Events

The African Union High Level African Trade Committee (HATC) to meet on 25 June 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – 20 June 2014. On the sidelines of the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union being held from the 20th to 27th June, the Department of Trade and Industry will convene the 3rd High Level African Trade Committee (HATC) meeting on the 25th of June 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The HATC meets and provides policy orientation and recommendations to the summit on the acceleration and deepening of Africa’s market integration agenda. This time HATC is expected to take a higher political profile due to the expected participation of Heads of States of AU member countries, H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Fatima Haram Acyl, Commissioner of Trade and Industry, and Chief Executives of the Regional Economic Communities among others. The meeting will be chaired by H.E. Idriss Deby Itno, President of Chad.

The HATC’s main responsibility is to facilitate and unlock the blockages in the implementation of the framework, road map and architecture for fast-tracking the establishment of the continental free trade area (CFTA), and the action plan for boosting intra-African trade (BIAT) which became AU policy in January 2012.

Based on progress during the past two years, the Heads of State and Government demonstrated their commitment to fast track the establishment of the CFTA by requesting AU Ministers of Trade to convene an extraordinary session to prepare for the launch of the CFTA negotiations in 2015. The HATC urged the member states to consider and report on Africa’s response and key developments on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and their implications on Africa’s integration agenda. This decision was a significant signal that economic integration at a continental level is engaging a higher gear as evidenced by strategic consultations between the PRC and the African Union Commission led by the AUC Chairperson at a retreat held in April 2014, with further consultations with Chief Executives of Regional Economic Communities (RECs), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Development Bank (AfDB), NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) as well as Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the beginning of June 2014. The Commission has commenced regional consultations, with the first one held in collaboration with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Gaborone, Botswana in May; with a target to consult all AU-recognised RECs during the coming months.

The Extraordinary Session of the Conference of Ministers of Trade was held in Addis Ababa on 27-28 April 2014 as directed and made recommendations on the issues identified by the last HATC meeting. The June 2014 HATC meeting is expected to consider the key recommendations from the Extraordinary session of the Conference of AU Trade Ministers and present their report to the Assembly. In addition, it will assess the progress made on trade integration efforts on the continent and provide its political guidance to the African Union Assembly.

The High Level African Trade Committee is made up of the Chairpersons of the eight (8) Regional Economic Communities i.e. The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States (CENSAD), the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The current members of the HATC are Chad (Chair of ECCAS and CENSAD), Côte d’Ivoire (Chair of ECOWAS), Ethiopia (Chair of IGAD), Kenya (Chair of EAC), Libya (Chair of AMU), Malawi (Chair of SADC) and Uganda (Chair of COMESA), The African Union is the key institution driving Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) initiative, with the Department of Trade and Industry having the primary responsibility for the CFTA within the AU Commission.

For further information, please contact Mr. Batanai Chikwene, Email: CHIKWENEB@africa-union.org.

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Welcome remarks of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to the 28th Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representative Committee

Malabo, 20-22 June 2014

 
Your Excellency, Ambassador of Zimbabwe and Acting Chairperson of the Permanent Representatives Committee;

Your Excellencies Members of the Permanent Representatives Committee;

The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Mr Erastus Mwencha;

Leaders of AU Organs

Representatives of the Regional Economic Communities

Commissioners of the African Union Commission;

Distinguished Officials from Capitals

Distinguished Invited Guests

It is a pleasure to address the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) given your important role in Summit preparations and in complementing the day-to-day work of the African Union Commission.

Allow me to sincerely thank the people and Government of Equatorial Guinea for their legendary hospitality and for putting at our disposal these excellent conference facilities.

Your Excellencies

The meeting of the PRC takes place in the context a working sessions of the Summit, looking at progress on decisions that should consolidate the work of the Union and take the continent forward.

At the same time, we are near-conclusion with the political statement and technical documents on our vision for the next fifty years. The work on Agenda 2063, as our discussions at the joint PRC-AU Commission retreat showed, must move beyond aspirations, towards identifying those concrete areas where we must see action and faster movement forward in the next decade, so that we start building the Africa that we want today.

The theme of this Summit and its focus on Agriculture and Food security is but one such area. The theme debate must see us recommit to the overarching CAADP targets of raising investment and productivity in agriculture. We must also put in place the concrete actions we must take as countries, regions and the continent to stimulate agribusiness value chains, identifying which specific agricultural products this should be, and where. It requires renewed focus on irrigation and seed development; women’s access to land, inputs and markets; and the infrastructure to store products and move them to markets, inside and outside the continent.

Many of the Ministerial reports serving before the PRC focus on other practical issues necessary to move Agenda 2063 forward, such as that of the Ministers of Education, and of the Ministers of Science and Technology and others.

The evidence is overwhelming that developing countries who managed to lift their populations out of poverty and build shared prosperity, are those who heavily invested in education, skills development and science and technology; as well as building their infrastructure. It is thus timely that Summit is requested to consider our vision and the concrete tasks to achieve this especially in Science and Technology.

Excellencies,

We are five years away from our target date for silencing the guns. This requires focused attention to resolving the conflicts that remain, consolidating peace and preventing and stopping the outbreak of other conflicts. At the same time, as we have seen in Mali and Somalia and escalating in Nigeria and Kenya, we face the growing threat of terrorism, extremism and attacks on innocent civilians. Our hearts go out to the victims and families of such attacks, and we must continue to pledge solidarity and work with the governments of the affected countries to stem the tide.

Terrorism and transnational crime, including arms, drugs and human trafficking know no borders, and we are all affected. The AU must also continue to address the issue of sexual violence in conflicts, as we push for protection of civilians, participation of women in peace processes and for prevention.

It bears repeating that the surest route to lasting peace and permanently silencing the guns is to build inclusive, equitable and tolerant societies. We must be steadfast about creating conditions for peace, through the building blocks of development and shared prosperity.

Excellencies,

It is for all these reasons that the continual improvement of the institutional architecture of our Union remains important, a matter that occupied our deliberations during the Hawassa PRC-AUC Retreat in April this year.

The Commission itself, as we informed you at the January Summit, is been paying attention to institutional matters, and is in the process of concluding the organizational review of the structure of the Commission. We also introduced measurers to make our travel policy more cost-effective, and ensured that all administrative structures required in the Rules and Procedures - including the long-moribund Administrative Tribunal - are
functional.

The Commission is improving the turnaround time of its recruitment processes, applying the country quotas to ensure fair distribution, and taking concrete steps to move closer to gender parity in its employment practices.

Over the last week, we presented the 2015 Budget of the Commission, with welcome engagements on the capacity of the Commission to spend, as well as the optimal relationship between its operational and programmatic budget.

As we move with Africa’s integration agenda, the mandates given to the AU by Member States have also been growing. It is, therefore, inevitable that the AU budget has continued to increase over the years.

Your Excellencies;

We are also progressing with the review of Strategic partnerships of the Union, and should be ready to present to next year’s summit. At the same time, there are valuable lessons from the Africa-EU Summit held at the beginning of March this year, that when we are clear about what Africa wants and we coordinate our efforts, we can ensure that we have outcomes which do not undermine our continental agendas. In the coming months, some of us have also been invited to the Africa-US Summit, and we should follow the same approach.

We can already see the benefits of our Common African Position on the post-2015 Development Agenda, providing us with a platform to engage other regions, build South-South solidarity, most recently during the Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial meeting in Algiers and the just held ACP-EU meetings in Nairobi.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

You will recall that the Executive Council, when they met at a Retreat in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, in January this year established a Ministerial Sub-Committee to follow up on implementation of their decisions, as well as Agenda 2063.

The Ministerial Sub-Committee met earlier this month, with the participation of Chief Executive Officers of Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and our strategic partners, the AfDB and UNECA and made valuable inputs on a variety of issues at the core of Africa’s integration agenda. As we deliberate on Agenda 2063 at this session, I trust that those inputs will be taken into consideration.

In conclusion, I know that your Excellencies have been working continuously since May to finalise the reports of the various PRC sub-Committees. This preparatory work and deliberations here at Malabo will go a long way in facilitating the work of the Executive Council and of the Assembly.

I wish to assure you that the Commission will do its best to facilitate your work, and ensuring that the outcomes of your deliberations, and those of the policy organs, are implemented. In this regard, we hope to continue to receive your maximum support and cooperation.

In conclusion, I apologise for the hick-ups in logistics, and assure you that we are working with the host country on these matters.

I wish you fruitful deliberations and thank you for your attention.

Merci beaucoup!
Muito obrigado!
Muchas gracias!
Shukran jazilan!
Asante sana!
Dates:
Jun.20.2014

MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT/ 23rd AU SUMMIT 20-27 June 2014

ONLINE ACCREDITATION FOR JOURNALISTS NOW AVAILABLE

The Directorate of Information and Communication (DIC) of the African Union announces that the online accreditation process for the coverage of the 23rd AU Summit, scheduled to take palace from the 20th to 27th June at the Sipopo Conference Center in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea has been launched on the AU website: www.au.int.

All the journalists interested in covering the upcoming AU Summit should register through the following link: http://summits.au.int/en/23rdsummit/accreditation .

The theme of the Summit is: “Transforming Africa’s Agriculture: Harnessing Opportunities for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development”

For further information contact:
Esther Azaa Tankou,
Directorate of Information and Communication,
African Union Commission
Tel: +251 911361185
E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org

Learn more at:
http://www.au.int
http://summits.au.int/en/23rdsummit

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