Egypt ready to share infrastructure upgrading experience with African countries
PRESIDENT Abdel Fattah El Sisi has reiterated Egypt’s full support for the African Free Continental Trade Area (AfCFTA) and called for accelerating the implementation of the arrangement’s provisions and completion of ensuing negotiating stages.
In a recorded speech to the opening session of the 2nd Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development which convened in Aswan City yesterday, President Sisi hailed the entry into effect of AfCFTA on January 1 as a good example of the success of African collective efforts.
African leaders who gathered in the African Union’s summit conference in Kegali in 2018 agreed to create the area. An extraordinary summit conference was called in Niamey under the chairmanship of President Sisi, then AU president, in 2019 and approved the area’s constituent instrument.
The Niamey summit set January 1, 2021 as the date for AfCFTA’s actual launch. The arrangement sets forth the prospect of developing Africa into the world’s largest free-trade zone given that it is formed of the all the AU’s 55 member-states.
In addition to seeking the promotion of inter-African trade, the AfCFTA envisages the upgrading of the infrastructure deemed necessary for the activation of economic exchanges. In his speech yesterday, President Sisi stressed that infrastructure upgrading projects constitute essential brickwork for development and recovery across the continent.
“We are most in need now of ambitious projects such as cross-border transport, roads and electricity interconnectivity projects to achieve the aspired economic and regional integration,” President Sisi said in the speech the full text of which was posted on the Presidency Spokesman’s official FB page.
In addition to such projects, the continent needs to create an environment conducive to achieving higher levels of growth and generating job opportunities, thus contributing to overcoming the economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, the president added.
In this context, President Sisi made reference to Egypt’s pioneering experience in carrying out infrastructure projects and emphasised that Egypt would be glad to share this experience with brotherly countries.
The president also highlighted the importance of the information technology in all aspects of life, especially including its axial role in dealing with the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic during this period; hence the necessity of increasing the volume of investments in the field of digital transformation across the continent to maximise the benefit from the opportunities provided by this technology in various fields.
“Also, the comprehensive recovery from the pandemic requires the development of sustainable development policies that include the economic, social and environmental dimensions as the pandemic has demonstrated the intertwining and overlapping of risks and challenges facing our societies and countries,” the president said.
At the outset of his speech, President Sisi welcomed the participants in the second edition of the forum which was launched during Egypt’s presidency of the African Union in 2019. The president explained that this second session is being held as a virtual event due to the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt, he said, has been keen to convene this session in order to build on the momentum that the first session generated.
President Sisi hailed the Aswan Forum as an interactive platform for pushing forward an ambitious agenda to consolidate the link between the stability of peace and security on the one hand and the realisation of sustainable development across the continent and the promotion of co-operation between our countries as well as with our partners on the other hand.
