African News Agency
ADDIS ABABA,– The German government has pledged an additional EUR55.5 million in support of African Union (AU) programmes and joint strategic initiatives over a two-year period.
With the new commitment, Germany’s total support to the AU since the inception of bilateral co-operation in 2004 exceeds EUR500 million.
“We want to support the AU in making substantial progress in the economic and political integration of Africa,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal representative for Africa in the federal ministry for economic co-operation and development Gunter Nooke said in Addis Ababa.
“Economic transformation, skills development, and the creation of job opportunities are central to combat poverty and the root causes of forced migration - and we have agreed to do more in the area of agriculture training and development,” he said.
The commitment also focused largely on agricultural development, especially supporting the comprehensive Africa agricultural development programme which received the largest additional share of EUR29 million. Support would go to agricultural technical vocational education training in more than 10 African countries, with a special focus on women, according to the agreement.
The agreement document also stated that the AU and German government had agreed to collaborate in the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) – currently being negotiated and prepared – and Germany had made an initial pledge of EUR5 million.
The CFTA, a free trade area from Cairo to Cape Town and from Cape Verde to Djibouti, would promote intra-African trade and stimulate growth and employment through better incentives for domestic and foreign investment.
“Regional integration is fundamental for Africa, a continent which is actually only trading 12 percent with its African neighbours,” Nooke said.
“We are talking here about a market size of more than 1.2 billion consumers.”
