Friday, February 7, 2025

Botswana misses 3rd Africa-Arab economic summit?

Kuwait – Neither President Ian Khama nor any of his senior trade, economic and foreign relations ministers have been reported to attend the third Africa-Arab economic summit that starts here on Monday. Most cabinet ministers are reported to be ‘busy’ with the ruling party’s primary elections, Bulela Ditswe.

The preparatory meetings for the Third Africa-Arab Summit were launched on Thursday in the State of Kuwait with a meeting for senior officials to discuss the items included in the agenda of the Preparatory Meeting of the Foreign Affairs Ministers in preparation for the Summit.

Botswana’s own, Phandu Skelemani is reported to have opted to stay back in Botswana in a bid to make a second attempt to save his Francistown East Constituency which he lost to former Francistown city mayor, Buti Billy. His trade partner, Dorcus Malesu was not part of the ministerial meeting and her absence was also linked to the ruling party primary elections which were held recently.

By the time of going to press, it was not clear whether finance minister, Kenneth Matambo will make it to the weeklong series of meetings.

This Summit follows the Sirte Summit of 2010, which established the principle of organizing the regular holding of the Africa-Arab Summit every three years. The two partners, African Union (AU) and Arab states are keen to focus on economy and development which is essential for meeting the expectations of the people of the two regions.

Accordingly, the Summit’s theme, “Partners in Development and Investment”, was chosen to reflect those concerns. The senior officials meeting discussed the joint report of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, as well as the report and decision of the second meeting of the Arab and African Ministers of Agriculture on the development of agriculture and food security that took place in Riyadh on October 2nd, 2013; and the recommendations of Africa-Arab Economic Forum held in Kuwait on 11- 12 November 2013.

The meeting will also discuss a proposal pertaining to promoting African-Arab cooperation in trade, investment, transport, energy and immigration as well as an African-Arab funding mechanism for joint projects and activities. The senior officials meeting also looked into the proposal for reviving the Committee of Africa-Arab Partnership and review the assessment report of the performance of the African-Arab Cultural Institute.

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