Ivorian Prime Minister, Patrick Achi has expressed his country’s willingness to host the next Meeting of Francophone Entrepreneurs (REF) in 2022.
The head of the Ivorian government expressed this desire during the first meeting of Francophone entrepreneurs held on 24 and 25 August 2021 in the French capital Paris, where leaders and entrepreneurs were gathered.
“I would like to suggest that this meeting, which will inevitably be followed by others, can now be held alternately on both sides of our French-speaking world,” he said.
Cote d’Ivoire “invites you all, in 2022 in Abidjan, in the open air of this new Africa which is thirsty for ambition and progress, to see these projects of an economic Francophonie always more conquering and radiant,” Mr. Achi said.
He said, he invited the government to do everything possible to ensure that this meeting is not just another summit, and to always promote the Francophone economic community.
According to him, it is necessary to provide this meeting with an innovative institutional framework between the private sector and public authorities, to amplify their successes.
“It is up to you, Francophone entrepreneurs, to bring this new economic Francophonie to life and make it a space of prosperity and inclusiveness,” the Ivorian Prime Minister concluded.
The Paris meeting was an opportunity to engage with political decision-makers, employers’ organizations, business support structures and Francophone entrepreneurs in an interactive debate on the challenges of business development within and between Francophone countries, as well as the mobilizing and innovative courses of action to be taken to this end.
Members of the Ivorian delegation participated in several panels and roundtables that were on the agenda of the meetings.
Jean-Marie Ackah, the head of the Ivorian Company of Animal Production (SIPRA), who also doubles as the president of the General Confederation of Enterprises of Cote d’Ivoire (CGECI, Ivorian employers) participated in the debate on food sovereignty among francophone countries.
Ahmadou Bakayoko, a graduate from the Ecole Polytechnique and General Manager of the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE), participated in the sectoral roundtable on the theme, “Hydrogen: Energy of Today and Tomorrow?” while Alassane Doumbia, President of the SIFCA Group took part in the debate on “Industry at the Heart of the Recovery.”
The digitalization and cybersecurity of maritime transit operations, the challenges and prospects of international logistics as well as the assets of the French-speaking world and synergies in port and logistics relations were also the subject of another roundtable discussion in which Hien Yacouba Sie, Director General of the Port of Abidjan participated.
The REF 2021 has honored the economic Francophonie in the presence of 20 French-speaking employers’ associations (Algeria, Wallonia-Brussels, Cambodia, Cameroon, DR Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mauritius, Monaco, Morocco, Quebec, G-5 Sahel employers, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia).
Each of these associations was composed of a delegation of about 15 companies.
PIG/ls/fss/as/APA