São Paulo – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) wants to increase trade by the African countries. With this goal, the UN’s agency opened its first office in Africa this week, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It will be headed by Ugandan Joy Kategekwa, former staff of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In a press release, Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary-general of Unctad, says that the office will help “make trade work for Africa”. According to data from Unctad, trade among the African countries is very low in comparison to the continent’s total trade.
In the last decade, says the release, the share of intra-Africa trade in the continent’s total trade stood around 11%, while between Latin America and the Caribbean this figure goes up to 21%, with Europe reaching up to 70%. “Africa is at a crossroads in its trade agenda. Never has the political momentum and support for deeper trade integration been higher on the continent”, said Kituyi.
“Having Unctad on the ground provides Africa the opportunity to use Unctad’s extensive technical and analytical resources”, pointed out Kituyi. To him, “the regional office for Africa will play a leading role in coordinating the delivery of Unctad’s advisory services in support of implementation of the post-2015 agenda for African countries”.
The post-2015 agenda is a set of programs, actions and guidelines of the United Nations in search for sustainable development, and comes to replaces the Millennium Development Goals, which established targets until 2015.
According to Kituyi, the agency will help Africans governemts to speed up regional economic integration. According to Unctad ‘s general secretary, this will contribute for the prosperity of Africans, to include its companies into regional and national chains and to make their economies more productive. “Unctad has the necessary tool kit to support Africa in this process”, he said.
During the inauguration of the office, the trade commissioner Fatima Haram Acyl, said that “we would like Unctad to support us in the agenda of Africa’s regional integration, more specifically in the continental free trade area (CFTA). We’re already receiving a significant support, but we need more”.
To Kategekwa, who will head the UN’s body, the office “will be central to support the Africa Union and its member states in CFTA’s negotiation process.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
