Cairo, 13 December (ECA) – The ECA Office for North Africa launched on Thursday 13 December in Cairo its report on “The potential for the creation of Regional Value Chains in North Africa: a sector-based mapping”, on the margins of the Intra-African Trade Fair (Cairo, 11-17 December 2018).
This new ECA report maps North African value chains by sector and studies their potential for development.
The report studies opportunities and challenges related to the creation of regional value chains (RVCs) in ten sectors selected in accordance with their importance for the sub-region’s economies and their potential for development. These sectors include: aeronautics, the car industry, textiles and clothing, phosphates, oil and natural gas, renewable energies, fruits, vegetables and derived products, essential oils & derived products, fisheries and finally cereals & sugar.
The report examines difficulties faced when attempting to develop RVCs in areas such as regulations, institutions and logistics and presents recommendations in the form of a regional action plan covering several areas including the facilitation of trade between North African countries, the institutional reforms needed and capacity building for local stakeholders in both the private and public sectors.
“North Africa is currently among the least integrated sub-regions on the continent. This situation does not reflect how close North African countries are on the geographic, cultural and linguistic levels,” said Lilia Hachem Naas, Director of the ECA Office for North Africa on the eve of the launch. “North Africa’s weak economic and trade integration is an obstacle that must be overcome to better seize available opportunities on the African and global markets », she added, stressing that better integration would particularly improve North African countries’ ability to benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), specifically through quality upgrading and higher added value produced locally.
This study was produced as part of ECA’s work in support to the acceleration of regional integration, trade development and the structural transformation of economies through the promotion of intra-regional trade. It aims to increase countries’ capacity to design public policies that facilitate the development of regional value chains in North Africa.
This report is the latest result of research initiated by the ECA office for North Africa since 2013 on the role of value chains in support to regional integration and structural transformation in North Africa.
The report on “The potential for the creation of Regional Value Chains in North Africa: a sector-based mapping” was produced at the request of the General Secretariat of the Arab Maghreb Union. This document is aimed at national administrations, private sector representatives, the Maghreb Employers’ Union(Union Maghrébine des Employeurs, UME) and partners in areas such as regional integration and trade.
The potential for the creation of Regional Value Chains in North Africa: a sector-based mapping
اللجنة الاقتصادية لأفريقيا تقدّم التشخيص القطاعي لسلاسل القيمة الإقليمية في شمال أفريقيا
مؤهلات سلاسل القيمة الإقليمية في شمال أفريقيا: التشخيص القطاعي
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Economic Commission for Africa
Office for North Africa
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