At the 18th Plenary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian in January 2012, the heads of African countries decided to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA for short). After more than 7 years of preparation, in May 2019, the AfCFTA Agreement entered into force with the ratification of the first 22 African countries. To date, 46 African countries have officially ratified the AfCFTA Agreement. When fully operational, the AfCFTA will be the largest free trade area in the world, with a market of 1.3 billion people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of up to $3.4 trillion.
The implementation of AfCFTA will help Africa deepen economic integration, attract investment, promote trade, create jobs, reduce poverty and bring prosperity to African countries.
Speaking at the opening of the seminar, Dr. Phan Chi Hieu, President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, said that Vietnam and African countries have a traditional friendly relationship, always supporting each other from the beginning the struggle for national liberation, to the construction and development of the country. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, trade turnover between Vietnam and other regions has decreased, but trade turnover between Vietnam and African countries still recorded positive growth. The main export items of Vietnam to Africa include: industrial goods (agricultural processing machinery, telephones, phone components, ...), agriculture (agricultural products, food, coffee, tea, etc.) pepper, seafood), processed goods, etc. In contrast, Vietnam imports from Africa mainly raw materials (cotton, cashew, wood, ...). The goods of the two sides are complementary, so when the AfCFTA is declared, it will be an opportunity for Vietnam's competitive advantages to penetrate more into the African market and vice versa.
President Phan Chi Hieu emphasized that the international conference "Promoting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): Opportunities and Challenges for Vietnam" is topical and extremely important, contributing to part in response to the theme of Africa Day 2023, “Promoting the implementation of the African Union (AU) AfCFTA”.
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Abdelhamid Boubazine, Ambassador of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria to Vietnam, said that over the past decade, trade between Vietnam and Africa has more than doubled, from 2.52 billion USD in 2010 to 5.5 billion USD in 2022. With the introduction of AfCFTA, Vietnam's trade with the African market will continue to increase significantly.
Ambassador Abdelhamid Boubazine also said that up to now, 46 African countries have officially ratified the AfCFTA Agreement. When fully operational, the AfCFTA will be the largest free trade area in the world, with a market of 1.3 billion people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of up to $3.4 trillion.
The implementation of Agenda 2063 by the African Union and AfCFTA will help Africa deepen its economic integration, attract investment, promote trade, create jobs, reduce poverty and bring prosperity prosperity for the African countries. Specifically, according to a World Bank report in 2020, AfCFTA will likely help Africa's FDI increase from 111% to 159% by attracting cross-border investment through tariff exemptions and non-tariff barriers, instead of replace regional and bilateral trade agreements with a single and unified agreement.
The conference took place in 2 sessions. Session 1: Accelerating AfCFTA Implementation: Situation and Prospects for Africa; Session 2: Partners for AfCFTA Success: Opportunities and Challenges for Vietnam.
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Talking at the seminar, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of International Trade and Economics, National Economics University, said that Africa has the potential to be a big market, in terms of economic development, hopes to promote the implementation of AfCFTA for Africa, first of all, there is a large market with non-AfCFTA partners such as providing resources and minerals for the mining and manufacturing industries, and land for agricultural production; consumption of appropriate goods, services and technologies; receive investment capital from outside; exploiting external impacts; develop the connection network between the countries in the continent and the outside, such as by air, by sea, connecting network infrastructure, developing logistics services; strengthen comprehensive bilateral, multilateral and sub-regional cooperation relations with non-continental countries; actively negotiate and sign agreements according to partner strengths...
To promote successful AfCFTA implementation, for Vietnam, according to Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang, Vietnam needs to radically upgrade its existing and traditional relations with African countries; promote business connection, strengthen market surveys, fairs and exhibitions to fully exploit existing opportunities, open new opportunities, attach importance to risk management in trade and investment. Along with that, Vietnam needs to build new forms of cooperation, exchange business models and new economies such as digital business, circular economy, and sharing economy. Develop online connection platforms to reduce transaction costs, strongly develop forums, seminars, conferences, exchanges and exchanges to understand specific information of each member partner and party outside. At the same time, cooperate to develop new areas such as renewable energy, digital transformation, combating climate change, initiatives and models to reduce net emissions to zero by 2050.
Workshop scene
At the workshop, the delegates jointly assessed the challenges and opportunities posed for Vietnam-Africa cooperation in the new situation; Measures to promote and expand trade, especially boosting the export and import of key commodities of each side through strengthening market and business connections, including the ability to exploit technical platforms digital. At the same time, the delegates identified major orientations to promote cooperation in economic development; propose mechanisms, policies and financial solutions, human resources... to support cooperation projects with Africa.
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