Editor's note: Sayed Attia is an international trade expert based in Egypt. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN. 

The first-ever Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) is being held in the capital of Egypt, Cairo from December 11 to 17. It aims to achieve to bring together continental and global participants to explore business and investment opportunities in Africa; to serve as a marketplace where buyers and sellers of goods and services meet and explore business opportunities; to make discussions available to provide effective and practical solutions for matters that affect intra-African trade; to provide an opportunity for B2B; and finally, to provide SMEs, informal sector and investors opportunities to share trade ,investment and market information.

The fair emerged as an initiative from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to address the challenge of low intra-African trade (15 percent), compared with that of Europe (59 percent), Asia (51 percent) and North America (37 percent). The reasons for the low intra-African trade can be attributed to poor infrastructure, high costs of doing business and limited roles played by the private sector to improve trade.

Furthermore, the weak industrial base in most African countries and the significant amount of time and money to cross borders because of the poor logistics and transport infrastructure has also worsened the situation. There have been serious efforts to facilitate trade between African states, for example a road from Cape Town to Cairo which goes through Addis Ababa, is currently in process; in addition China is also encouraging investments to build the road from Kampala to the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the head of economic policies at the African Development Bank (AfDB) , in order to enhance infrastructure in Africa, investments in infrastructure ranges from 130 to 170 billion U.S. dollars are required annually.

Therefore, the Afreximbank is dedicated to promote intra-Africa trade through a strategy based on three key pillars: create connect and deliver. The create pillar supports production of goods and services and builds capacity for the expansion of production and processing capabilities. The connect pillar is crucial for trade fair where it brings the relevant entities together and facilitates business growth and opportunities. The third pillar, deliver, focuses on facilitating the provision of efficient and cost effective distribution channels within the continent. Furthermore, the deliver pillar aims to create transport logistics, storage and service payment systems which accelerate the flow of goods and services and accordingly create markets.

The fair will definitely enhance trade between African countries though increasing investments, creating networking between buyers and sellers The most important factor in promoting trade through this kind of fair is that business people will have direct opportunity speaking to top officials in their respective countries about the challenges facing them in exportation and importation. The involvement of the Afrximbank in promoting trade between African countries is it will play a crucial role in facilitating the payment of transactions between parties and enhancing payment safety.

With the participation of more than 1,000 African companies, hopefully the aim of increasing intra-African trade to 22 percent can be realized soon. 

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