 maybe we can take some time I know we are running late but some time for questions and I'll come back if you allow me to each of you to ask you for one two let's say maximum three priorities otherwise it's not priorities anymore to help implement as well as possible this agreement so question please if you can just present yourself when asking the question Hello, I'm Habbek Abdelati, president of the Diplomatic Foundation, you discussed and you woke up China because when Napoleon said it in 1816 when China will turn the world upside down and the minister of imperfits in 1973 to repeat that the african-china competition strongly france african-china China has done all his work he has all that he based all his work on understanding and he used the European models and the American models of cooperation with Africa for the question is that today when you see the cooperation with Africa you have to consider a moral commitment to bring to Africa a lot of things that concern education that concerns social and a lot of commitment and also security I would like to say that it should not be forgotten when in the last summer of african-china you saw the proposal of the president Xi Jinping who really showed that China will not interfere in the affairs of the african countries and who will respect Africa and work in partnership equal to equal and that China has a lot to learn from Africa that Africa has a lot to learn from China thank you so much it's more a recommendation than a question in reality Marie Roger and then I will go to the left thank you in marie rojibiloa no no no I have a lot of questions but I start with a question my question is addressed to Mr. Insou so there is this zone of continental free trade so it has been launched in fanfare and with the resistance of Nigeria but not only Nigeria it is a huge norm that has been seen my question is that it exists on the African continent of the subregional areas of integration the city of the isafrican community the sadaq etc we see how it goes with difficulties and successes but still a lot a lot of difficulties and that this integration already at the subregional level remains objective to reach what justified the urgency to make a continental treaty with all the delays that Africa is currently meeting well I do not know the situation of Africa currently and that it remains finally a view of the mind that we can do this kind of free circulation of goods of people and everything we want and what justified that we want to do it right away on the continental level while the approach by step has not yet shown all these results to simplify thank you very much we will perhaps take two other questions you Mr. Jean-Pierre Cabestan the university of Hong Kong I took advantage of our wonderful interpets to speak French I am based in Hong Kong but I am very interested in China-African relations I had a question about which was mentioned by the Prime Minister of Saling on triangular cooperation between Europe, China and Africa when we go on the ground I come on the African ground for seven years that's why Europeans and Chinese even Europeans are more competitive than partners and except on certain specific projects it is difficult to overcome this competition and the question I ask myself is the answer that I have had the most often is that for Africans the competition is a good thing the interest of Africans is to put precisely the Europeans the Chinese and the other Japanese and other emerging countries like Turkey in competition rather than inciting them to cooperate so I would like to know what is the interest from the question of the Prime Minister for Africans to make sure that the external partners cooperate rather than they remain in a competition position thank you very much I will take it back to the right Mr. Guigou a general question and a question to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia this morning I do not know if you have felt the same emotion as the one I personally felt when he exposed the roads of the evening there is not maybe Asian here but I was very strongly impressed to see Chinese, Indian, Hong Kong, Indonesian, Malaysian, 5-6 Asian and what was he talking about? For me the roads of the evening were the expansion, the will of China to come to Europe to make this interconnection through the north and through the south and to sit down and to compete in America no this morning we attended a lesson of the local land management a lesson of the local land management within a Asian community I found it amazing I was telling myself my God we are hundreds of kilometers from thousands what is the day where the Mediterranean Africans and Europeans will sit around a table to amenage the Mediterranean to amenage the great dorsals who will descend from the north to the south your question please it's very good and this asian so it works but basically he said just a word it's that they have among themselves while they hated each other Chinese and Southeast Asian countries now they will be safe from the asian and China has no doubt the asian but they accept they put in place four tools four very strong tools that we have to collectively make sure that we do not limit ourselves to a zone of free trade but a redistribution of the Paris de production and the question to the Prime Minister is about the economic special all the world is surrounded by the good of China in 30 years 1980 rural country 2010 30 years after the greatest manufacturing power of the world but continue in place they have put in place great clusters of the great economic special zones whose the largest was 256 kilometers square they have planned and therefore question mr. Prime Minister the Chinese arrive with special economic zones in Ethiopia and they develop can you tell us some words how it works and whether the Europeans have solutions to do or offers to do to the chief of state African on this subject thank you a lot sir yes because the hero of the opinion of the daily opinion I have a question about negotiations post-Cotonous we have around the table people a marocan minister an old prime minister finally two old prime minister there will be a negotiation that opens up finally which is opened symbolically to New York and which will last two years with zones that do not negotiate at the same time the same partnership with Europe while they are going to set up a same zone of free trade with a partnership which is more European which is more and more contested in Africa political conditions are put in place permanently by the leaders so I would like to know what they are waiting for this negotiation and maybe Lionel Zinsou can also tell us about the French side because he also has the double casket how can we get to something constructive thank you very much we will perhaps let our intervenants take this first series of questions Lionel do you want to start on your two questions finally regional treaties does it still serve something and why do we skip the stage and then the last one I think it's hard to say that it does not work at the regional level I think the regional level knows significant progress around South Africa for the Sadeq once again I said earlier that the sea was the strongest zone of integration and there with very important infrastructure progress the great corridors of the East Africa and the great lakes I believe that the UMA in the West Africa has convergence policies because as it was said earlier by our first narrator it's not because there are free trade agreements that there are convergence policies but in the UMA there are convergence policies that give results perhaps even higher than the convergence of the European Union that is to say you look at inflation rates you look at the control of budgeted sites you look at growth rates you have a convergence you have accompaniment measures and policies you have disciplines when it comes to Sadeq it's a bigger hope of course but it's very recent you can't make a balance while we have been two years since we put in work a common external tariff two years but knowing that we are going to situation in which our economies were specialized because we will have to indeed deploy a different productive apparatus we have to reinvest a lot but what do you want with the best effort in the world that if our main national production is cotton and it's Niger it's uranium that we exchange cotton against uranium we have been specialized for the needs of another division of the work on the Nigerian experience the Benino experience experience that Amrune experience Nigerian is that the statistics of Nigeria are a little unique in their way and we are obliged in our national accounts to admit that there is much much more exchange along the borders of Nigeria we are much more in free trade than what the statistics of Dania could give to think there is still an international trade informal so Nigeria is not completely out of the system itself it is structuring for our economies including in the sectors on which it is very protectionist but Nigeria is very protectionist it is a political commitment quite fundamental I'm not sure whether it is an economic reasoning that adapted to our time but these are reactions the great Nigerian groups have still been created thanks to very strong protections so the Nigerian is a little bit an exception but in the CDAO the Nigerian is starting to play the game so I find that we are going faster for example than the European construction so you say do not go to the national scale since we are pieting at the regional scale we are not pieting at all you have to take the measure of time between the coal community and today there have been many many many many stages and by the way we are asking something else to an international exchange of the dimension of the continent we are asking him to bring other elements of scale and volume it is one thing to make the politicians converge between the Togo and the Benin if it is another thing that we invest in Togo or Benin but for an integrated market and once again there is not only the market says there are services we are tertiary economies look at all that it can bring to have tertiary services financial hubs developments that are absolutely necessary in terms of insurance in terms of fintech all that is a very very big dynamic we are tertiary economies we are not producers gold, oil and cacao that is the minority we are producers of transport, trade, producers of services and that too you have to take into account but that does not have borders of the kind of the U.M.O. it needs a lot more dimension on the triangulation I believe that there are companies there are not only states that the states want to do triangulation yes but why do you want that an enterprise to look for its competitors Chinese the most dynamic way to do a common offer on a market in Africa it is it is decentralized these decisions so it's a bit difficult in the financial sector I think we do a little bit better because you start to have triangular funds that start to work either with China or Europe either with the countries of golf and Europe I have to leave the answer to others on the renegotiations of the Cotonou agreements I think it's a problem European I believe that Africans will more and more consider that their subjects it's not so much the priority of access to the European market it's their market between a thing that was subject to a lot of questions or our interventions to which we have to be careful Africa needs to have a certain point of the rest of the world but quite weak while the dominant discourse is that you will have to help you you will have to finance you you will have to invest you will have to change your production equipment in the matter of the foreign investment in Africa is 4% of the GDP the total investment as in all emerging continents is quite high it's 25% of the GDP of the continent so 5% of the GDP is foreign and what is more and more interesting is when you look at the composition of the foreign investment in Africa the famous FDI the direct financial flows are the African investment companies in Africa that is to say the Moroccans South Africans Nigerians investing elsewhere in Africa which are the most dynamic component so the direct flows of foreign investment in Africa are the investments of Africa on Africa that's the growth part so we have to get out completely of the idea that we are going to develop ourselves the most singular discourse being as you are there waiting for your road to Europe road to misery we will develop you to stay at home but it would be if we knew how to develop ourselves we are sure that I'm going to do just the populist policy we are sure that we know how to underdevelop that is historically done but we develop but but the African growth today the Ethiopian growth it was at two figures during all the time of the manda of the prime minister of the aliens there are therefore means and specificities of our economies that make them more and more endogenous if the look of Europe at the time of talking at the table of the renewal of agreements is I'm going to bring you the solution but no not for a moment I don't want to say that we don't need it but you have to understand that the African public spirit has completely changed we will not receive competitive solutions and we are not going to give us rights and privileges because we are poor and sick we are not advanced countries that would have had a bad turn we are not advanced countries who would not be able to do we are countries that will necessarily have models but completely different you see and for the moment I don't think that it is the spirit of the negotiators so I can't tell you how it's going to happen but in my opinion it's going to be interesting and tense Mr. Prime Minister do you want to complete namely do you like to have many competitors no I think I'm my my my opinion was not to stifle competition look the China Africa cooperation if you see China said I am going to assign 60 billion USD to the African continent and when you come to Europe again Europe said 40 billion euro for African so what does that mean I think two of them are doing the same thing on the same Africa but Europe said connectivity and China said built and road the names are different but the whole idea is the same building infrastructure connect countries and help competitiveness that was the whole idea so why don't we come together and harness this potential in a condensate cooperative manner so that we maximize and optimize the benefit that we secure from this support we are getting now Africa is no more a humanitarian case Africa has become now trading an investment case so I think that has shifted already so if that's the case then I think the thinking has to change that a conducive environment for competition has to be created in Africa we lack that conducive environment for competition to take place that support should be coordinated so that both China and Europe can harness of course Africa also should get the benefit out of this cooperation that's what I was mentioning about you know the cooperation yeah for example if we talk about creating jobs look now the European companies are not forthcoming by the way the question which was asked at the economic zones in Ethiopia industrial parks in Ethiopia it's not built by Chinese it is the money which we got from the financial market you know that we are investing on industrial parks it is investors coming into that industrial park if you don't create nested birds will not come in so you have to create nested in order to birds to come in and settle there so we are creating those nested and now Chinese are the first bird is coming flying very quickly but Europeans are lagging behind so what's the problem the problem is risk factor most of the European companies are small and medium companies and they feel risk so the EU has to go for the risking mechanism for European companies to invest in Africa in order to create the highly needed job in Africa so that's what we save when assigning money that the risking factor is very essential to invest in Africa and we do not want to put all our eggs in one basket we want diversity we want Europeans also to come to Africa and invest but we cannot tell them to come the first cameras they come we can't oppose them not to come in but we have to be very careful in a policy matters in domestic policies that helps the competition not to be stifled that's the whole thing which I was I was mentioning so I think now not only Chinese but the Indians the Turkish are coming to Africa especially to Ethiopia so we have Moroccans coming we have Egyptians coming and we have some Kenyans coming into invest in Ethiopia so it's open for all but we have to the risk those fears that European companies are now so I think this is the whole issue which I just wanted to mention thank you very much so I think we are now going to take only three questions maximum of four please question only and very short if you want to leave our panelists some time to answer thank you okay because it seems that we have forgotten the wrong behind thank you yeah it's very difficult okay thank you it's good thank you in any case for the orators for their optimism reasoned on the African perspectives I would like to ask you finally a simple question obviously in the area of free trade continental we discussed a certain number of conditions of priority for its success today we are going through obviously ambitious projects and which is now a new generation and consequently there are obviously policies of support necessary to take today it is difficult to succeed in a free trade or a progress in the free trade because the purpose is not just to develop the trade to raise the customs barrier to do but also to go to a convergence of life level a convergence of the and so we do the treatment first of all of the liberalization of the sector of services is a fundamental question or on this question we do not advance a lot at the level of Africa at the same time on the question of law of establishment in particular it also needs the question to treat it is that of intellectual property it is that of the question of competition for the approach of the companies it is obviously treatment of investment at the same time the side of national treatment for African countries and the right to leave of course the revenues etc so they are a set of fundamental files which are part of the multilateral agenda but which until now in the African agenda are not yet supposedly appropriate and maybe it would be necessary to make a call to a source of reflection and to the decision-makers to appropriate these questions because they are extremely necessary fundamental to meet conditions of the free trade zone thank you very much so I may give the floor to the two of us intervenants who are unfortunately really obliged to leave so that they can give us their famous last word actually I have said whatever I have to say that's very conducive for this forum first of all I would like to thank very much the World Policy Conference to bring about this gathering and the whole thing is now Africa is changing is moving forward and I think the African narrative has to be properly said that we are taking our own initiatives and we are taking also responsibilities but we need support we need support because there are backlogs that has to be addressed so I think this is the main issue why this kind of policy conference is very important to understand the true face of Africa there is there are challenges but there is huge opportunity in Africa and this is the main stake that we have to take from this discussion thank you thank you very much for your participation mr. minister thank you I just wanted to say one last thing before I leave because I'm back in Casablanca just to say that Africa has a particularity is that it lives at the same time three major revolutions the agricultural revolution industrial revolution obviously the digital revolution and that the three arrive at the same time it is more difficult to deal with the problems I think we're going to get there and to respond to the question of mr. hero on the difficulty of the negotiation I think that it can't be more complicated than the negotiation of the brexit on a note of optimism I thank you thank you resise el mostafa ocp police center I have just two remarks I mean I while discussing this issue of repatriate relationship or China Africa relationship I guess that what I used to work on this issue during the last 20 years and maybe we should dissociate ODA relationship with business relationship because well and modestly I attend all those forums I mean all the editions of Focac of Ticad of graphic and yes and I I could say that our head of states when they are here they are defending this cooperation we experts when we are debating we're defending the autonomy of decision so there is this the economy that should be first resolved between national experts and policymakers in African states so before talking to China or Europe or the second point you were talking about I mean I will talk about the declaration of banjo thanks to God that China and Prime Minister Modi in India resist against this they constructed this formula and we are no more manipulated by the representativity of eight countries to represent the whole Africa today I guess even Japan during the last edition of ministry and meetings they are getting back to talk on bilateral basis with African countries and I expect from I mean minister reaction on that because I know that he was involved during his I mean this thank you thank you very much Christine very quickly and thank you for your patience pardon a long time very very quickly thank you I was going to leave you too thank you very much for the whole of the interventions and questions I the question of the integration of Africa is not a new thing we are passed by political and economic options first with the Lagos plan it's been a long time then after a tentative political tentative with the regional communities that Marie Roger talked about today good deal free trade so basically can we imagine that we have with all the qualities and all the opportunities that have been well written and that's the essential but can we imagine that this deal of free trade will work if there is not precisely a perseverance a deepening of the unity at the political level and if not at the political level but at the level of convergence that we talked about earlier in particular in terms of this number of democratic practices and law states I think the Prime Minister who left said that the European Union must to limit the risks that new rules are found but the new rules if they are not applied by justice which can precisely apply the rules of protection it asks questions so I think that the question I asked or at least the concern that I have is how we will manage how the Africans hear manage in a parallel way at the same time of course the implementation of this deal and also therefore the pursuit of this I would say legal integration institutional and even political will be based on values and very precise rules secondly on the partnership I am absolutely agree the strategic partnerships that have flourished during all these ten years show that today the Africa is in the center of the interests of the international community but that precisely it will certainly be necessary to use it to I was going to say the agreements with us and accompany if needs but it's not the priority I think the implementation of this deal of free exchange thank you thank you very much I really think we really have to stop because otherwise there will be no one to answer so you're going to be even more disappointed Yuri do you wish to do you want to both maybe answer to question last question which is a very huge one so maybe very shortly and then give your two three priorities for implementing successfully this agreement thank you yeah I speak in English since it's easier for me you know I think we have to be careful with this integration of everything at all costs what we learn from the European experiment is that you can go too far too fast etc at the end of the day Africa is an extraordinarily diverse group of countries which very different cultures etc and so my recommendation is you need to have free trade you need to have more trade a good vehicle to do that is a free trade agreement okay and you don't necessarily have to go to every every other layer okay and we just had a session on Europe where we talked about what did they get the sovereign obstacle you know the fact that you try to go much further than the politics and the national cultures and national independence allows so no I don't think you need political integration in order to have a working free trade agreement on the contrary I think the free trade agreement will work better if you allow countries to do what they have to do in their own context that is not directly associated with trade on the priorities I'm not gonna invent new priorities just for the sake of the conclusion my the priority I've said already is to for the trade to work you need strong domestic conditions and everybody on the panel in their own way has said the same thing and so that's the top priority and then I would say of course you know the second priorities Nigeria has to be part of it thank you very much yes I think it's a question and it's legitimate to ask if you need federalism to make the treaty successful I think that the response of the economist is that we don't need political federalism to make an owner union a unique market works but there is a history there is a culture there is the pan-Africanism and one of the very strong ideologies it accompanied the whole reflection on should we decolonize in blocks or balcony there was a whole reflection around that and obviously it is still parallel to the economic evolution so I think there are long-term trends to keep the pertinence of a pan-African reflection more simply probably on the cultural level than on the institutional level it's but there is this aspiration of Africa to be regrouped in a larger ensemble and to be one and the diversity does not change anything because diversity is an interior of each of our countries of one country to another but it is already extraordinary in each of our countries it does not change this kind of aspiration to be one Africa and so it is understandable that the question is and that it becomes a myth for the youth understood on the monetary plan finally the symbolic plan we have an aspiration to be an entity I think that it is distinct from the success of the free trade but the free trade I will only accelerate this position it is very good like that because it is first this idea of continental zone it is first a jump in the imaginary it is a positive imaginary it is it is reappropriated the continent and its dynamics that is the shifting that the prime minister said we are not a humanitarian cause we are just a subject of history that is all that is played in a question like that I only have one priority in fact and as much as I you know agree with what the prime ministers and who said that let's not look too much outside Africa the solution is with us you know what stops us from doing free trade and investing etc there is even alluding to the fact you did not but the prime minister disaligned it that there is a savings glut you know in the north so we should have no problems accessing financing our experience as a company that has invested about eight billion dollars over the past eight years in production capabilities in Africa for the African market but finally try to finance this on the international market we raised the three billion dollar bond issue dollar denominated bond issue for example is that there is a priority is that this we have to recognize that these fine there are distortions inherent inherent distortions and biases into this financing this complementarity one of them that we have to address one of them I will cite only one of them is a distortion in favor of extractive models of investments you know we tried to to raise this and we were fairly successful but we had to explain that the risks associated of financing in Africa production capabilities for Africa were not what was regarded elsewhere and the same financing conditions for extractive industries were much better so unless we recognize this and deconstruct these distortions that exist not just in financing but also in cooperation international cooperation mechanisms then we're only paying lip service I'm convinced of that to this integration and this wish for integration let's let's recognize that Africans are much attached to their natural resources as any other populations and they will follow them if they go to Europe even at the expense of their own lives I will stop with this