Africa-Press – Ethiopia. mber 8/2021 /ENA/ The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has launched reports to further advance Africa’s integration and transformation agenda.
The joint virtual launch event of the 10th Edition of the Report on “Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA) X Theme “Africa’s Services trade liberalization and integration under the AfCFTA” and the Report on “Governing the Interface between the AfCFTA and RECs” was conducted on Tuesday.
ARIA X contains the blueprint for accelerated integration if Africa can take advantage of the promises of services trade on the continent, ECA said in a press release.
The ARIA X report revealed that in 30 of the 54 countries in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) the services sector contributes 53 percent of the GDP.
However, in spite of this growth and potential, many countries in Africa still face difficulties in taking full advantage of the sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief of the Regional Integration Section of the Regional Integration and Trade Division of the ECA Francis Ikome said services are playing an increasingly important role in shaping countries’ economies and performance.
“ Overall, the services sector is a major contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), trade, employment, poverty reduction and even Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and manufacturing, in the specific case of Africa, services have grown tremendously over the recent years and now accounts for significant proportion of economic activities and output.”
Ikome noted that the services sector is still very much overlooked in Africa owing to the fact that the sector is largely informal and fragmented.
Miho Shirotori, Officer-in-Charge at UNCTAD’s Division on International Trade and Commodities (UNCTAD-DITC) noted on her part that ARIA X is essential as digitalization and diversification become central to integration efforts.
“There is a very good reason why this report focuses on services and it is not only about the importance of services negotiation in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). This is because the services development policy is an essential element industrialization policy and economic diversification”, she said.
The ARIA X report has 10 chapters under three main sections that discuss conceptual overviews on trade, themes and development of value chains.
The last chapter makes recommendations for the financial, transport, communication, tourism and business services, it was indicated.
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