Dakar, September 30 (APS) – Exports from Senegal to Mauritania increased from 39.7 billion in 2019 to 112.8 billion in 2023, an increase of 184% in relative value while imports increased from 3, 3 billion to 4.6 billion over the same period, or 37% in relative value, indicated Monday the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Sérigne Guèye Diop.
He was speaking during the opening ceremony of the first Senegalese-Mauritanian forum which is being held in Dakar under the theme “Economic integration at the time of energy transition: contribution of the Senegalese-Mauritanian private sectors”.
Welcoming this progress, the minister considers that it is however “regrettable” to note that trade between the two countries does not live up to their “enormous potential insufficiently exploited by economic operators on both sides”.
“We must therefore work together to improve our bilateral trade, particularly in the context of strengthening intra-African trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAF), in particular,” argued Serigne Guèye Diop.
He underlines that the continental market undoubtedly constitutes an opportunity to strengthen commercial integration between the two countries, but also to develop complementary value chains.
In this perspective, he stressed the need to “work in synergy for the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers existing in commercial relations between the two countries, coordinate the implementation, through the cooperation of our administrations concerned, of the instruments legal and operational aspects of the ZLECAF”.
The minister noted that the concerted exploitation of the natural resources of Senegal and Mauritania “which will undoubtedly contribute to the fight against poverty and the financing of public development programs in the two countries, will further strengthen economic ties between our two country”.
He called for reinvesting the expected economic benefits of this imminent exploitation of gas deposits in priority sectors or joint projects which will contribute to “the structural and sustainable transformation of our respective economies”.
The Minister of Mines and Energy of Mauritania, Thiam Tidjani, for his part, noted that thanks to the developments implemented by the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS), Mauritania has “significant agricultural areas that can be exploited within the framework of a partnership beneficial to the populations”.
He also believes that the integrated development of the livestock sector is also a development lever on which the two countries must work.
“The construction of the (Rosso) Bridge, as well as the related developments, will contribute to further accelerating our trade,” said the Mauritanian minister.
AFD/OID
