wants the government to present credit facilities here for people to access.
“We call on the government to extend its tentacles in terms of helping traders meet this challenge because if not, other countries will come and take advantage of us,” he said.
The 18th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2012, adopted the decision to establish a continental free trade area on an indicative date of 2017. However, this deadline was not met.
The summit also approved the Action Plan to Boost Intra-African Trade (BIAT) that identifies seven priority action groups: trade policy, trade facilitation, productive capacity, trade-related infrastructure, trade finance, trade information and market integration. of factors.
The AfCFTA is expected to improve competitiveness at the industrial and business level by exploiting opportunities for scale production, access to the continental market, and better reallocation of resources.
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