North Africa: ECA’s 34th ICSOE to focus on trade facilitation, regional integration

The 34^th Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts is going to take place between November 25 and 28 in Egypt’s Aswan.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will hold the 34^th Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts in partnership with the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Administration Reform of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

This 2019 edition of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE), previously known as the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE), is going to take place under the theme “The African Continental Free Trade Area and employment: impact for North Africa of enhanced trade facilitation and regional integration”. This event will include an ad-hoc expert group meeting on November 25 and 26 on “Trade Facilitation in North Africa for Enhanced Regional Economic Integration: Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward”.

A statutory body of the ECA Office in North Africa, the ICSOE is an annual meeting of member country representatives and high-level experts from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, and development partners in North Africa including the General Secretariat of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) and representatives of UN, intergovernmental and civil society organizations, as well as academics.

Participants will discuss topics related to the economic context in North Africa, discuss regional integration and job creation issues, and define ECA’s strategic orientations in the sub-region.

The meeting recommendations will be presented at the ECA 53^rd Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development on March 18 to 24, 2020.