 We're going to begin an apology that we are a minute late. We'll try and make up that time a Very good morning and welcome to the session titled realising Africa century. My name is Nzinga Kunda I'm a business news anchor on the public broadcast in South Africa the SABC And it's my great pleasure to be your facilitator today as we take a look at Africa and what it needs to do to realize its potential Africa is the youngest and fastest growing continent in the world It's also home to over 60 percent of uncultivated arable land and as an abundance of minerals necessary for the energy Transition so how then do the public and private sector leaders take advantage of this? How do we move fully into Africa century? Joining me on the panel today are the president of the Swiss Confederation Alan Besse the head of government of Tunisia Professor Najla Bhuden the undersecretary general of the United Nations Winnie-Banema will join us a bit later on and The chairman of multi-choice in tears Patel Thank you all of you for being here just a reminder that the hashtag for this event is Hashtag with 23 for those joining us online on television That's what you can use to be part of the discussion for those of us joining us in the room We will be taking questions a little bit later on in the second part of this discussion Let's begin then professor Burden if I can start with you What are the priorities that you think are needed in order to unleash Africa's potential? Thank you If you're Pamela, I will talk in France. I'm more comfortable in France, but maybe I will shift From time to time. I think that oh Don't go. I think time has come for Africa to take charge In a context that you know the context of crisis imported crisis regarding the pandemic the crisis stemming from the Ukrainian war and other crises that are characterizing our continent including poverty for example, but also terrorism and obviously climate change our top priorities for Africa to take charge is To invest first of all invest in people the biggest potential of Africa is its youth and Its women the aspiration six of the agenda 2063 is that the African Union asked for the full potential of Africa to be unleashed through its youth and Women and this includes of course capacity building. It includes Encouraging the youngsters women to become Entrepreneurs, and we need to learn how to boost startup companies. This is our number one priority Then we need to reinforce our climate resilience the climate resilience of the planet all together The energy mix in spite of the huge potential of our planet In terms of solar energy wind power and geothermal well The fact is that so far our continent is Has not done much Tunisia is at 3.6 percent of renewables where in the rest of the world we're above 7% So this will be our second priority our third priority Will be to boost digital connectivity across the African continent yesterday. We talked about about the AFC FTA The African continental free trade area. We need greater connectivity across Africa, and this will boost Africa's economy and our fourth and last priority is South-South cooperation what I call triangular cooperation and greater international Cooperation we must find new solutions to allow the African continent to Shift out of this Crisis and I think we need to learn simply how to think out of the box. These are my four Priorities for Africa going forward to make Africa a more sustainable and more innovative continent Spoken about some of the things that make Africa so unique and make us so powerful as well whether it's the workforce Whether it's the innovation Digital and these many startups that she's saying are on the continent What is what about the African continent makes it ripe for this African century to be realized? Thank you very much and Zynga. I I have to rely on my notes I can't rely on my brain anymore. So I've made some notes and I've got a few points to make the first one is that Obviously, everybody knows it's a very young and a very large population and going to continue to grow and going to have Amongst the big large cities of the world in Nigeria in Tanzania and in other parts of Africa a fast-growing middle class 65% of the population is under the age of 35 That makes for a very very interesting market. The analogy I use often is if you think about India or 15 years ago I remember in 2002 we went to look at investing in broadcasting in India and There was a narrative within our own company people who had not been exposed culturally to you know to that part of the world saw it as as Infrastructure is poor dirty corrupt all those kind of really bad Connotations, right? But if you look at India today with that large population and they were quite poor, right? They've taken 400 million people into the middle class, right? It's a market where it's almost difficult to get in because the price of assets are so high all of those kind of things So I think in many ways for me Africa represents the Indian opportunity of 10 15 years ago The people are resilient super resilient They are hungry for growth and everybody wants a better life and I think to your point It's the spirit of the people one cannot ever underestimate People are tech savvy if you go anywhere in Nigeria people are so so tech savvy. It's unbelievable They are pockets in South Africa in the in the Western Cape in other parts of South Africa where I mean Kenya It's just like supremely tech savvy. So young people are Adopting and breaking the digital divide not because the platform is there, but they themselves want to want to break that Policy makers and I saw a lot of debate this morning Government and and business arguing with each other about who comes first and who doesn't we tend to take a generally positive view When I talk to policy makers and I listen to people I think there's a general awareness that they need to lay the foundations for growth So I'm quite positive that policy makers are are going to take us in the right direction as you've already mentioned The digital divide is narrowing and narrowing really fast We have natural resources like Sun and wind that will solve in the long run the renewal renewable energy problem and I think Ultimately if you look at the way we've handled the pandemic everything looks really positive For Africa in our view And let me bring into the conversation as someone from outside our continent for the last 12 years Switzerland has been ranked as the most innovative country in the world How can Switzerland best partner with Africa in order to foster more of the innovation that it's already been spoken about and that is already there as well So, thank you very much Thank you very much for having us for having me and this in this panel And it's a great honor to be here and to have this occasion to speak about innovation and Switzerland and what we can do together with Africa and first of all, maybe when we speak when talking about innovation. What do we mean with with that? I mean new processes. I mean new products and new services That gives you an advantage over your competitor That's the maybe it could be a definition and I we start right now if I may with the conclusion and The conclusion is for Switzerland. It is really important to work with African countries And to partner with African countries to support the creation of innovative ecosystems What does mean an innovative ecosystem? And we how can we can we could we reach that it is true exchange of know-how it is true technology transfer It is true investment in education in academic exchanges between our countries and in the support For startups and small and small businesses and that's the conclusion and how do we come to this conclusion and To explain that I must explain also something about Switzerland and innovative processes and innovation history of innovation in in in Switzerland and we have a very long history of innovation You know the watchmaking, you know the pharmaceuticals, you know the machine industry, you know the textiles, you know the chemistry You know the the banking sector, you know the blockchain, you know also the chocolate Chocolate making it is not it is not not so easy. It was really really innovative It was really innovative with the first factories in the 19th century century with the first the invention of the mix of Chocolate and milk. It sounds it sounds obvious today It was it was not obvious at the beginning and with order order Well very strong innovations and you know today chocolate. It's not just only chocolate chocolate is also a science It is a science and there is a chocolate working group led by a professor of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and saying that I just want to tell you that innovation is this long history and The main point now is where does it come come from and How could we have the ecosystem to do that? This ecosystem are more or less always the same. I've always More or less the same construction. It is a mix of educational system Educational system high-class universities vocational training in Switzerland very well known it is a very close pragmatic collaboration between research institutions and Industrial partners and government at all levels it is To use and to have startups to test new ideas Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't work. It's okay. It is to have the presence also of multinational big firms that I push research and development they invest in research and development It is also to have the protection of intellectual property to have proper investments And also to have the digitalization to fossil solution and between Africa and Switzerland right now We have partnership with South Africa in the development of blockchain for example, and we are trying To develop those those ecosystem with this example We have also another example in the health issues where we are quite strong Also with our pharmaceutical industries in Switzerland, but I can explain that maybe later if you want Okay, we need let's bring you into the conversation We've been speaking about potential innovation here, but if we bring the context into where we are now Emerging hopefully from a pandemic you've spoken quite a lot about the need for Africa to be self-reliant Particularly when it comes to tick and health. So how do we make sure that that happens? Thank you, and I'm sorry. I'm a bit late. Okay coming out of another session yeah, I'm a proud African and There are many challenges, but I always see the potential of our beautiful continent There is a bright future by 2035 There will have been more young smart Africans entering the workforce Then in the all the other continents combined That's how dynamic the continent is but right now we have to agree that Africa is facing a road deal and is being crushed and I'm going to talk about the health sector which I work in We saw with a COVID pandemic How rich countries hoarded the COVID vaccines they bought more than they could use They left none for the rest of the world Not only that they also refused rich companies and their governments to share the technology So that others could produce for themselves and survive so Here they were making billions in profits and here Africa and other parts of the south were dying This is not about being left behind. This is about being crushed I call it being crushed not being left behind because people are being left to die Then the results given you are not capable. You don't have the capacity to produce it anyway, South Africa put them to shame Company in South Africa within one year also made the same vaccine just like Moderna But Moderna would still not share his technology so that they move it to production To commercial production so some of the challenges the continent faces Come from the structural barriers within the global system the trade rules that allow People to hold a life-saving medicine and not share the technology so that others make for themselves Today in the HIV world where I work There is a new long-acting Medicine to prevent HIV infection. It is available in New York, but it's not available in Nairobi Why because the company which has it vive will not allow others to produce it So we are pushing and pushing and seeing you have the treatment. We have the Preventive share it with more countries to their credit They have shared it with a few more countries, but not all countries particularly not those who have the capacity Like South Africa like Brazil to produce generics that will go cheap that we reach everyone So Africa must become self-reliant But to do that it must also work on its own issues like build the market Where products can be sold and then that are at a competitive price with other regions That is a business our business of integrating our market. It's happening But needs to happen faster, but also global rules must change so that we can have the space to innovate and to build our own medicines and vaccines South Africa has a hub. I must end on that one has a power hub For a marinae technology that technology that was used to save lives in covid This hub has spokes all over the south in Asia in Latin America in the Middle East Sharing technologies really the first model of developing technology that is shared across regions It needs support political support technical support financial support so that it succeeds before the next pandemic These are the things that will save us and I'm Optimistic because Africa is doing what's right to build its market to share and then also I Need a global movement to change global rules make them work for all of us Professor Buddha and what miss when you are speaking about is something that US Tunisia have been working on when it comes to cooperation Among the continent also bringing people outside perhaps like partners from Japan. Just tell me a little bit about that. Yes Thank you as for continental and international cooperation We firmly believe that Africa's future lies with itself and its people, you know and Homegrown solution Solidarity and ownership are the key principles that guide actions and policies when it comes to achieve agenda 2063 Priorities and in this period Tunisia is bearing no force to further consolidate the entire African cooperation and Advocates for a more constructive and concrete South South and the triangular Cooperation and the African free trade area will differently contribute in acceleration in accelerating Africa's development and As you know, we have a organized in late August of 2020 to the 8th t-cat Tokyo conference for Africa development and there we have identified a huge number of mature projects that are just that are confirmed to be to be implemented and I would like to to talk also about International cooperation Because the international cooperation and multi laterally remains instrumental in supporting Africa's Transformation agenda and that's in helping build the continent's future There is a strong case to call for renewable Renewable partnership with Africa That nobody is more the values of and this is war we think strongly solidarity sustainability and Justice and as the demonstrated By the covid-19 crisis, no one is safe unless Everyone is and this mantra is still irrelevant In the face of the present global crisis that you are facing in Africa And just we've spoken quite a lot about the Wonderful things about our continent and some of the challenges as well. It's not obviously Africa is not one place that has the same Environment there are also quite a lot of challenges when you're coming in particularly if you're an investor if you're looking to do business Tell me a little about your experience with that Yeah, very happy to share. We've been on the continent for 35 years It's definitely not easy to navigate. I don't think any prize worth having is easy to get to You're right it will be a mistake to treat the continent as one country Your world is very different from our world. We operate in sub-Saharan Africa. It's very very different nuances different languages Different cultural nuances all of those kind of things. I think you need to understand those kind of things Our philosophy as a company has been to take a macro approach a Macro strategic approach with a local tactical operational approach in each country I think it requires deep belief It's not an easy continent. So you need belief and I think belief is really important I think you need commitment if you committed and you need to be committed for the long run That's very important. You need a deep understanding of The local nuances in each country. They are really really important. You need to have resolve resolve is really important I think giving back Gives you credibility not only giving back for giving back sake, but I think it also brings credibility It's natural that you have to give back but in your local communities in the countries in which you operate giving back is really important We've often taken the approach of Local partnerships in other words, we have shareholders in the major countries in which we operate We have local management is very hard I think for a South African colonial sometimes the rest of Africa sees South Africans as colonial in their approach And we've seen many South African companies go up north and fail miserably. I Think part of the reason is that you go with a mindset of you know Better or you know how to operate in a country where you really don't know how to operate So I think local partnerships are really important and local management is really important It's a broad philosophy of ours And then we we spend almost a billion dollars a year on investing in local production local content We are Africa's biggest storyteller. It's something we're really proud of so we give people what they want to see We give them their backyards. We give them their homes. We give them their cultures back on the TV screen We are the biggest fund of sport on the continent if a little bit of a punt But just a very interesting little story about getting things done I come I don't know how many of you are familiar with the game of cricket. You wouldn't know cricket But it's a very popular sport in in India Okay, so we started a competition a cricket competition in South Africa. It's on at the moment, right? We partnered the Federation. We became an investor Two nights ago in a very big stadium 30,000 people in Johannesburg Full stadium young people we we we ask people to bid for ownership of six teams Those six teams are all be owned by Indian conglomerates Not one South African company Indian conglomerates He tells you a lot about if we get the platform right if we do the right things people will come That's a massive investment of billions of rents in the country those pictures two nights ago of a full stadium Indian teams supported by South Africans Went to a hundred million people in India, right and sorry There's a billion people in it are a couple hundred people million people would have watched it We should not underestimate the power of those kind of things So I'm hoping we can share some practical experiences with the learning by the way with the learning after 30s have five years We still learning so we will continue to learn and we've been through ups and downs And I think it will be tough and I think it will get easier and then it will be tough again But ultimately we are committed to the continent President but say you were speaking earlier on about collaboration as empty as is talking about now The world is so open and there's so much opportunity in room Just continue giving us more examples and I think I found this example about the emery knee hub in the south Africa really interesting because we have you can start with collaboration You can develop an environment where it is possible to to grow but you need a strong Anchor and this anchor is other people well you need investors that's clear But it's not enough an investor can come and it can go you need an investor in him a stay and when he go You need other investors. How to how do you create that we can create that we have a strong environment I named that before Ecosystem and part of this ecosystem are the people the people living here. That's why Education is so important education legal legal framework stable legal framework stability and Possibility to invest and to know that you have the possibilities to remain here and to have good condition to to work And that's why we are working with from from Switzerland the point of view with African countries to develop that what we are We are also really interested to to be present In african countries because there is a huge potential Also for us. It's that's why it's so so interesting and I think I mentioned before two example I one example is blockchain. We are working with the South Africa and the blockchain technology What does it mean concrete? You must be very concrete when you want to achieve something concrete That means we are participating or Swiss the participants are participating to hackathons on the blockchain in South Africa and we are also trying to develop contacts between our Education Center education universities to our actions of people learning together working together to have this Well, this this development together another point is the health on the health issues we are also that strong collaborating with African countries it's more for the for the products regulation, you know You need a very good product regulation in the health system And it is also possible to be very innovative to be very active in this in this field And we have the chance in Switzerland to have very good Regulation authority and it was our goal to be open to collaboration with other countries to also create those ecosystems In in in other countries, that's maybe the two example I can bring you all right We I would like to open up the floor to questions But we need very quickly if we can one of the things that's going to hold us back from fulfilling the potential That's been spoken about here is the debt crisis that we're facing. How does it hold us back and what solutions are there? Yeah, it is choking Africa and also quite a number of middle-income countries and It's urgent that it is resolved through a multilateral legal framework open for all countries to access and To to renegotiate their loans so that they have the fiscal space to do the things that must be done today If you take a country like Uganda where I'm coming from I've just come back from my holiday I checked in at a school to see how it's going This is a country where kids lost two years of learning because of coffee it I Found that All the government can afford to pay Every year per child if you take away the salary of teachers is three dollars in a whole year per child in school But these are countries that are today paying two times more in debt repayments than their total budget for education Four times more in debt repayments than their total budgets for health It's critical and you're not mentioning what they need to do to manage climate impacts. These are countries flooded or in droughts Secretly You're not talking about the security needs of these countries some of these countries are falling apart under the pressure from All kinds of groups so debt is choking many countries And it's urgent that it is resolved through a system that is better than the current common framework Thank you so much to our panellists for the insight and contributions. I'm looking forward to hear more Let's take some audience questions. If I can ask that we start with Abdel Malek Alo and then can I please ask when you're asking your question you raise your hand and Mike will come to you stand up So we can all see you in the room There's a mic behind you Hello, good morning My question would be to when I'm Prime Minister you talked about South South partnerships What about regional integration because you are in the region that is the least Integrated maybe in the world in term I grab the exchange here accounts only for 2% What are you doing practically so that you can have regional integration in this region? Yes Better integration We have already started working on integration through students We have a lot of students from sub-Saharan Africa, but also from North Africa Why are you saying that there's only 2% what what? in trade of the five Maghreb countries again This trade integration Needs to be based on a number of criteria Betrayed balances and so on and to the best of my knowledge I think we are far beyond 2% which is why I'm asking you What Where where you've obtained that figure? These are official figures. It's one of the least economically Integrated areas in the world. Well that figure that you're putting forward is Is perhaps Perhaps does not reflect full reality fully but what we have tried to do is to boost the connection and common infrastructure notably with Algeria with the Trans-Saharan With the corridor with a number of infrastructures major infrastructures that are going to be built the deep water port We've just finished building the motorway from Tunis through Gambas and Medinine But I think probably The most important issue is building connections by land or air We're tired. I would like to ask a question and two more people here Maybe just to follow up on this question. I've been to the open the special envoy of the African Union and if I may to say that if you look at the Free area which is mean that some of the countries of the Maghrib are also part of the continent Even if it's in the north, I think there are Opportunity to see that integration as a continent as you have Madame Prime Minister said a gender 26 and 3 and others are there to make sure that we open our corridor and We have that regional opportunities. Maybe your question is how do we make sure also that in terms of the political integration as well because we did cut the Economic but also how the the region because we have echo us. We have the sadek We have the all the region which are integrated So maybe they will have some kind of challenges when it come from region to region, but I think CFTA is really a good Opportunity to use for the regional integration of our And I see we need thank you for bringing the light in terms of the health Security but also on other issues of of Africa I think this is a time for us to restart You know and to build back better. There are opportunities here and with the Community the business community in what's Has been said the example of Prime Minister said the president of Switzerland I've talked about chocolate How do we use that? solution and learn from What Switzerland I've done to replicate it in other countries that are for example producing you know the Resources, so I think that's where the connectivity should be there with some countries So opportunity not there. I think we need to seize it The gentleman at the back with the red tie had a question. Can we just get the mic to him, please? Can I please implore that as we've got 10 minutes left? We have quite succinct questions and Responses as well. I don't know if you'd like to anyone would like to respond before we we listen to the gentleman of the red tie Just add on the integration question that We need to be clear economic integration has to be about The advantage you have as a block to trade and to through trade to make improvements in people's lives North Africa is part of Africa and I think Morocco is the country that really has learned that lesson Perhaps in a bit of a hard way Morocco tried very hard to be part of European Union. The Europeans said you are not European enough. They refused Morocco then came back and is now part of the African Union. We embrace them very well But they are now reaping the opportunities Country after country now. I'm seeing Very very many Moroccan companies going for contracts in infrastructure in whatever So integration is about the opportunity to trade and use trade to improve lives. Thank you very much. Please go ahead Hello, I'm James Keaton from AP based in Geneva had a question from madam prime minister Notably about the development. We are talking about debt and a reduction of debt for African nations. We saw that the IMF has recently Spended funding for Tunisia Loans notably To pay for civil servants and my question to you is We have witnessed a We saw that the result of the general election in Tunisia with very low a very low turnout last month So, I mean How worried how concerned are you with the future of democracy in Tunisia and the economic fallout of that? seconds for question Please respond Yes, I don't see if I'm I didn't really understand. Could you be more precise? You said that the IMF had suspended The debt No, the IMF has suspended a number of loans Granted by the IMF to pay the wages of civil servants public workers public sector workers No, no, that is absolutely wrong. I can't comment on that. So Madam my question is very simple. How concerned are you? That Issues with democracy in a nation that was one of the pillars of the Arab Spring May have economic what the economic fallout of that maybe for your country Could you repeat that? Let me tell you Your question gets answered. I'm just left with seven minutes I want to make sure as many instructions as possible happen Please stand up introduce yourself question in 30 seconds or less. Who's it directed to that Joe? Kenner presidency of Grayston in New York I want to do to talk about because we haven't heard much about the impact and the challenges you see with the African continental free trade agreement So folks could give us the challenges and opportunities you see with that. Thank you very much Anyone would like to I would say something and in this issue. Thank you very much for that as a Swiss president It's quite difficult for me to speak about it But I tried to give to give a well what I can talk about it our yesterday to this breakfast We had with the African countries and it was a the main theme the main issue the free trade agreement And I must tell you I was really impressed to see one free trade agreement with 1.7 billion people It's huge. It's fantastic and it must be very well implemented It means it means a lot But what means implementation you need for that to have the really implementation on the field You need to have a good logistics. You need to have good travel possibilities to have people in contact It was also amazing not so positive Amazing yesterday to see that to travel from one african city to one another traffic and city You have to go to to come to Breslau to Paris to improve this situation to have better contacts and to develop stability legal legal framework stability institutions and It will be a very very strong strong thing I just wanted to underline this because I think it is for it is absolutely key for the for the next for the next decade So and I just said it's easier for us to travel into the rest of Africa from South Africa We're people based in Dubai because it's easier to use Emirates to get into Ghana Nigeria Tanzania anywhere else as opposed to traveling from South Africa, which is a real problem Your question in 30 seconds a lesson who's addressed you please. Thank you. Hi I'm sangu delia why jail from Ghana So my question is we've spoken about the travel connectivity issues and economic integration and the hope of of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement But before we get to that there's the most basic thing which is the the movement of people as it stands today If I have a US passport or a European passport, it's easier to travel across Africa than if I go with my Ghanaian passport How do we fix this? Thank you? Really yeah, it's easy to say what should happen it's tougher to do it But definitely African countries African leaders are seeing the importance of free movement of people and goods The challenge is there is that some countries Are doing better than others economically? There's a tendency for people to look for greener pastures and then that also results into a migration problem for some countries These are real challenges But I'm seeing many countries moving away from that take for example for us in East Africa Now we've brought back the East African passport with my East African passport. I can move Six countries in our region. So there's progress that's happening, but it's a bit slow We need to move it faster I'm checking if there's any more questions from the floor as we have three minutes or so remaining one last Very quick question before we get the gentleman's questions answered in the red But we can go back to that question I don't know if you thought about a new able to answer or you want to have that discussion later. Yes. Yeah, yeah, of course So could you repeat your question? Well, I'm sorry if I was a little perhaps a little bit If I asked it asked it in a complicated manner, but please do go ahead and ask it again So let's set aside the IMF issue for the time being. It's just a very basic question There was a general election in Tunisia with a very very low turnout in the first round. Yes Tunisia was a symbol of the Arab Spring. It still is so We are just Undergoing a democratic transition. We are moving from one model to another. I'm sure that you will understand That resistance to change is a very powerful phenomenon This general election is not over yet There will be a second round on January 29th, and I'm sure that you will see That we'll will have a much better turnout Does that answer your question because there's a sense that there was another aspect an economic aspect That you thought was connected to the democratic transition Yes, I was saying do you think that problems with democracy which People who turn towards Tunisia With very hopeful eyes and what they've accomplished is that in any way endangered by that very low turnout and May may there be fallout from that economically for your country Why don't we talk about this after January 29th? Of course, I'm delighted that you are deeply interested in the future of Tunisia and you are expressing Something in asking questions, which of course many people are thinking long and hard about but let me assure you that Tunisia's democratic transition is absolutely not under threat That we are currently accomplishing a full democratic transition. We are there's a true change of paradigm We are transitioning from one regime to another and I'm sure that you will see I Am very hopeful. I have full confidence in our people and as I do for the whole of the African continent I'm very hopeful that Tunisia Tunisia's situation will improve and that we're probably going to accomplish things that will surprise you But he's talking Tunisia We're going to work and try and continue the discussion What I am going to ask the World Economic Forum to do though is make sure that we have the next Africa session We have is an hour and a half because last year when I moderated the discussion as well It also got very heated. We've got so many different countries We've got so many different opinions and so many different issues on the continent And this is just an example of how we need so much more time To ventilate the issues and really have discussions among different role players in the country in the countries and in the world I'd like to thank you all so much We will be good to go we will realize the African century. Thanks so much for your time and attention. Good afternoon