Africa-Press – Botswana. Collaboration between governments, transnational entities, the world of science and innovation, the private sector and institutions such as the University of Botswana (UB) and UNISA is necessary to ensure positive outcomes of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at national and global level.
Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Beauty Manake said this when officially opening the second International Engaged Scholarship Conference in Gaborone on Wednesday.
It was on such a backdrop that Ms Manake urged local universities to assist in the implementation of the AfCFTA.
“I believe this conference provides a platform for all the key and relevant players to share their knowledge, perspectives, experiences, and best practices towards advancing the poverty eradication agendas of our African communities,” she said.
Ms Manake said in 2018, the African Union (AU) established AfCFTA, the world’s largest free trade area, bringing together 55 AU countries, including Botswana and South Africa, to create a single market for the continent.
“Through AfCFTA, the AU, as outlined in Agenda 2063, endeavours to build a prosperous Africa and significantly improve the lives of people across the African continent by boosting economies, reducing poverty, and promoting good governance,” she said.
She added that the agreement aimed to significantly accelerate the growth of intra-Africa trade and use trade more effectively as an engine of growth and sustainable development.
“It is worth noting that Botswana signed the AfCFTA Agreement on February 10, 2019 and ratified it on February 19 this year, bearing testimony to our commitment to participate in the continental integration agenda,” she said.
As an example of government’s commitment to the progress of AfCFTA, Ms Manake said a recent decision was undertaken to simplify the movement of persons between Botswana and Namibia by using national identity cards (IDs) at the borders instead of passports.
She said the free movement of people would create an opportunity for businesspersons and investors to forge partnerships that encouraged economic and trade relations between the two countries with less restrictions.
“It is my earnest hope that as the distinguished speakers lined up in this conference, deliberate and contribute their intellectual prowess will not only be a forum for discussing brilliant and theoretical ideas but also a great opportunity to come up with practical and implementable solutions and approaches that can effectively and inclusively address the economic challenges facing the African continent,” she said.
For her part, UB acting vice chancellor, Professor Doreen Ramogola-Masire said the International Engaged Scholarship Conference was an annual travelling meeting which aimed to propose strategies and actionable recommendations that would enable and boost the intra-Africa continental free trade market.
Professor Ramogola-Masire said since the need to effectively implement AfCFTA’s initiative was key and a top priority for the African continent, she believed that the conference was highly appropriate and a timely forum to engage on key issues.
“We believe that as fellow Africans, the solutions lie with us and we have what it takes to co-create solutions that go beyond the divisible regional economic boundaries and ensure that AfCFTA should not just be a trade agreement but rather an instrument for Africa’s development,” she said.
She added that as institutions of higher learning, the conference would serve as a platform where important contributions to policy reforms and trade facilitation measures could be made that had the potential to deliver some of the AGENDA 2063 aspirations.
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