By PAR Anis Souadi
SINCE some time, all eyes at the regional and international level, have turned to Africa. It is because this continent, long forgotten, has appropriated another much more important status, thus becoming the new strategic platform for international economic cooperation.
Most importantly, experts and policymakers are now talking about Africa as the new Eldorado of new wealth. It must be recognized that Africa, despite its large and unlimited potential, has for years been away from international economic projections. It has suffered as a result of the misuse of its wealth, diktats foreign contractors and especially the stranglehold of international decision-makers. Fortunately, this is no longer the case today.
For some time now there has been a total change in mentalities, which has enabled the African continent to adopt a logic of profound and global transformation. And it is this same logic that has allowed it to significantly improve its international positioning. The latest indicators attest to this widely.
Indeed, despite an unfavorable and clearly hostile international situation, Africa has managed to grow faster than the rest of the world.
Moreover, Bruno Mettling, deputy general manager of Orange, in charge of Zone Afrique et MoyenOrient, said during Africa 2017 meetings, held in Tunis, that “Africa no longer needs Europe, the opposite is rather true. And it is such a status that today allows Africa to reshape both the form and the substance of its relations with foreign countries.
This is to establish a real partnership based essentially on a spirit of reciprocity, “in a development perspective that is both joint, balanced and above all sustainable,” said the French manager. However, to maintain this repositioning at the international level, the African continent must seek to constantly strengthen its status. And it is certainly through the proliferation of African-African cooperation that he can still claim to have a strategic international decision-making power.
Anas Souadi,
This editorial was published in the supplement “La Presse Business” published in the Financial Afrik of 15 December at 14 February.
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