ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) and Germany have agreed to further their cooperation in skills development in order to create jobs for young people.
The annual bilateral consultations on the development cooperation between the AU and Germany concluded later Thursday at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.
This year's agreement focuses on further cooperation in job creation through enhancement of technical and vocational skills and entrepreneurship, which is in line with the AU theme of the year, "Harnessing the demographic dividend through investments in the youth," according to a joint statement at the conclusion of the two-day gathering.
"Our interest is that Africa can create sufficient jobs for its young and growing population. Economic transformation, skills development, better infrastructure and bigger markets for intra-African trade are central to create prospects for young people and to combat the root causes of forced migration," said Guenter Nooke, the German Chancellor's Personal Representative for Africa in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Head of the German Delegation.
"One central element of what we agreed with the AU Commission and NEPAD today is to jointly do more in the area of training, economic growth and digitalization," he said.
AU Commission Deputy Chairperson Kwesi Quartey noted the focus of the cooperation on education and skills development as significant, underscoring the Commission's focus to have every African child in school by 2020.
During the two-day consultations, further agreement has been reached in the areas of infrastructure and energy, migration and strengthening of the institutional capacities of the African Union Commission.
The two sides have also discussed the upcoming AU-EU summit in Abidjan, which will take place at the end of November.
