Pretoria – Cabinet has announced that the African Union (AU) will launch the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) on 15 June 2015, in Johannesburg.
According to Cabinet, the CFTA will create a market of over 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of over $2 trillion.
Addressing the media in Cape Town during a post Cabinet media briefing, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe, said the CFTA will build on the Tripartite Free Trade Area and progress achieved in the regional economic communities.
“It will also give traders and investors access to a growing market and provides a basis for enhanced intra-Africa trade,” he said.
The launch will take place on the last day of the AU Summit to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre from 7 - 15 June under the theme: Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063.
Zimbabwe, as the current chair of the AU for 2015, will chair the summit and its related meetings.
It will focus on the implementation of decisions taken at the January 2015 Summit, which includes Agenda 2063 and its First 10-Year Implementation Plan, State of Continental Peace and Security, including Terrorism, Women’s Empowerment and Development, Alternative Sources of Funding the AU, Continental integration and operationalising the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention by 2015. – SAnews.gov.za
