Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa have signed in Abidjan nine bilateral cooperation agreements, on the second day of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 72-hour state visit.
These cooperation agreements were signed at the Presidential Palace on Thursday.
The first agreement aims to strengthen cooperation between the armies, knowledge, exchange of training courses and instructors.
The second agreement concerns agriculture.
The products exported by Cote d’Ivoire to South Africa are rubber, cashew nuts, processed wood and cocoa, essential oils and plastic products.
Products imported by Cote d’Ivoire are mainly capital and consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, petroleum and chemical products, construction materials, and paper, cardboard and plastics.
A bilateral agreement on aviation services has been signed to facilitate air transport.
The fourth agreement is related to cooperation in the field of youth promotion, which opens a door for the granting of university scholarships to young people.
The fifth agreement is in the field of ICT, post and communication technologies.
As for the agreement on energy, mining and hydrocarbons, the sixth, it is renewable after five years.
The seventh agreement relates to employment.
It defines the modalities of employment, promotion of vulnerable people, concluded between the parties and renewable after four years.
Another agreement concerns the promotion of gender.
This eighth agreement on the protection of women will last for five years.
The ninth agreement concerns a memorandum of understanding on political consultations to be held once a year.
It is also renewable after five years.
The Ivorian head of state, Alassane Ouattara, welcomed Ramaphosa’s visit, which comes 30 years after Nelson Mandel visited Cote d’Ivoire during the late Felix Houphouët-Boigny era.
He praised the South African president’s leadership and management of the Covid-19 crisis in his country.
On the pandemic, Mr. Ramaphosa called for the lifting of the ban by some countries on air travel to South Africa, where the virus has been raging.
Mr. Ouattara encouraged Ivorian economic operators to make forays into the South African market.
Overall trade between the two countries will amount to 370.908 billion CFA francs in 2020, against 291.030 in 2019, an increase of 79.878 billion CFA francs.
AP/ls/lb/as/APA