I am pleased to announce Australia’s signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to promote mutually beneficial partnerships between Australia and Africa.
Africa represents a potential growth market for Australian goods and services in a range of sectors, including education, food, health-related IT services, water and land management, and renewable energy.
Under the MoU, Australia will support capacity building on trade facilitation through the Australia Awards program and will explore with the AfCFTA Secretariat other opportunities for exchanging information.
Australia and the AfCFTA Secretariat will also identify opportunities to cooperate on climate resilience and sustainability through the MoU.
Australia’s relationships with the countries of Africa are built on our people-to-people links, economic engagement and longstanding multilateral cooperation. More than half a million people in Australia, or around two per cent of Australia’s population, have family links to Africa, and our two-way goods and services trade was worth over $12 billion in 2024.
In the United Nations – where African countries make up a quarter of member states – and the Commonwealth – where they are a third of members – we have cooperated for decades. Australia also maintains strong bilateral relationships with many African partners across diverse areas of cooperation.
This MoU will expand and strengthen our partnerships with Africa in support of the economic integration of the African continent. It will identify opportunities for two-way investment and trade as well as support African-Australian communities and businesses to diversify.