 I am happy to say that there are many members and participants still in the room and eager to listen to the two speakers for this last lunch debate on Africa. But rather than having a discussion on African general terms, we thought with the two prominent speakers, Madame Aminata Touré, former Prime Minister of Senegal and who is now serving as the President of the Conseil Économique et Sociale et Environnementale, you will tell us how you translate that into English or any other language. And so thank you very much, Madame Aminata Touré, to have accepted this role today. So you will speak about Senegal, I think, a case study, a very interesting one, on the West, in West Africa. And for East Africa, we have the pleasure of having Arkebe Okube, who is actually has been the advisor to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, to three Ethiopian Prime Ministers, and with the rank of minister, so his minister, minister, cabinet minister, and advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. And by the way, we congratulate him and his prime minister, who as you know won the Nobel Peace Prize a few days ago. So that will give us two case studies, so to speak, one on West Africa, one East Africa. So thank you very much. Please come here. So we will start with the presentation of both our speakers, and then as usual, Q&A session. So Aminata first. Thank you very much, Mr. Facilitator, Thierry. I'd like to congratulate you for this conference that kept all its promises. I am the president of the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council, which is as simple as that, that play an advisory role toward the government and the parliament. I'd like to talk about Senegal, give a little bit of background. It's a small country. We like to call it the entry of Africa when you come from the USA. We are just facing New York, which wasn't a luck. That's one of the biggest slave reports. We are 16 million, so a small population, but we are mostly known for our political stability. We are a country of 97% of Muslim, and our first president happened to be a Christian in 1960. He's the father of the independence. He has been supported at that time by all religious leaders against his opponent, who himself was a Muslim, a lawyer going by the name of Lamin Gaye. So what I'd like to show there is that we've been sort of nurturing internal cohesion and inter-religion relationship quite peacefully. So we are a country, an Islamic country of tolerance and peace, and it translated into stability. And we are very, very proud of that, and we really would like to sort of nurture it and sustain it. That's the first thing I would like to say about Senegal. Second thing is the democracy. We have changed peacefully president over time, the first one, Leopold Sédar-Singard, who happened to be a member of the Académie Française. He spoke French so well that he has been appointed at the Académie Française, which showed a historical relationship with France. And then he resigned from power in 1981. His successor, President Abdujouf, left power in 2000 after democratic elections, succeeded by President Abdullaie-Wad, who himself was defeated in 2012 by the sitting president, Makisal, all of that in a peaceful process. So we do think that we do have a strong democracy that is ingrained in the political culture and we work to sustain that because it's never a given. We all have to work with it. Second thing I'd like to say about Senegal, we do have also a very, what we call, armée républicaine, which means an army that goes by the rule of democracy, that respect the constitution, and we never know of coup d'etat in Senegal. So that kind of defeat all the stereotypes we are displaying about Africa. The army stays in its role. It's very much involved in peacekeeping operation all over the world, and as we speak also in Mali, we worked also in Gambia, the neighboring country of Gambia, and the army is very professional and stand by the constitution. We also do have a very strong press. Some would say too strong. The liberty of press is a given with journalists expressing themselves in a free way. So this is what is the ingredient of the Senegalese stability. When it comes to the economics, because of course if you want to sustain that, you have to create wealth. We are a very young country. 70% of the population is below the age of 40, which trigger strong challenges. The most important one is related to, of course, youth employment. So President Makisal, when he came as the head of state, at that time I studied with him as Minister of Justice. The next year he worked on a plan that is called Plans Senegal Emergent. We have one of the key actors sitting here, which is Mubarak Law. I have to acknowledge him. He was also part of the team. He's very known by the World Forum. He's been attending it often. So he was also part of those who reflect on this plan that was set from 2013 all the way to 2035. What it shows, the length of the plan, is that if you can count on a solid democracy that is ingrained in the political culture, you don't only think for yourself, because we have a two-term system. You can also think for the future generation, ensuring that democracy will play normally and whoever will be, you know, at the seat as a president will be following the accumulative success, because that's how it is seen. This Plans Senegal Emergent, which means how to make sure that Senegal emerge as a developed country, has three pillars. The first pillar is economy, as I said. It's very important to create wealth for your youth, for the women. So that's the first pillar. And it has been quite successful, because last year we enjoyed 6.5 percent economic growth. So whatever, you know, we were doing, it seems to be working, because we are below the African average of economic growth, that is between 4.1 percent, and we enjoy 6.5 percent. So it is working. What happened to have such a big growth? First of all, it is around good governance, making sure that the revenues are well spent. And they have been spent in a sector that employ most of Senegalese workers, which is agriculture. So the idea was how to modernize agriculture. So a lot of investment have been made, modernizing equipment, moving from traditional agriculture to modernize, more mechanical agriculture. So the result was that we, for instance, we grow peanuts, is one of our most products. We quite double the production in six years. So that contributed to the growth. Infrastructure, they've been an immense infrastructure to close the gap between urban areas and rural areas, because that's also one of the challenges we've been having. When the colonizer came, they focused on the cities, because that's where they used to live and how they organized the economy. So there is a huge gap, most of the time, between the rural places and urban. When you come in African cities, you can enjoy a lifestyle, comfortable, but you drive maybe 10 kilometers further, you are in rural Africa and you can see the gap. So President Saal was very, very, very keen on bridging the gap, and he came up with what we call a capture plan, rural plan, and by investing in roads, in access to water, by the way Senegal is going to achieve universal access to water. And we are hopeful that in four years we will even achieve universal access to electricity. So all of that put together to trigger more production, and that's what explained this growth. Of course, he also invested in fishery, because we are a fishing country, we have 800 kilometers of coast, and I'll talk about the challenges related to environment. So he also subsidized production, trying also to modernize fishery equipment and small boats, so that also increased the production in that sector. The second pillar is about human development. If you have an economy, you have resources, by the way Senegal is going to be oil and gas-producing country, we are very happy about that. And I also like to point out, we have a, Muhammad is here, one of our Mauritanian friends. The gas was discovered at the border between Mauritania and Senegal, but in high sea. So where is the well? Well, it could be, you know, more in the Mauritanian side or a little bit in the Mauritanian Senegalese side. So what the two president, former president Aziz, and he has to be praised for that, and President Sal too has to be praised for that, they sat down and agreed that we're going to do 50-50. I think we didn't talk a lot about it, but this is sort of a very positive way of solving issues in Africa. We know that a lot of wars and turmoil arise in this kind of situation, where everybody want to sort of take advantage, but they come up and decide that it's going to be 50-50. So I think this is a good lesson learned and a good case study to be published. So human capital was very, very, very strong on that. President Maxal came up with creating universities, but investing also in quality education, primary to secondary level. Because we also still have huge gap in terms of, you know, schooling, but we made a lot of progress. This year, for instance, there were more female sitting for examination to go to secondary school than male. In a 96% Muslim country, that's a huge advancement where women are more sort of present in schooling than men at the primary. But of course, as we go, there are some social challenges and you find fewer women maybe in the universities, but there is a nice trend that is being built and designed. So that is also very, very supported. In the human capital, there is also a decision. We do have what we call la délégation à l'entrepreneurière rapide. I would translate it in sort of a window, financial window to support, especially women and youth in terms of promoting entrepreneurship and supporting small projects and small enterprises, and a huge amount of money has been put in that strategy. So that's the second pillar, how the country is going to build quality human resources, including women and young people, so you can support your economic plan. Because most of the time you do have the gap. You would see the opportunities in mining, in gas, et cetera. But on the other hand, you would not see quality human resources to be in a situation of good management. So that also is part of the plan. So that was the second pillar. And the third one, which is equally important, that's good governance. And I think Senegal has been recognized as one of the good countries trying to really promote good governance. We had a recognition from more Ibrahim index. We made huge progress. We still have challenges, of course. But that is one of the priority of President Makisal and his government. And in this third pillar, of course, there is cooperation. And cooperation at different level, whether it's at the regional level, sub-regional I would say, ECOWAS. That's the Economic Commission for West African countries. We are very interrelated. And we do have a common market. We have the common currency, the Saifah, which we inherited from our relationship, ancient relationship with France. And I must say there is a debate also in countries as whether we should start reflecting on our own currency. But that's ongoing debates and we are doing it also with our partners. And then you do have the African market, which is the bigger, meaning through what happened recently, the African trade zone, which will present Africa as the biggest common market actually. We didn't speak a lot about it, but it's going to be one of the biggest common markets. The head of state agreed upon it. So I think it's an opportunity to commerce within ourselves, because this is also one of the challenges in Africa. We don't trade much within ourselves. It's between less than 10 percent intra-Africa trading. Although if you go to Asia or even to Europe, it might be up to 70 percent. So with this common zone of trading, we should be moving forward. Yes, there is some. Of course I have to talk about the challenges. The challenges I talked about it, it's a youth employment. Youth employment and we have a gap in terms of industrialization. That's for his second term, one of the priority of President Machisel. How are we going to import less goods and manufacture them here in Senegal? I think Ethiopia is doing a good work. That's also what we would like to do. Second is environment. I talk about the 800 kilometers, of course. We are seeing, see, you know, sort of invading sort of the lands and it's also an issue, a challenge that we are trying to face. And of course security, not within Senegal but as a sub-regional concern. We do know the situation of Nigeria, terrorism, of Mali and it's closer and closer to Senegal and we are also an actor because we are supporting our Malian friends but that's also a concern that we have to list among the challenges. And what are the way forward? The way forward is really building upon our experience, building stronger institution. I think when it comes to the political process in Senegal, it's already well ingrained and that's one of the given, good governance and of course use at the center of whatever we are doing because as I said, that's 70% of our citizen and whatever policy is being developed, it has to be centered, youth centers and women centers. When you take both groups, it's 70% of the population. And in a place like this one, we also have to talk about cooperation. How are we going to sort of develop stronger links within our traditional friends, of course. I talked about the relationship, very ancient relationship with France but as I said, starting also in ECOWAS, how are we going to have a common vision on these issues, of course, on a win-win basis. I do think that there's been a history and there will be a future of our relationship and of course, opening up to Africa and to the rest of the world. I could speak on and on and on but I think I'm going to leave it here. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I mean, I thought it was fascinating and I was about to say we are all Senegalians now but are we also all Ethiopians, so the floor is yours and I would like to say about you also that you are the author or the editor of a number of very important books, not only in Ethiopia but also on economic development in a large sense. So the floor is yours. Thank you, Siri. First I have to thank you and express my appreciation for the great work that contributes to creating a new way of understanding of global issues and I'm referring to the contribution of IFRI and the World Policy Conference which I have found to be quite important contribution. So we thank you for this and I would ask my colleagues here to upload for the great job that Siri had done. It's now considered as one of the leading think tanks although we know that most of the leading think tanks are in the US and this is being ranked as one of the leading global think tanks and I'm really happy about this and I also congratulate my sister Aminta for the great job our Singapore colleagues are doing and maybe one of the few female Prime Ministers and I congratulate you Aminta. So let me start with the point Siri raised. Are we all Ethiopians? This was a question and the answer is yes. And I have a good reason the human origin comes from Lucy. Lucy is founded in Ethiopia and it's a human remain 3.5 million years old and this is in Ethiopia. So your origin, your grand-grand-grand-grand parents are from Lucy, Ethiopia. And Ethiopia is also known for being one of the first countries who accepted Judaism. That's why there are Ethiopian Jews and this goes far beyond before Christ. Then Ethiopia is also, we're talking with Aminta one of the, actually one of the oldest Muslim countries. The first mosque was built in the 7th century and followers of Muhammad, Prophet Muhammad when they were not welcomed in Saudi the Ethiopian king at that time Nuguz welcomed them, they settled and he gave them land. He was a Christian king and since then even Prophet Muhammad said that every Muslim should never declare war on Ethiopia and this makes it the oldest Muslim country but it's also one of the oldest Christian countries. Christianity have a long history and a very diverse society in terms of religion but people tolerate each other and in some places Muslims and Christians also marry each other. We are also diverse society. So coming back to the prestigious award our prime minister has received I would like to say few words about this issue the main reasons that our prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was he took a very bold initiative to end a 20 years old war between Ethiopia and Eritrea which may not be politically popular and without major intermediaries the two leaders met and agreed to make a peace and our prime minister took the first initiative and now Ethiopia and Eritrea are in peace and we also appreciate all friends who facilitated this great peace including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia UAE and other leaders. Our prime minister also one of the first initiatives was the Cairo and directly appeal to the Egyptian people that Ethiopia is committed for a peace with Egypt and that Grand Renaissance Dam is also to be built with the common interest in mind. So he also made it clear that we need to closely work together. So peace has been a major focus of our prime minister in the area the second reform our prime minister focused on governance issue. One of the changes in our political system or government has been an increased involvement of female and here now our president is president Salor a female president the supreme judge is female judge Maaza and 50% of the cabinet members are also female and also the speaker of the House of Federation is a female female are good to lead a country and of course we can learn from the Germans. Merkel we can see the first leader who has been able to be in chancellor's position for a long time. So this has been a major intervention in the governance area and also additional economic reforms but the key point is why is Ethiopia raised the name of Ethiopia raised in many platforms and there is one one important reason. Since 1991, Ethiopia has been able to initiate a very fast economic growth and the country is big in population and between 1975 and 1991 during the military regime the economy was stagnant and we had a big war and after in the 90s a new constitution was adopted a multi-party system was adopted and the country focused on recovery so it's now considered and the world bank has the fastest growing economy because the economy has been growing by 10.5% for continuous 15 years and this has been twice Africa's average growth rate which was about 5 to 5.5% and this has been one of the key recognition of Ethiopia. Ethiopia does not have a big volume, does not have big resources and this entire growth was achieved especially by the hardworking people of Ethiopia and Ethiopia also focused on attract investment. In terms of social indicators or improvement of the livelihood of the people, there has been some significant, not sufficient but the achievement has been quite important. A key indicator while going, while not talking about education, health, food security, etc. one critical indicator is the average life expectancy. If people are able to live longer lives there is relatively better improved health services, improved food security, education, etc. So the key progress in this respect was in 1991 the average life expectancy in Ethiopia was 44 and Africa's average life expectancy was 50 whereby 10 years behind Africa's average. In 2016 the average life expectancy in Ethiopia has reached 66 which is a 21 years increment in average life expectancy and compared with Africa's average in 19 in 2016 which was 60, this is twice the average increment and this is an important indicator because growth has to benefit the public. However the country has also been focused on improving and focusing also on long term investment. One key area where the country has focused was on education but not education, primary schools only. In primary schools now we have 30 million population are studying in primary schools. We have big population. It's a second populous country in Africa, 100 million and every year the population is growing by 2 million. 2 million are usually to give an indication, the significance I always say that the population grows twice the size of Mauritius every single year. So here education becomes quite critical. The most important education reform Ethiopia conducted was the transformation of university systems and the introduction of technical schools and in transforming the universities and technical schools we tried to see alternative systems and we found out that the German system is more appropriate to us, especially the apprenticeship system of technical schools. So for the last 15 years we have had a reform, transforming the system and currently the number of technical schools has increased from 3 schools in 1991 to 1,300 technical schools who can train 1 million technicians every single year. The second major expansion and transformation has been in university system. We only had 3 universities and the intake capacity was only 5,000. With the reform made this has increased. Now to 50 public universities in addition to hundreds of private colleges and universities and also the number of students in public universities has reached half a million and every year we have 100,000 university graduates from public universities. But more importantly the major change was the university education had focused on social sciences and humanities. While economics is important, linguistics is important, but for rapid economic transformation engineering is important and technology is critical. So the major shift has been from 85% social sciences and humanities courses we shifted 20% in natural science, technology and engineering. And from this 70%, 40% has to be in engineering. And we have basically achieved this level and we had to train thousands of lecturers with PhD and the government also spent a lot of money on this. We brought in 500 Germans and as you know the Germans are expensive and all their salary was paid by our treasury. We wanted their technical skills. So education and human capital has been a prime focus. Second prime focus has been infrastructure. You cannot sustain rapid economy growth without infrastructure. However infrastructure is not a quick fix. Building a hydro power has a long gestation period. At least you need minimum 10 years from inception to completion. So you have to think long term. And Ethiopia had focused on infrastructure. Building energy, expanding highways, expanding rural roads. Now building electric powered railway systems. And our government has been spending close to 50% of its federal budget on expansion of infrastructure. This has helped us to attract more investment. In the last six, seven years the FDI is increasing, inflow is increasing in Ethiopia. In 2017 Ethiopia was one of the major destinations of FDI in Africa. An increment of 50% that year. Between 2012 and 2017 the FDI size has increased by four times. The key aspect is 89% of all FDI inflow in Ethiopia has been in manufacturing. And I should like to note on this occasion a misperception that it's only the Chinese who are investing in Ethiopia. That's not the case. If you look at infrastructure, one of the major infrastructure projects for instance is being built by a Turkish company, railway company. And it has been financed by Credit Suisse and the concertium of many banks from Europe. European investment bank has been financing important infrastructure. On the investment side in some sectors it's mainly Europeans who have dominated specific sectors. And flouriculture, a very dynamic sector for exports it has been dominated entirely by Europeans. And there is no even a single Chinese. In food and beverage the major investors are Europeans. So in brewery industry which is growing fast and it's growing at a rate of 25% every single year we find companies like Diageaux from UK, Castile Group from France Bavaria and Henneken from Holland and other companies also from Germany. So I would like to highlight that the government is continuously improving the business climate and when you invest in Ethiopia you can also find the right type of skills from university graduates to technicians. One of the good things is that although French is not widely spoken but English is widely spoken which makes it easy for know-how transfer. So these are the few points I would like to highlight. I would also like to add as it's important to indicate that the European and African partnership is important. And here a good initiative by G20 and also many European countries is the G20 compact with Africa. And Ethiopia is one of the few countries selected to be part of this process if I'm not mistaken also Senegal is part of this priority list. So this is an opening that will encourage a broader partnership between our continent and Europe. I was at one of the ports of Morocco and it's just 15 kilometers away from Europe. So these two continents are basically like one big region and it's very important to think of the potential of this continent. Now the population of Africa is 1.2 billion by 2050 it's going to increase to 2.5 billion. 25% of the world's population will be living in Africa. By year 2100 or 2100 after 8 years 4.5 billion population will be living in Africa which is going to be 35%. This is a challenge for job creation because currently in Africa needs to create 20 million jobs every single year minimum. But this is also a huge opportunity. This is a demand. This is a market. This is a new economic opportunity. This is also a source for productive investment. Facilities could be established in Africa and this could also contribute to competitiveness of foreign companies. Well thank you very much RKB. This is also a fascinating presentation and I think we heard about very successful cases illustrating like the other day about Rwanda that Africa has a huge potential for development. I gave the speakers I think a bit extra time so that I think it is not possible to have a discussion now. So I just want to thank you Aminata and RKB. We learned a lot. Thank you very much and see you later.