Egypt has started implementing Africa Agenda 2063 within its Vision 2030, Egypt's Assistant Foreign Minister for consular and immigration affairs, Yasser Hashem, said during Made in Africa workshop on Wednesday. Egypt has integrated the Africa 2063 programmes into the planning and follow-up systems in several Egyptian ministries, he added. Hashem noted that the Made in Africa workshop represents an important step to support the joint African action and one of the efforts exerted by Egypt in cooperation with other African countries to achieve the objectives of the African agenda and executive steps to achieve comprehensive and sustainable industrial integration in Africa. He affirmed that Egypt is keen on achieving tangible results on sectors that have priority in the continent, namely sectors of economic and regional integration and economic and social development, besides the continuation of the institutional and financial reform of the African Union. Hashem pointed out that Egypt has contributed with its brothers of African countries in promoting the African development agenda 2063 and working through the regional economic communities to integrate the agenda, where the African Union member states, including Egypt, to work to accelerate the implementation of pilot projects, such as the Inga Dams, the African Integrated High-Speed Rail Network, and the Single African Air Transport Market. He added that Egypt and the African Union countries are counting heavily on the role of the private sector in contributing to Africa's development and industrial projects such as the Rufiji Hydropower project in Tanzania through a consortium between El Sewedy and Arab Contractors in addition to the African companies working on the Inga Dam project in the Congo nga Dam project in the Congo. Amr Taha, executive director of Industrial Modernization Centre, said that the economic development axes of the continent until 2050 aims to achieve a gross national product of the continent up to $5.5 trn, a population increase in the continent to 2.4 billion people, in addition to an urban population increase to 60% of the population. With regard to the development of the transport sector in Africa, Taha added plans for major continental projects in the transport and communications sector, including the development of maritime and land transport systems to improve intra-African trade and fortifying economic and industrial integration of the continent. The roadmap for African economic integration includes good resource management, the launch of regional value chains, the development of the logistics sector, liberalisation of intra-regional trade and the promotion of financial inclusion, he elaborated.
