EIC Position presented to 3rd EU-Africa Summit
On the occasion of the 4th EU-Africa Business Summit on 26-27 November 2010 in Tripoli, EIC's recommendations on Capacity-Building and Private Investment in Infrastructure were incorporated into the Final Forum Declaration which was presented by the Forum's co-chairs to the African-EU Heads of States and Governments on 29 November 2010.
Participants at the fourth EU- Africa Business Forum (EABF), held in the Libyan capital Tripoli 26-27 November 2010, called for further efforts to boost the private sector in African countries in a bid to reduce poverty and promote economic development in the continent. The two-day forum, which started on Friday, brought together about 200 business leaders representing multi-nationals, large corporations, small and medium-scale enterprises and confederations, multilateral and regional institutions.
The EABF is an integral part of the EU-Africa Partnership, adopted in 2007. It plays a key role in bringing together entrepreneurs and public and private investors from both Europe and Africa in order to discuss ways of improving the investment and business climate and to raise the profile of doing business in Africa, in a bid to support African countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and their progressive integration into the global economy. The forum was held on the eve of the 3rd Africa-EU Summit, with a view to delivering messages to the summit and providing concrete inputs for the debate amongst the heads of state and government at the summit. The fourth edition of the event, themed "Economic Growth: The private sector, A critical partner," focused on the private sector 's role notably referring to linking markets, facilitating business activity, green economy and the role of the private sector in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Several plenary sessions, panel discussions and a roundtable of CEOs were held on how to deepen the involvement of local private sector in Africa's economic development and on finding effective tools to boost the private sector. EIC organised two panels on Capacity-Building and Private Investment in Africa's Trasnport Infrastructure which were very well received.
"The EU-Africa Business Forum is most definitely an effective platform for dialogue and an important means of incorporating the contribution of the private sector," co-chairman of the forum Sheikh Modibo Diarra, who is chairman of Microsoft Africa, was quoted by the official website of the summit as saying. "The private sector remains a key player at the EU-Africa Business Forum," said Giulia Di Tommaso, another co-chairperson of the forum, who is director for external affairs of Africa, Middle East and Turkey of Unilever. She believed that the key role of private sector was transforming the Africa-EU economic agenda into a genuine partnership while the main challenge in this regard would be to find an effective way of releasing the continent's growth potential.
While participants have agreed that there would be no development with the private sector's involvement, Vice President of European Investment Bank (EIB) Plutarchos Sakellaris, who chaired the forum's afternoon discussion on Saturday, said the access to finance is the most important stimulator for the growth of private sector. Sakellaris, whose bank lends more than 70 percent of its money for Africa on private sector, said at the discussion that "we need more innovations and cooperation to make sure that limited money can actually have bigger effect." He said in an interview that the main purpose of the forum is to "garner the messages we want to deliver to the leaders to the 3rd Africa-EU summit," and one of the key messages that have emerged is that "we need partnership between governments, donors, international financial institutions, private sector and local banks, so that we can find ways of using aid money in a more efficient way to promote development." According to Sakellaris, EIB last year lent around 3 billion euros for projects across Africa, compared to 79 billion for projects around the world. In Africa, EIB focuses on two major areas, infrastructure and the financial sector, while giving priority to private sector. Sakellaris also acknowledged that the EU has been supporting and will continue to support the development of private sector in Africa.
The EABF was launched in 2006 upon a joint EU and AU initiative. The forum enables the views of the business community to be presented to European and African political leaders and involves the private sector in defining Africa's development policy and its relations with the EU. After the launch of EU-Africa strategic partnership, the forum became an integral part of the partnership. The previous three editions of the forum were held in Brussels in 2006, Accra in 2007 and Nairobi in 2009, respectively.