Enaam Mayara, speaker of the House of Advisors, stated on Monday in Johannesburg that the processes of implementing the “African Continental Free Trade Area” (AfCFTA) are central to the interests of the Kingdom of Morocco because of their significance in altering the continental development model, making it more productive, and opening up opportunities for everyone.

Mayara said this significant continental project will also enable the creation of a significant number of job opportunities for the benefit of young people and save 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty while improving the income of 68 million people while increasing continental wealth by 450 billion dollars. She was speaking at the opening of the second ordinary session of the sixth parliament of the Pan-African Parliament at its headquarters in Midrand, a suburb of Johannesburg.

As a result, and in accordance with an ambitious methodology, Morocco has worked to contribute to the creation of a continental model of “common development” through a series of integrating projects and programs in a significant number of countries on the continent, he noted. These projects and programs have been concerned with the development of infrastructure, university education and vocational training, enhancing food and energy sovereignty, health security, valorizing internal resources, and strengthening industrial systems.

He said that the Kingdom of Morocco is also working to exchange experiences and best practices related to economic and development programs, alongside the strengthening of the financial and banking systems of a large number of the continent countries. This, he added, enabled the increase in the total value of Morocco’s bilateral trade with African countries by 9.5 percent as an annual average.

In addition Mayara commended the organization of the current parliament session by the African Parliament under the title of “Accelerating the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”, which comes in perfect harmony with the theme of the African Union for the year 2023. This will make the current meeting a “working session” and a main station for contributing to the success of the great continental economic process that aims to establish the largest free trade area in the world, with a market made up of about 1.3 billion people and a combined domestic product of about 3.4 trillion dollars, he added.

He recalled, in this regard, that during the exceptional summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Kigali on the Continental Free Trade Area,  King Mohammed VI had said: “The establishment of a free trade zone at the continental level would contribute to mobilizing energies, developing expertise and stimulating creative thinking, and responding in particular to the real ambition of our youth to build a strong and integrated African continent”.

In line with the spirit of cooperation, solidarity and synergy that is at the heart of the doctrine of cooperation between the Kingdom of Morocco and its African brothers, Morocco is working on investing in order to enhance continental food security by accompanying a group of African countries in building advanced agricultural strategies to strengthen food sovereignty, enhance the ability to compete in international agriculture and get the access to new markets, he pointed out.

The speaker of the House of Advisors noted that Morocco is also working, through the Chérifien Office of Phosphates, to develop an advanced continental value chain that will enable Africa, within years, to have fair and equitable access to sufficient quantities of fertilizers.

“My country adopts, a clear vision to implement projects that will change the agricultural appearance of the continent and enhance its food security, the most prominent of which is the work to establish an industrial platform for the production of fertilizers in Ethiopia at a cost of 3.7 billion dollars and with a production capacity of about 2.5 million tons annually of fertilizers destined for the local and export markets in addition to opening a factory in Ghana, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of fertilizers, and a second factory in Nigeria, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of ammonia used in agricultural fertilization,” he said.

In terms of energy, a gas pipeline that connects Morocco with the Federal Republic of Nigeria and travels through a number of nations in the west of the continent is being finished. He emphasized that the plan is an ambitious one that aims to increase the value of African resources, redraw the regional energy map, improve the logistical and competitive abilities of African gas, and solidify the continent’s position in the European market.

Mayara claimed that all of these activities represent the belief of Moroccans and their King in the values of solidarity, South-South collaboration, and African continent-wide synergy. It is a reference doctrine in Moroccan diplomacy since independence, he said, not a novel, short-term choice or something connected to a particular file.

He claimed that this doctrine had been put into practice by hosting Morocco, aiding and educating the liberation armies of numerous African nations, such as Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde, in their fight against colonialism, and supporting African liberation movements, chief among them Nelson Mandela’s campaign to free his nation from the apartheid system after receiving military training in Morocco in 1962.

It is in this perspective and in accordance with the Royal High Directions that all Moroccan institutions now place African action at the forefront of their priorities and interests, he noted, adding that it is the approach adopted by the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco in order to develop coordination with national parliaments, the African Parliament and regional parliaments.

“Actually, we extend our hands to everyone in order to exchange experiences and best practices, and work to confront the challenges facing our countries,” Mayara said.

He also expressed Morocco’s support for all “serious parliamentary initiatives, which aims to strengthen institutional cooperation and joint thinking on ways to emerge from continental parliamentary cooperation models that keep pace with the bilateral and multilateral dynamics, especially in order to face the challenges related to food security, water scarcity, the growing dangers of terrorist groups, armed movements and militias, combating the exploitation of children in armed conflicts, clandestine migration and human trafficking, in addition to the challenges of digitization, the fourth industrial revolution, confronting climate change and other issues of common interest at the continental and regional level”.

Morocco’s determination to develop cooperation and solidarity with all African brothers “is matched only by its similarity to the success of all the institutional projects that the African Union is working to implement, foremost of which is strengthening the role of the Pan-African Parliament as an actual expression of the continent’s slogan “One Voice, One Continent,” he stressed.

“This institutional development carried out by the African Union will not succeed without concerted joint efforts and strengthening unity and stability in all countries of the continent, according to a methodology that enables us to pass to the maximum development speed in a fair and equitable manner among all the components of our continental institutional family,” he underlined.

Read Also: Morocco takes part in second PAP ordinary session in Johannesburg

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In the presence of many delegations, including the Moroccan delegation, the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) began the second ordinary session of its sixth parliament on Monday at its offices in Midrand, a suburb of Johannesburg.

Azali Assoumani, the president of the Union of Comoros and current head of the African Union (AU), presided over the opening session. Chief Fortune Charumbira, the PAP chairman, Enaam Mayara, the speaker of the Moroccan House of Advisors, Naledi Pandor, the South African minister of international relations and cooperation, and Josefa Sacko, the AU commissioner for agriculture, were also present.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation process will be sped up thanks to this parliamentary meeting, which runs from May 15 to June 2.

Read Also: Morocco-US talks center on the Sahara and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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The pan-Africanism that animated the Casablanca group in the early 1960s is now finding its continuity in the new generation of African leaders, said Wednesday the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, Nasser Bourita.

Emphasizing the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Casablanca Conference during the work by videoconference technology of the 38th ordinary session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU), the Minister recalled that on February 4, 1961, the late HM King Mohammed V convened an international conference in Casablanca with the aim of adopting the Casablanca Charter and promoting continental unity.

He stressed that the ambition was to create an integrated Africa on all levels, including the political and economic levels.

He further added that through Morocco’s ambition the commemoration of the Casablanca Conference “will allow us to give a timeless character to the spirit” and to the aspirations of this conference, in favor of a welded, solidary, and united Africa.

Reviewing the challenges that remain to be met, in particular at the level of economic and social recovery, Bourita observed that the African Union must develop a vision and interact with its partners so that Africa can prepare for the post-Covid context.

The year 2020 has been a “very difficult” year under the effect of the Covid 19 pandemic, but thanks to the commitment of the AU Commission, significant progress has been made, said the minister, citing in particular the entry into force of the Continental Free Trade Agreement, the important institutional reforms that have been undertaken and the progress made in establishing peace and security in the continent.

There are also challenges in strengthening professionalism, ethics and expertise within the committee away from activism and unprofessionalism, he concluded.

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