Algeria and Libya’s strategic ‘‘gateway’’ location and sub-Saharan Africa’s huge potential heralds great potential for transit trade, Yassin Bousrewiel, Chairman of the African Economic Forum and General Supervisor of the Forum and Exhibition for Transport and Transit Trade in Africa (AFRO-TT), told Libya Herald in an exclusive interview today.
AFRO-TT will be held in the Algerian capital from January 30 to February 1, with the participation of more than 150 Libyan and Algerian industrial and commercial companies in various disciplines.
Algeria and Libya’s strategic locations: Gateways to Africa
This forum comes due to the importance of the strategic location enjoyed by the two neighbouring countries as a gateway to Africa and the great potentials and human and natural resources of sub-Saharan Africa, he expanded. Sub-Saharan Africa contains about 30 percent of the world’s mineral wealth, 12 percent of oil reserves, 43 percent of gold and 50 percent of diamonds and 67 percent of arable land. The value of African exports and imports amounts to about US$ 1,016 billion, of which 6.8% is intra-trade, Bousrewiel added reinforcing the case for increased trade.
Diagnosing causes of low transit trade
He explained that the forum will shed light on important African trade issues, diagnose the reasons for the low level of African transit trade, and encourage the private sector to enter African markets with the aim of promoting growth and economic diversification, providing new job opportunities, and reducing inflation in government funding spending in Libya and Algeria.
Targeted participants
He added that those targeted to participate in the forum are free and industrial zones, export development institutions, investment and financing companies, telecommunications and information technology companies, businessmen and investors, transportation, shipping and logistics companies, industrial and mining institutions, customs, tax authorities and decision-makers.
Encouraging private sector investment in free zones and ports
Bousrewiel said the main objectives of the forum and exhibition are to encourage the private sector to invest in free zones and land ports, and to establish the importance of the role of transit trade in developing the economies of Libya and Algeria in particular, and the entire African continent. The forum will also be proposing mechanisms to raise the quality of African logistics services and consolidating cooperation to ensure the effectiveness of transit trade quality.
North and sub-Saharan African integration
In conclusion, Bousrewiel said that the Forum is the starting point towards economic and commercial integration between the countries of North Africa and their neighbouring sub-Saharan states.
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