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Setting sights on ‘free trade’ Africa
The poorest continent in the world is rapidly catching up, and Asia may have to accommodate and agree to rename this era as the Asia-Africa Century.
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Global ties: Delegates to the Indonesia-Africa Forum chat, a day ahead of the international conference in Bali’s Nusa Dua. The two-day event aims to discuss issues of economic cooperation and trade. (Antara/Nyoman Budhiana)
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frica is rapidly turning into a free trade continent and a single market of 1.2 billion consumers with a combined gross domestic product of US$2.5 trillion.
Economic integration is moving faster under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which came into force in May. Pending more ratification by member countries — 27 of its 54 signatories have done so thus far — free trade could become fully operational by July 2020.
The poorest continent in the world is rapidly catching up, and Asia may have to accommodate and agree to rename this era as the Asia-Africa Century.
Indonesia has caught the African fever, but with AfCFTA, it can do a lot more and faster in tapping the growing economic and business opportunities on offer.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo already appealed to the business community in 2017 to take Africa more seriously as a new alternative market and reduce Indonesia’s reliance on traditional export markets like Europe, America and East Asia.
The government, through the Foreign Ministry, has taken several initiatives to engage with Africa. Indonesia hosted a one-off summit as chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) in 2017. Kenya, South Africa and Mozambique offer strategic access to Africa for non-African IORA members, including Indonesia.
The inaugural Indonesia-Africa Forum in 2018 attracted over 500 delegates from Indonesia and 47 African countries and saw nearly $586.56 million in business deals with the prospect of another $1.3 billion.
