Government support crucial for global reach in automotive industry: AAAM Vice President

Vice President of the African Association of Automobile Manufacturers (AAAM), Ahmed Fikri Abdel Wahab, emphasized the pivotal role of government support for the automotive industry's global outreach. Fikri highlighted that without such backing, reaching clients worldwide would be a considerable challenge.

Regarding building value chains, Fikri said that there is no magic to leapfrog. “This is a journey, and it is an objective,” he noted, emphasizing that it takes decades to build value chains.

He mentioned that in Egypt, it all started in September 2021, marking the first part of the journey, which took almost two years.

“After three years of very serious and hard work to develop this consultation, it was the fractures of consultation with trade agreements,” he said.

He further invited African countries to benefit from Egypt’s experience.

This came during a panel entitled, “Hub Countries Implementing Auto Policies- status and learning”, which took place during the African Automotive Forum at the IATF2023.

African Automotive Forum kicked off earlier on Saturday at the third edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair, IATF2023. 

The forum takes place for two days, Nov. 11 and 12.

The Automotive Forum (conference), spearheaded by the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) addresses the most pertinent issues affecting Africa’s automotive growth. 

The program of the forum includes presentations from global automotive leaders, including multi-national OEMs, participation of several Heads of State.