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Join the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED) and Political Economy Southern Africa (PESA) to the following Africa Day public platform:<\/p>

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The African Continental Free Trade Area: Aspirations vs Reality<\/strong><\/p>

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The signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) symbolises an important milestone in the integration of African countries since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1964 – now the African Union. The CFTA constitutes one of the various regional arrangements intended to increase intra-Africa trade and drive industrialisation. While these arrangements indicate buy-in among African leaders to deepen continental trade, intra-regional trade data shows that Africa has not been able to capture traded value. Exports among African countries have more than doubled from $US28 billion to $US63 billion between 2005 and 2016, yet this accounts for only 17% of Africa\u2019s total world exports. With Sub-Saharan Africa expected to grow at an average of 3.6% between 2019 and 2020, there are significant gains to be made from increasing intra-African trade.<\/p>

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The seminar will share key findings on regional value chains in Southern Africa drawing from selected sectors and provide insights on the development of institutional frameworks necessary to implement the CFTA.<\/p>

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Presenters:<\/strong><\/p>

• Maria Nkhonjera (CCRED), Regional value chains and development of industrial capabilities: key lessons from the agro-processing and capital equipment sectors in Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania.<\/li>
• Siya Biniza (PESA), An assessment of institutional challenges in regional integration.<\/li><\/ul>

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  Discussants:<\/strong><\/p>

  • Lerato Mataboge (Chief Executive Officer of Trade Invest Africa, DTI)<\/li>
  • Dr Witness Simbanegavi (Director of Research, African Economic Research Consortium, Kenya)<\/li>
  • Christopher Bvumbi (Managing Director, Bvuks Engineering and Consultants)<\/li><\/ul>

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    Date:<\/strong>\u00a0Friday 25 May 2018
    Time:<\/strong>\u00a014:00 to 16:00, refreshments will be served after
    Venue<\/strong>:\u00a0CCRED Seminar Room, 1st Floor, 6 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg.\u00a0Click here for map<\/a><\/p>

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    RSVP by email to\u00a0infoccred@uj.ac.za<\/a>\u00a0before 24 May 2018.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Join the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED) and Political Economy Southern Africa (PESA) to the following Africa Day public platform: \u00a0 The African Continental Free Trade Area: Aspirations vs Reality \u00a0 The signing of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) symbolises an important milestone in the integration of African countries since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-platforms"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n