now the 5th journalist to be killed in afghanistan in the past 2 months. now thousands of white swans flocked to the caspian sea in migrating south to escape plummeting temperatures in russia it's not unusual they do visit the coast of kazakhstan each winter but usually in these numbers in fact this group is the largest reported in recent years. this isn't a 0 these are the top stories india's drug regulator has in the past half hour approved just resent it because oxford astra zeneca vaccine for emergency use was the 2nd most populous country to be one of the largest vaccine campaigns in the world. recorded more than 10000000 cases of covert 19 which is the 2nd highest in the world. commemorations are being held ahead of the anniversary of the assassination of concept. a us drone strike killed iranian general in baghdad on

january 3rd last year so the money successor is warning iran is fully prepared to respond to any u.s. aggression. we've also been hearing from the head of the revolutionary guard major general salim e. who has been today visiting the island this is one of the most strategically important military bases of the revolutionary guards near the strait of hormuz it's in the eastern part of the entrance of the strait of hormuz he chose today to visit this base to show the international community that iran is ready and able to defend itself when it comes to this rhetoric that we need hearing over the past few days. one other story concerning iran where the government plans to enrich uranium by up to 20 percent that is a significant breach of the nuclear deal from 2015 but it does fall short of the 90

percent which would be needed to build a weapon more than 20000000 people in the u.s. have tested positive for corona virus now that is almost a quarter of the world's cases the rollout of vaccines is slower than expected though with nearly $3000000.00 people now inoculated no candidates won a majority in the 1st round of presidential election that means the 2 leading contenders mohammed both zoom and the man they will face each other in a runoff next month the vote has been praised as being fair and transparent and an afghan journalists have been shot dead in the central province of who are bismillah i mark was killed when a gunman opened fire on his car he is the 5th afghan journalist killed in 2 months that's my lot for today thanks for your company the latest edition of inside stories coming up next.

open for business one of the world's biggest free trade this is now come into effect in africa but many argue the continent lacks proper infrastructure to implement the agreement so is africa ready for the free movement of goods and people this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program a new year and a new start for africa the world's largest single market has now opened enabling all but one of the $54.00 nations to begin trading the african continental free trade area is

a landmark deal bringing together the continent's multi-trillion dollar economy into one bloc it's the culmination of years of work negotiations and delays and while only $33.00 of the signatories support the deal into effect it's already being heralded as a turning point for africa's economic future committed wrist reports. there are 2 and a half 1000000. to control the spread of. but as the africa free trade agreement comes into effect. trouble ahead for the continent's poor countries. small and poor economies will always be at a disadvantage hopefully as time goes on we can get special considerations otherwise it will be difficult to compete. businesses in poor countries may have their concerns but overall experts say the agreement will eventually benefit them

they believe the cost of labor in these countries will attract more industries. into african trade. development the level of industrialization. of others but african countries need to. unfinished among themselves. currently imports most of its needs from water to food and machinery from big retail. flooded with imported products because. the country will continue to depend on him. to grow. experts say it's hard to see european and asian multinational companies giving up the trade advantage they've. forcing. the shelves at the emmys biggest retailer. these plans traders

say they won't be many goods on store shelves and government steps in. a bum than we should be given support the government should facilitate easy acquisition of land and loans from banks. but it's hard to see how governments on the continent can do that without breaching the protectionism rules of africa trade agreement and the world trade organization or maybe greece al-jazeera yemi. now we have a panel of experts standing by but 1st let's break down the numbers behind the deal well under the agreement terrorists will be eliminated on 90 percent of goods that means in a market of one point $3000000000.00 people with a combined g.d.p. of $2.00 trillion dollars trading will be nearly duty free the world bank says that will increase the continent's income by $450000000000.00 in the next 15 years the bank also says africa's exports mostly in manufacturing will get

a $560000000000.00 boost and the agreement will raise wages especially for women who account for more than 70 percent of cross border traders and the free trade agreement promises to lift 30 'd 1000000 africans out of extreme poverty. ok let's bring in our panel today in nairobi we have david weir oh he's the founder of the africa development think tank in london we have paul mellie he's a consulting fellow at chatham house and in johannesburg we have the economist shanti pai he's a columnist at business day and the financial mail gentlemen welcome to you all david in nairobi can i come to you 1st for the countries have signed up to this what is this in theory mean for them well on the one hand you've got a big opportunity not only to borstar us into african exports and imports but as well as an opportunity to achieve your common development goals of influence for

the reason that most of what is treated within africa is actually originated from africa and saw these tend to be africa's value add in manufacturing sectors and so there's a huge potential for that only creating greater primitive what unity is but also increasing incomes as you say you specialize and you generate. a greater value of your value to poor 1000000 london lots of people are saying look this means good or better infrastructure but for some of the signatory countries they don't have an infrastructure to speak of to start with anyway. no that's certainly true particularly in the central african region i think it's really striking when you look at the map the west africa is relatively integrated east and africa has quite her degree of integration the same for southern africa but then right in the center of the continent is that huge or congo basin region where the

development of long distance roads is only really getting underway now linking the member countries for example of the central african bloc and where there are very few rail connections and so the movement of goods from one part of the continent to another won't be quite as straightforward and so i suspect that at the start of this process we're really going to say perhaps a bit of an acceleration of integration and trading growth within the existing regions the ready more integrated so in east west and south but that in the center of the continent it will take longer for those countries to really begin to reap the benefits because their infrastructure is something some supply in johannesburg this also should mean a lot of external investment there is already in certain of the african countries

a lot of external investment to the point of economic critics of certain external countries might say there's too much because if you've got so much money being poured into an economy it can skew the economy and if that country is in in effect in debt to trillions of us dollars the economy is not coming back in the way it's going out the way to the country that's doing the investing and that those that issue and i think that is also in particular that actually although there's not was that there was the fusion of these economies and so you actually find that you know you only have them. well you could have you had agricultural economy and that actually makes it very difficult then to create to get the kinds of gains that you want to actually get for a much more industrialized and exporting kind of country because obviously that if you're focused in particular areas and if we don't support the whole develop their skills if you think about the central african region this particular way there's a lot of mining and of course like a culture that that's the primary in terms of the wheat has been developed and it

does not grow into actually being able to be actually much more advanced so that you can actually you know at the value and then export into the rest of the continent and actually have then there are other industries that can spring out of that and i think one of the things that we really have to focus on is exactly that and i think one of the interesting things about that of course is that while we are actually talking about that investment that has been coming in and i think this is something that people have complained about if you look at china is that we have investment that is also followed by a neighbor of these kinds of skills that are actually coming together that developing local skills because we don't just want you know the movement of goods but it has to be also the creation of skills creation of jobs and upliftment of you know people's basic incomes and so this has to actually be something that has to be paid extra attention to in terms of but i think that is one of the key things that you have to be actually develop and i suspect that that has been is being developed at the secretariat is going to be quite central in actually trying to make sure that those things happen but we know that this investment has been

a problem particularly for the african union where even funding african union programs has been very difficult from in 1st issues of infrastructure to keeping all of these things have been problematic and one actually has to focus on those things otherwise they're actually going to continue along the same path. in nairobi there is also surely on the part of the people who are driving this there is an economic assumption that the fundamentals of every signatory country are basically sound but they are not you know and does that explain say for example why nigeria wasn't particularly. keen on this idea of a free trading zone encompassing all of the african countries because the reality is 56 months ago on the show we were discussing how nigeria was heading towards bankruptcy and it needed to borrow money from people not in africa yes certainly. it warrants for and only send. keen observers of these affairs in

africa to also think about the political implications that you know the continental featured brings about with them and suddenly the hesitance that we saw from nigeria perhaps provide insight to that i know there was a lot of debate and discussion around you know their. small economies and the action to which they would lose out particularly if you look at west africa where nigeria you know sort of dominates those economies there and actually is a key partner to almost all the west african. a large majority of the most african states you would see that you know there are certainly. creation and today russian effects that would result you know in an open continental wide trading arrangement but certainly i think to the broader question you know the aspect or the whole

ambition behind the course that affected area really lies in the motive of raising or how and eyes in rather the process customs for cedars and the address and the trade barriers that have existed on the continent much as we have indeed you know very different configurations and very unique economies there is an argument to be made that you know chip barriers are often. the story in the way of not only trading but also achieving the. make development that individual countries are spared and so we should take these as just one of the mechanisms by which economies can actually provide a way out for their economies. to scale that development ladder suddenly it is our come idea. how can we achieve a situation where we have that harmonize ation there that we're hearing about as

a go to requirement if and this is happening as we speak there are certain borders that are closed because of conflicts slash and or corruption between different countries governments there are not wars going on across africa but there are conflicts going on all over africa and i think this has been a fundamental problem because i think obviously you know the whole idea that 20 percent of the guns is also i guess to try and actually move towards development but i think you know one of the interesting things actually as we've been talking about conflicts that you know this invisible war against poverty that has also highlighted some of the problems that we continue to face just a few days ago here you know in the foot of it in south africa and zimbabwe we you know we had a big major problems actually look people passing through in groups passing through because obviously of the kinds of limitations that were put there in terms of

people passing through and between the 2 governments it became nearly impossible to say if people love the entire globe as that on that board and that tells us something about how it is that we're actually going to be able to actually think about you know how to actually manage crisis between you know with their countries and then of course the idea that we actually want to create a kind of suit trade environment that will allow us because of you know is that only you know their economies could not be met with you know you wanted the kind of testing you know that the easy stimulus kind of discussion and actually planning that is necessary to be done by 2 countries that are relatively have had long treated. patient you find that a crisis like covered not in as actually created the just situation in which actually goods and people could not move to that area and these are things that actually have to be expected and actually planned for because if we don't do that then actually we're going to find that actually then you know ways that we down trust of the investment really don't want to abuse it bringing investments to actually invest in this country than we think countries where you can develop at

the sector and then the trade itself to learn how things because actually they kind of work that's a mystery but we have been a zombie then and i think it's been very disappointing given they've had a has actually been done a long time ago if we actually are serious about the kind of trade that we want to do especially when there is already stuff this treaty leashes. cornélie in london there's a lot of that coming down to being serious of us a cold succumbed to political will because the reality is that an awful lot of african countries that we could talk about are less industrialized today than they were during the 1970 s. quite a few have lost in the street but in a sense that's that's partly because of the evolution of the global economy. towards a more high tech basis and away from some of the old heavy industries that were experimented with in africa or in the immediate period after independence in a few countries but on the whole the technological evolution of the world economy

has actually helped africa if one thinks of the mobile phone sector for example many countries never really developed a very strong. fixed line network but with the mobile telecoms and all its associated with it and fiber optic and so on the whole process has leapt forward hugely and now you there are countries where you can be quite remote rural areas and yet have 4 g. access and then that facilitates. new economic activities new forms of business and trading but i think another key point is just this question of simplifying and reducing the administrative hassles and bureaucratic burdens that you find borders because every country. not just in africa or any country in the world obviously there's domestic political pressure if you like to look after

domestic interests and that can sometimes foster the development of barriers at borders but when those barriers are able to be reduced through administrative reform and through cross border negotiation then it makes it easier to encourage not. just more trade more high quality trade and we can see this for example in west africa there we're now beginning to see plans for the revival of car assembly plants probably garner in nigeria and because the borders the trade barriers are going to be reduced at the borders what are being reduced it's possible to develop car plants that will be serving the west african region as a whole and similarly in west africa the region grows a lot of cotton and most people wear cotton clothes and yet at the moment the

textile industry is very thin and struggles to compete against chinese competition but we're beginning to see one or 2 pointers to new investment in modern textile plants that can be internationally competitive so that west africans can grow the cotton that is then transformed locally into clothes for the local market david i mean if we're talking about anything or areas of industry as diverse as car manufacturing and also the cotton industry on the plus side i guess that means people have jobs but on the negative side is there potential here for the financial benefits to be generated in africa but to flow out of the african countries that are already taking steps in that direction because that's why for example post the brics it u.k. government trade ministers are already talking to some of the african countries because they're thinking we can access lower labor cost markets that in theory are

built on lots of movement of industry infrastructure and people and the reality of dealing with those companies in that environment might be completely different to what it should be on paper yes you'd be going to have they are again. as you know myself and colleagues and also what you've just. provided now provides the contexts to the larger picture that really you know i could regulation a trade trading framework really is not the end all be all of you know addressing all our key comic challenges. and so the example that you give that you know it's even if we do have this setting framework in place it still doesn't address the greater challenges that are posed. or brought about by the existing financial architecture of the globe that we have right now on the reality is that africa is

indeed losing a lot. you know some studies are distributed of the funded 1000000000 annually us dollars that africa loses just because of the way the financial architecture is and so that's not to say that we now don't implement. appropriate policies that could result in economic development for our countries but really the question is can we put this can we as we address the questions also address other related. significant policies that should be implemented or to be implemented in concert with this such as to do with how articulations that govern. financial actually texture. that impacts africa you know the key question and also the other aspects that relate to issues of you know inclusiveness in terms of a kind of employment opportunities for women for youth and so forth that you ought

to come about and so these are all questions that are important that we shouldn't forget and and that's why coming together from my own you know continental perspective is important because not only will we be able to put in place our trade policy but also strategizing. problem is our affect our lives you ought to be implemented in concert with it policy ok he got what he we cannot be implementing infrastructure approach programs that incoherent even within africa that regions so the example is. shanti plain johannesburg is it possible within this free trade agreement or free trade zone as it is as of today to codify what david weir of nairobi is talking about there to codify that women get proper representation in the workplace that they get paid the same as the equivalent men that the crucial employment category in 20 comes to age unlike the 18 to 34 year

olds that there are in the proper jobs especially given that some analysts are already calling this empire too because all those colonial powers that gave countries back literally after the 2nd world war and then walked away 80 percent walked away some of those colonial powers undoubtedly the french for example will be looking in and going oh well maybe we can start building ran ozen sutro ends in west africa as the nigerian economy pivots from oil and gas towards something else . and that's absolutely true and i think one of the things that is absolutely going to guard against i think one of the interesting things is that also i mean you know we mentioned some of the negative things one of the things that you see of a period of time that of course you know this idea of comparative advantage is one key area that you have to look at we know for example that africa if you live in the school system is there if you put up with the majority but you know that you know there are many other countries on the continent that if you're very good in education in literacy mathematics and south but then have not had the industry into

the industry of a good up time and one thinks that one of the things learning can do is of course is to transfer some of that so whether american companies can transfer some of that industrial process into you know for example into the central african region where we know there's been a lot of you know the french education of those kinds of standards of education and all of those things that we can meet them together and i see a lot of opportunities we're actually for you know in the agricultural system is a love that's been very successful that's been very industrialized how do we actually transfer some of that's good so one of the things we have to absolutely do is actually make sure that these transfers actually help you know that and let you know so that we can actually build on the technologies build on the industry actually and also use some of this already see that kind of skills development that hasn't happened in the continent and i think one of the things that of course one has got to is that the idea of i guess what people call their 2nd scramble for africa and then actually use some of that investment i don't think that it is now

possible to actually do development in the continent without of course an extent of funding but one has to then say within this environment how do you actually make it that you're not going. to pull very briefly paul we've got 60 seconds for you to answer this question how and when do we know that this has been a success given that especially the continent of africa has 17 percent of the global workforce but it only produces 3 percent of the global g.d.p. i think we'll know if it is becoming. a success if little by little we see that turn ratio beginning to shift because africa starts providing value added i me to take issue with your point about relevance citroen coming in at the moment the point is the reynolds the citron the fox wagons they're coming in toyotas they're all coming in anyway if you stand on the key side in any west african port you can see the car carrying ships importing all these vehicles it's not that nobody has

cars and wouldn't it be better leave some of those cars are at least assembled in the west african region and therefore employing people and with appropriate skills training and it building up the value added i mean why should or could you were all gonna always only produce cocoa why can't they produce chocolate you can apply that in sectors all over the continent so the real test will be if we start to see the value added rising so that africa's share of g.d.p. starts to relate a bit more to its population that means that people's living standards their jobs the range of skills that they can take up and use is gradually on the rise i think that's the indicator to watch ok gentlemen we'll have to leave it there thank you to our guests today they were david a we're opal melly and shanti pai and thank you to you for watching you can see the

show again any time to the website al-jazeera dot com and for more discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash inside story can also track us on twitter at a.j. inside story for me peter davi and the team here in doha thanks for watching we will see you very soon for the moment. discovered kazakstan that as a new strategic location at the crossroads of europe and asia. develop and grow your business. in the leading logistics trade the business harbor in 1st

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gildas younger workers close to. one woman is traveling to the villages where parents still live under a story. on al-jazeera. i'm kevin allen and all the top stories on al-jazeera india's drug regulator has just approved oxford street zeneca vaccine for emergency use is the 2nd most populous country it will be one of the largest vaccination campaigns in the walled india has recorded more than 10000000 covert 19 cases the world's 2nd highest caseload commemorations are being held ahead of the anniversary of the assassination of qassam sort of ani u.s. drone strike killed the iranian general in baghdad on january 3rd last year so the mounties successor is warning that iran is fully prepared to respond to any u.s. aggression.