OPENING OF THEINTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EMERGENCE OFAFRICA: PRESIDENTS ALASSANE OUATTARA AND MACKY SALL SPEAK ABOUT THEIR VISIONS FOR EMERGENCE

TheInternational Conferenceon the Emergence ofAfricabegan this 18 March at the Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire of Abidjan in the presence of Presidents Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire and Macky Sall of Senegal. Before a public of personalities, includingformer President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, the Vice-Ministerof Foreign Affairs of China, Zhang Ming and Mrs. Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, the Head of Stateshared his faith in the Emergence ofAfrica, “the continent of the future”. “Full of promises andlikely to“astonish the world”,Africa,for him, must build its emergence in peace and stability, relying on ten points that should be the basis of discussions during this conference.

Among other things, the aimis to increase the savings rate, well targeted public investments,the modernization of Agriculture, the acceleration of industrialization for theprocessing of African raw materials, the development of an efficient and competitivebanking system, as well as the increase of the factors of production.

Setting out the vision of emergence for Côte d’Ivoire by 2020, thePresident of the Republicindicated that it rests on the consolidation of an inclusive economic growth whose objective is to reduce poverty through the equitable sharing of the wealth.

This economic growth, he added, relies on the developmentof athriving private sector that takes advantage of the constant improvement of the business environmentthroughcommitted reforms. It is these reforms that have made it possible for the country to be in the lead of reform-oriented countries in the world.

The President also insisted that Côte d’Ivoire relies on the processing of at least 50% of its raw materials by 2020 and on food self-sufficiency through thedevelopmentof food-producing agriculture, especially rice production.

For his part, the President of Senegal, HEMr. Macky Sall, laid out his vision of emergence as setting a goal to build acohesive developmentbased on inclusive growth.

To achieve this objective by 2035, Senegal, he said, is carrying out infrastructure building policies, because, he argued, “Everywhere in the world, experience has shown that infrastructure is the basis of development”.

Even if he shares the optimism ofAfrica’s emergence,the President of Senegalcalled for a change of mentalities and paradigms, especially when it comes to financing African economiesin an international context marked by dwindling funds for officialdevelopment assistance.

As for Mrs. Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, she invited African States to meet thechallengeof reducing poverty, improving health, education and women’s condition, in order to achieveemergence, which is within the reach of African States, considering their potential.
“There are several reasons to be optimistic about the emergenceofAfrica”, she said.
A joint-organizer, together with the UNDP, the SeniorMinister, Albert Mabri Toikeusse,Ministerof Planning andDevelopment, welcomed the holding of this conference organized as a platform ofexchange and learning, and an opportunity for the stakeholders to assess the conditions ofemergence together.

He added that these three days should allow African countries to draw lessons from thedevelopmentofemergent countries, notably those of the BRICS represented at this conference by the Vice-Ministerof Foreign Affairs of China, Mr. Zhangh Ming.

It should be noted that a high level panelon the vision of emergenceled by Presidents Alassane Ouattara, Macky Sall, Thabo Mbeki, Mrs Helen Clark, Mrss. Maktar Diop and Zhangh Ming, took place right after theOpening Ceremony.

The first plenary session was held in the afternoonon the theme “The Developmentalist StateandEmergence” and 4 Group Sessions on emergence-related themes, including Peace andSecurity, Conditions forEmergence, Modernization of the State and Behavior Change, Planning forEmergence, Financing ofDevelopmentandPromotion ofPartnerships.