African Union Chairman satisfied with this commitment.

On 20 April 2021 in Kinshasa, H.E. Felix Antoine Tshisekedi, President of the DRC, and sitting Chairman of the African Union (AU) officially opened the 12^th General Assembly and the Steering Committee meeting of the Union of African Shippers' Councils (UASC). In his opening address, the DRC President congratulated the UASC Secretariat and the Multimodal Freight Management Office (OGEFREM) for organising an international conference in collaboration with the Africa Continental Free Trade Zone (AfCFTA) Secretariat on the implementation of the AfCFTA on the sidelines of its statutory General Assembly meeting.

"In discharging your daily tasks aimed at removing trade barriers and facilitating trade, you are in a better position to ensure the successful implementation of AfCFTA, which is a strategic approach for economic development”. H.E. Felix Antoine Tsisekedi said.

"I believe that good coordination between shippers’ actions and those of the AfCFTA Secretariat will help in creating enabling conditions for an effective African economic integration", he concluded.

The international conference that brought together about a hundred participants is expected to brainstorm and come up with concrete proposals. It will equally develop mechanisms for the free movement of goods between UASC member states. That way, they will be able to adopt strategies for a better functioning of their institutions despite the constraints imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.