BY TIGIST SERNESA
Ethiopia introduces national African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation strategy to stakes.
The introduction came during a high-level consultative forum on the development of Ethiopia's national AfCFTA implementation strategy held Saturday in Addis Ababa.
Envisioning to connect 1.3 billion people across the continent, AfCFTA is a landmark economic initiative that has an immense potential to transform the African continent.
Speaking on the occasion, Ethiopian Trade and Regional Integration Minister, Gebremeskel Chala, reiterated that introducing the strategy is aimed at identifying and harnessing Ethiopia's trade advantages within AfCFTA.
In his keynote address, Director of Regional Integration and Trade Division at United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Stephen Karingi, indicated that realization of the promises of the AfCFTA is solely dependent on the implementation of it.
Karingi also commended Ethiopia's introduction of the strategy to pertinent stakes.
Approached by EBC, Director General for Policy Studies Institute Beyene Petros (Prof.), for his part stressed that the outcome of the introduced strategy not only benefits Ethiopia but also other African countries.
Beyene also said on the occasion that AfCFTA, which was initiated in 2012 and enacted in 2019, is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063.
Ethiopia is a founding state and ratified the agreement in 2019, he said, and mentioned the scale and potential impact of the AfCFTA which include the lifting of 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty, creating real income growth of around 450 million US dollars, and increasing intra-African exports by 81 percent.
His institute, Policy Studies Institute (PSI), has had a sound role in developing Ethiopia's national AfCFTA implementation strategy, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and the UNECA, according to Beyene.
PSI has been fully committed to this assignment, as it is aligned with the institute's purpose of supporting the Ethiopian government in policy formulation and strategy development.
The forum, which was organized by Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute (PSI), brought together policymakers, government officials, business leaders and other stakeholders from government institutions, international and continental organizations and the private sector.