Africa’s potentials that cannot be ignored

CAIRO – 30 January 2018: Despite all the controversy around the Egyptian-African relations, especially after the tension caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, President Abdel Fatah al Sisi has exerted sincere efforts since taking office to strengthen the country’s relations with its African neighbors.

According to the State Information Service (SIS) analysis report on Sisi's forging official visits, released last August, about 30 percent of his visits were for African countries or to participate in African meetings and summits since taking office in June 2014.

The SIS report stated that out of 69 forging official visits, Sisi headed to 21 African countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Gabon and Chad.

He also met with 112 African leaders whether during their visits to Egypt or during participating in international meetings and summits.

High level meetings were conducted between Egyptian officials including Sisi and their African counterparts Since June 2014 and until August 2017, according to SIS.

The official African leaders were from Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Central African Republic, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger and Mauritania.

“As a result of three-years of continuous efforts, Egypt was chosen to head the 31th summit of the African Union (AU) set to take place in 2019,” Presidency Spokesperson Bassam Rady said in statements to Al Haya television channel on Sunday, January 28.

He added that recently the African-Egyptian relations witnessed huge development on all levels, “We are back to the continent’s heart once again as a result of our hard work during the past years.”

Heading the 2019 AU will allow Egypt to participate in all of the meetings held on the sidelines of the summit, which will be a good opportunity to further deepen the relations with the African countries, according to Rady's statements.

He commented on the Egyptian-Sudanese relations, saying that Sisi and his counterpart Omar al-Bashir's meetings are usually “transparent”. He added that both Leaders usually speak frankly about their concerns to maintain the strong bilateral relations.
On Sunday, January 28, Sisi and Bashir met again before attending the AU Summit that kicked off in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Egypt and Sudan's leaders agreed during their meeting on forming a joint ministerial commission comprising the foreign ministers and intelligence heads of both countries to handle bilateral matters and issues facing the two countries. It will be summoned soon to put into effect the plans agreed upon.

Sudan’s Ambassador to Cairo Abdel Mahmoud Abdel Halim described the meeting as very positive as it is reflecting a sense of transparency between both leaders, which would take relations to a new level to be based on mutual interests rather than emotions. The ambassador stated that the summit discussed the current status of bilateral relations and the importance of eliminating any tensions affecting them.

Abdel Halim called for media outlets in both countries to get over negative aspects in the bilateral ties and help improve relations. He added that the date of his return to Egypt would be determined after the 30th AU Summit.

What are Africa’s potentials?

Egypt’s relation with its African neighbors is "critical", our relation with them is more important than our relation with the rest of the world, African affairs researcher, Ayman Shabana, told Egypt Today on Monday.

“First of all, there is the Nile River, which is as important as life to all Egyptians. Second, there is Bab-el-Mandeb Strait which is one of the main entrances to the country and an important source of national income.” Shabana added in his statements.

He listed further mutual interests between Egypt and the African countries including securing navigations and borders along with "the economic unconditional potentials".

“Africa is a wide-open market with no strict conditions on the Egyptian goods. Our products can easily enter this market and compete,” Shabana explained.

According to the EY economic origination 2017 report regarding the most attractive countries in Africa for investment; Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda came on top of countries with real economic potential.

According to Shabana several countries around the world realized the importance of having good relations with African countries and started to deepen their relations with Africa as much as they could, “Egypt should do this as well. It’s an African country and already has good relations with its neighbors.”

Another very important aspect that should be considered is guaranteeing the African Union's voting bloc at the United Nations, which is considered the second biggest voting bloc at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Shabana stated.

As on contrary to what was propagated about Africa as a poor continent with no potentials, the continent is proving a day after another that it’s truly the land of "great opportunities that can’t be missed or ignored."