CAPE TOWN, March 20 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged on Tuesday to work towards the establishment of a free trade area in Africa.
South Africa is committed to the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Ramaphosa said as he left for Kagili, Rwanda to attend the 10th Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).
The AfCFTA will boost intra-Africa trade in accordance with the aspirations of the AU's Agenda 2063, Ramaphosa said.
The AU summit is expected to discuss issues related to the AfCFTA and adopt the Agreement Establishing the AfCFTA.
Over the past three days, an Extraordinary Session of the AU Executive Council has deliberated on the AfCFTA legal instruments and launched the Agreement Establishing the AfCFTA.
Ramaphosa will deliver a statement at the summit in his capacity as Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
As part of Africa's integration approach, the envisaged AfCFTA is designed to combine market integration with industrial and infrastructure development to address Africa's productive capacity and supply side constraints, promote the diversification of Africa's export base from dependence on raw materials to value-added products, as well as alleviate the chronic infrastructure deficit in the continent.
Besides offering an opportunity to create larger economies of scale, a bigger market and improve the prospects of the African continent to attract investment, the AfCFTA will provide new export opportunities for South African products and services in West Africa and North Africa.
The South African government has repeatedly stated that it is committed to a coordinated strategy to boost intra-Africa trade and to build an integrated market in Africa that will see a market of over 1 billion people with a GDP of approximately 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars.
