Experts from the African Union who will report to the heads of state.
By Rodrigue Fénélon Massala, special envoy to Yaoundé.
The 3rd Specialized African Union Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration is being held in Yaounde from 4 to 8 March under the theme “Public Policies for Productive Transformation”.
The participants address various themes including productive transformation in Africa, the role of regional integration and the private sector, transformative leadership and Africa’s productive transformation. The meeting takes place in a context where subregional and regional harmonization is a problem in some parts of the continent, particularly in Central Africa.
“If structural transformation has already been the subject of several studies, the reflections around the productive transformation deserve to be fed,” observes the Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the African Union, Prof. Victor Harison.
And the expert says: “Productive transformation is a process by which productivity gains catch up with a group of high-performing countries. This process can be measured in different ways, at the continent, region, country, and enterprise levels. ”
In view of the economic dynamics in vogue in the world, it is important to specify that if in the economies of the developed countries it is observed that the transfer of resources is from the primary sector to the secondary and tertiary sector, in the African economies, the secondary sector is bypassed, creating a direct transfer between the primary and tertiary sectors.
The combination of the African Demographic Revolution, Space Transformation, Rapid Urban Transition, Climate Change and Regional Integration offer, among other things, new opportunities for technology transfer in Africa. It is in this perspective that the acceleration of the development of the African productive sector is essential in order to enable the continent to enjoy a second decade of growth in the medium term in order to achieve the objectives of Agenda 2063. It is the real challenge at the level of member states of the African Union.
Challenges of the meeting
In the context of economic planning, it is more than ever urgent for African States to spare no effort to no longer export unprocessed raw materials. Transformative leadership and a change of mentality in decision-making spheres are, in the light of exogenous and endogenous contingencies, essential components to guide the transformative and industrialization agenda of African countries. It is in this context that the new Malagasy President, Andry Rajoelina, stressed to his peers at the last ordinary summit of the AU that: “we can not have significant gold reserves and not have a gold exchange on the continent then not be able to transform our raw materials on the spot.
In the same vision, Cameroon’s finance minister, host of the meeting, specified that Africa has 30% of the world’s natural resources. For the senior executive, the challenge is to “transform African economies to become stronger and more resilient. And create more and more jobs. This is one of the solutions proposed by Louis Paul Motaze to overcome the economic backwardness of Africa.
The experts gathered in Yaoundé will have to find other solutions in relation to the export of raw products. A challenge, as Africa’s contribution to world trade is barely 3%. In short, it is about the continent to free itself from the economic model inherited from colonization. This commits him to rethink his own raw material processing model and to reduce imports.
For the African experts of the specialized technical committee, achieving the integrated development stage of the continent requires a forward-looking policy elaborated in the framework of the development of a program of appropriate national and regional infrastructures, with technical skills to produce more resources. high value-added goods and a favorable business and trade environment and incentives.
Given the current context of declining official development assistance (ODA) and foreign direct investment (FDI) due to slowing growth in developed economies, it is more necessary than ever for African states mobilize national resources to fund transformation and diversification activities.
In this perspective, the establishment of the African Union’s financial institutions, the African Central Bank, the African Investment Bank, the African Monetary Fund and the Pan-African Securities Exchange, is essential.
These institutions will ultimately contribute to the development of a strong and modern African financial system, which will facilitate payments and settlements, and thereby reduce the risks of exchange rate volatility associated with cross-border trade and investment. The idea of setting up a rating agency is essential in order to assess the risks faced by companies, observes the African Union Commissioner for Economic Affairs.
The experts gathered in Yaounde will present to the African ministers in charge of finance and planning a report inviting the governments of the member states of the African Union to take all the necessary steps to sign and ratify the legal instruments of the financial institutions and the free trade zone.
The STC will be an opportunity for ministers to assess the status of implementation of the recommendations of the previous meeting and to make new recommendations, especially on the current theme.
The 2019 CTS meeting is organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) with technical assistance from the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF).
The objective of the CTS is to propose the concrete political measures and means necessary for a productive transformation, which will be examined and approved by the African Union Summit in June-July 2019.
