The Key Essentials for AFCTA for Competitive Regional Value Chains

Proceedings of The 4th International Conference on Research in Business, Management and Economics

Year: 2021

DOI:

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The Key Essentials for AFCTA for Competitive Regional Value Chains

Thakaramahlaha Lehohla

ABSTRACT: 

The Africa Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA) is a joint vision by the African continent to open up the markets in the continent by relaxing the import qoutas and tariffs for export and import products throughout the continent , this is a viable move taking into cognizant a  population of 1,2 billion with a GDP of $ 2.3 tillion dollars,  this is a pivotal direction for the continent taking into cognizant that there is not a single country in the continent not even the largest has a domestic market of sufficient scale to drive significant industrialization.  Although this is indeed in the right direction pertaining to industrialization, it is required in order for the strategic benefits of trade to be realized that there be innovative continuous improvement and enhancement in final products traded, as currently South Africa which is the most industrialised country in the continent was ranked 22 out of 38 countries in the world in terms of competitiveness. This outcome requires a tur-around approach in the manufacturing value chains as an initiative for better global ranking standards and ability to create export driven economies that are globally competitive. The paper is to discuss how the joint improvement tools pertaining to quality can successfully lead to competitive industries in the African continent and embracing a successful AFCTA vision.

Keywords: AFCTA, Quality Management, Regional Value Chains.