BY HAILE DEMEKE
ADDIS ABABA – The 55th ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development concluded renewing commitments to fully implementing the African Continental Free Trade Areas (AfCFTA).
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Acting Executive Secretary Antonio Pedro said that the summit has vowed to activate AfCFTA as it is the backbone plan for the continent thereby providing catalyst for the structural transformation and strengthening business and investment.
It was learnt that persistent poverty and inequality are likely to undermine prosperity, peace and security in Africa unless governments embark on innovative and people-entered development models. AfCFTA can be leverage to foster economic resilience, inclusion and recovery reducing inequality and vulnerability, he said.
According to the secretary, the continent has unique opportunity endowed with vast natural resources that can enable transition towards green and sustainable economic transformation. “The number of young population by itself is great opportunity and if the continent invests in building and strengthening human capital we can easily harness the natural resource to ensure transformation.”
Accordingly, Africa is falling further behind other global regions and now accounts for the largest share of the world’s poor due to increased poverty and inequalities, as a result, many African countries are facing declining revenues, rising debt stress and constrained fiscal space, all of which limit their capacity to respond to economic crises. Chairperson of the Bureau Henry Musasizi said that: “We have agreed on some key issues like AfCFTA which is very important in integrating the continent thereby catalyzing trade activity and exploiting the potential, he said.
Despite endowment of natural resources, the continent is the poorest when it comes to measures of income and wealth. Creating job and investing in data are among the core things to reduce poverty, inequality and vulnerability, it was stated.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH 2023
