Business Forum held in Côte d'Ivoire from the 25th to 30th November 2017
MITCO represented by Wendy Kong (Head of Business Development) and Franck Gosse (Country Representative of Côte d'Ivoire) also formed part of the Mauritian delegation.
The EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF), one of the events of the Business Forum, was held on the 27th November and was organised ahead of the 5th African Union-European Union Summit on 30th November 2017. The EABF attracted close to 1,000 participants from African and European business environment.
The main objective of this forum was "Facilitating investments in Africa and Introducing the European External Investment Plan".
EABF event was centered on the following main topics:
- Entrepreneurship: Fostering entrepreneurship among youth and women
- Digital economy: Investing in digital startups
- Agriculture and Agribusiness: Greater cooperation for agricultural investments in Africa
- Sustainable Energy: Enabling and leveraging investments in sustainable energy in Africa
The MITCO Team shares with us their feedback on the EABF:
It is true that overtime those topics have been identified and mentioned continuously as being the pillars that will assist in the development of the African continent.
Entrepreneurship: African youth encompasses intelligent, creative and educated individuals who wish to progress and succeed, not only for their own personal growth, but also having a strong patriotic identity and real wish for their country and continent to become a more prosperous environment for all. For those youths, they refer to their friends and business partners as their ‘brother’ or ‘sister’!
Entrepreneurship has also a direct effect on employment, henceforth the primary importance of encouraging entrepreneurship.
Digital economy: is the engine of the future and Africa has recognised its importance in bringing them to the next level or era!
Agriculture and Agribusiness: This is the ‘Gold’ that Africa possesses in addition to valuable natural resources; Extensive fertile and arable land that stretch to the horizons. There are no limits to such potentials!
Sustainable Energy: This is definitely the most important of all as without energy the development cannot be possible. Accessibility to energy is still a major challenge for the continent, but is a necessity, being the ‘’Fuel’’ that will make it happen for Africa!
This Forum has been an eye opener for many. Despite the initiative of EU with regards to financing of numerous projects, there is much more that is required to be done in addition to the above, to assist in such an important initiative that will provide the right infrastructure, education for all and a good and reliable health system that will benefit all.
It is only a very long term and strong partnership between EU-Africa, but also between each and every European and African businessman or entrepreneur, that can make a difference to the future of Africa."