AUC, League of Arab States officials meet to discuss 2016 agenda

The fourth annual Africa-Arab Summit is set for November 2016 and will take place in Malabo, Equitorial Guinea. In preparation, members of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States (LAS) met late last week for a series of meetings.

The AUC delegation was led by Levi Uche Madueke , head of partnerships management and coordination for the Bureau of the chairperson, and included Ambassador Abdelhamid Bouzaher, head of the AUC Permanent Delegation to LAS. LAS' delegation was led by Ahmed Al Twgery, assistant secretary-general of the Economic Affairs Department.

Officials set a meeting of the working group for trade, investment, energy, communication and infrastructure for the first week of February 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They also  opted to refer economic matters and in particular, the Africa-Arab disaster-response fund, to the Economic department at LAS. They also solidified plans for the third Africa-Arab Agricultural Ministerial Meeting and the ninth Africa-Arab Trade Fair.
 
The Interim Executive Council of the Africa-Arab Cultural Institute (AACI) met for the first time since last year's Africa-Arab summit. The institute's director, Mohamed Salem Soufi, talked about the work program and activities at the institute, and unveiled a work plan and budget, which will be revisited at the AACI's next meeting in January.

Madueke made a special point to thank the League of Arab States for its assistance when the AUC responded to the recent Ebola outbreak, and to announce that the AUC is working toward putting in place a Centers for Disease Control to be better prepared for such events in the future.