Africa Should Promote Development of Continental Free Trade Area (Moroccan Adviser)

African countries should promote the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a market of more than 1.3 billion consumers, said Hanaa Benkhair, Moroccan parliamentary adviser and member of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP).

Speaking at the meeting, Thursday in Johannesburg, of the Committee on Trade, Customs and Immigration, as part of the session of Standing Committees of the sixth legislature of the PAP, Benkhair said that the Pan-African legislative institution is called upon to keep pace with the momentum to implement all measures to create this continental trade space.

“This would help strengthen the dynamics of economic and social development on the African continent and provide opportunities for citizens and entrepreneurs,” she said.

The parliamentary adviser of the General Union of Workers of Morocco (UGTM) noted that this major project will ensure, in the medium term, the creation of a large number of jobs, save 30 million African citizens from extreme poverty and improve the incomes of 68 million people, while increasing the continental wealth of 450 billion dollars.

In the same vein, she reviewed some of the major initiatives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI in favor of the African continent, in the wake of Morocco’s adoption of an approach that prioritizes solidarity and equitable development with sister African countries.

Benkhair recalled the efforts made by the Kingdom to build a continental system for health sovereignty, through the establishment of the first manufacturing plant of vaccines and biotechnology, food sovereignty by developing a strategy of investment in the fertilizer industry in all regions of the continent and sharing best agricultural practices to enhance and strengthen agricultural production in Africa.

The Moroccan adviser also highlighted Morocco’s initiatives in the field of energy, particularly with regard to the development of renewable energy in the Kingdom and its investments in this area at the continental level.