{"id":38593,"date":"2018-12-04T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/africa-visa-openness-and-integration-among-top\/"},"modified":"2018-12-04T12:29:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T12:29:02","slug":"africa-visa-openness-and-integration-among-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/africa-visa-openness-and-integration-among-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Visa Openness and integration among top priorities of the Africa Economic Conference 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

That freedom of movement is inextricably tied to the Bank\u2019s vision to create the next global market in Africa. As the Africa Economic Conference opens in the Rwandan capital Kigali, the theme this year: Regional and Continental Integration for Africa\u2019s development,\u201d also aligns with another major Bank priority – placing infrastructure development at the centre of Africa\u2019s regional integration efforts.<\/p>\n

Host nation Rwanda has taken bold leadership steps to champion regional integration, announcing at the beginning of this year an entry visa on arrival for travelers from all African countries. <\/p>\n

The third edition of the Bank\u2019s Visa Openness Index, to be launched on day two of the meeting, will be an important opportunity to measure which countries are making improvements that support free movement of people across Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Index has helped raise awareness and drive visa policy reforms across the continent to ease movement of people, unlocking opportunities for intra-African tourism, trade, and investment. In so doing, the Bank is directly contributing to the objectives of the AU initiative for a Single African passport,\u201d Gabriel Negatu, Bank Director General, East Africa Regional Development and Business Delivery Office said in his remarks during the opening plenary.<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Hon. Claudine Uwera, Minister of State in charge of Economic Planning said the conference addressed a theme \u201cclose to our hearts.\u201d \u201cThis conference is important to chart the way for inclusive integration\u2026that would benefit all,\u201d Uwera said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernance will determine the development path for our countries,\u201d Uwera added, noting the equally important role of political will and commitment from African leaders.<\/p>\n

The annual Africa Economic Conference is the continent\u2019s leading forum fostering dialogue and knowledge exchange in the search for solutions to the development challenges of Africa. It brings together leading academics, high ranking government representatives and development practitioners from across the globe.<\/p>\n

AEC 2018 will highlight \u201ctransformative initiatives for accelerating progress in infrastructure integration that is inclusive and promotes equity, including the removal of barriers for movement of people, goods, and services across borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other convening partners to the Conference, the United Nations Development Programme UNDP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), commended Rwanda\u2019s role as a front-runner for integration efforts in Africa and spoke on the urgent need to build on the momentum for an inclusive and equitable integration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Rwanda is walking the talk and continues to set the pace,\u201dAhunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Africa, said.<\/p>\n

Also speaking at the plenary, Giovanie Biha, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said while there were still major steps ahead, \u201cwe are moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting the Bank\u2019s emphasis on research and knowledge management as important drivers of policy dialogue, good policy planning and implementation, participation this year\u2019s AEC is being organized under the leadership of the Bank\u2019s Research Department and Regional Integration Complex.<\/p>\n

Sessions over the three-day meeting will examine the social, cultural and political frameworks for successful integration, building on the landmark signing this year of the Africa Free Trade Agreement the world\u2019s potentially biggest free trade agreement, which aims to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments across Africa.<\/p>\n

Participants will also look at the role of the private sector and civil society institutions.
\nGiven the urgency of regional integration \u2013 \u201cno longer a choice,\u201d according to its organizers, this year\u2019s meeting is a must attend for those interested in Africa\u2019s Development Agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cImportant pages of our continent\u2019s development history are being written,\u201d Uwera said. \u201cLet\u2019s take this opportunity to move the continent ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2018 Africa Economic Conference is taking place at the Marriot Hotel in Kigali, from 3-5 December.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For millions of ordinary travelers, inter-African travel is still too often a nightmare. Be it border hassles, lack of road or air routes linking key cities, or the frustrations of being refused entry to a country because of visas, the end result is to curtail the free movement of people, viewed by the African Development Bank as one of the pillars of regional integration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38593"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38593"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}