The world looks at Africa as a land of promising opportunities, Sisi
Since assuming power in 2014, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi directed his government to adopt a new strategy towards Africa based on the idea of creating mutual ground in order to achieve the interests and benefits of its people and their aspirations for a better future.
Egypt at the African Union
When Egypt took over the AU, it outlined six priority areas – economic and regional integration, building bridges among Africa’s peoples, cooperating with partners, economic and social development, institutional and financial reform of the AU, and peace and security.
During his chairmanship, al-Sisi helped advance Africa’s continental free trade area agreement which he considered as a turning point in terms of economic integration. Egypt announced in May 2019 that the African Continental Free Frade Area (AfCFTA) had come into force after being ratified by 22 countries on the continent, including Egypt.
The AfCFTA is Africa’s most sought-after initiative in the the African Union 2063 Agenda, whose main objective objective is to create a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of people and investments, thus expanding intra-African trade across the continent, enhancing competitiveness and supporting economic transformation in Africa.
Egyptian initiatives
Furthermore, al-Sisi launched a number of important initiatives that reflected a shift on the road to African integration and coordination of visions.
At the forefront of these initiatives is the Africa Conference that Egypt has been hosting annually since 2016; the conference contributed to achieving effective communication between the governments of African countries as well as companies operating in the continent’s market.
The Egyptian president believes in the importance of working to achieve the required harmony in the performance of African regional groupings to move in a balanced pace towards implementing the continental integration agenda, as well as the need to coordinate regional integration efforts with the advancement of the infrastructure and energy networks at the continental level.