A few weeks before the start of negotiations on the agreement of the Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECA), “the Senegalese private sector is not yet ready” to cross the line of the said zone.
“We are not ready but we are preparing to be ready when the time comes,” said Ange Billong, chairman of the presidential council of investment and members of the National Council of Patronage of Senegal.
Mr Billong was speaking on the sidelines of an information and sensitization session for the benefit of the private sector, parliamentarians and organized civil society, on Tuesday 22 May in Dakar, organized by the National Committee for International Trade Negotiations (CNNCI) .
The entrepreneur explains that to position oneself in the free trade area, “we must support investors and entrepreneurs to develop and produce at least the equivalent of what companies must import in compliance with the rules. rules and laws that allow the private sector to compete. ”
The President of the Presidential Council of Investment believes that “Senegalese companies are not yet structured enough, nor ready to go on an adventure. The private sector as a whole is not ready yet.
According to Alioune Sarr, Senegalese Minister of Commerce, “ZLECA is an important issue for Senegal. Thus, a number of sectors will be liberalized at 90% and 10% will be excluded from liberalization.
Therefore, “meeting with the private sector will help identify sensitive sectors to exclude them from liberalization and upgrade local businesses.”
At the end of the exchanges, ten sensitive sectors considered as important in the Senegalese economy will be identified as sector not to liberalize notably the financial sector, banking, telecom, air transport etc.
After the identification of these sectors, and analysis at the continental level, the CNNCI intends to upgrade and support companies to become real actors in the ZLECA.
However, according to the Minister of Commerce, challenges remain, particularly in terms of production, skills, and innovation …
For CNNCI President Aminata Assomme DIATTA, “a country like Senegal with a narrow market has an interest in having a large opening in other markets to attract large companies”.
Companies will be accompanied to compete with other African countries and to conquer other markets.
As a reminder, in March 2018 in Kigali (Rwanda), the majority of the continent signed the agreement for the establishment of the African Free Trade Area (ZLECA), the largest market of goods and services since the creation of the WTO.
ZLECA represents 1.2 billion consumers, with a potential GDP of $ 2.5 trillion, characterized by a young and growing labor force and a growing middle class and urbanization.
