Guinea was at the big meeting in Brussels on June 22, 2018 for an economic forum oriented towards investors. Ranked among the most reforming countries, in the ranking of Doing Business in 2014 and that of a country performing according to the criteria of the World Bank’s competitiveness in 2017, Guinea has also reached satisfactory conclusions with the IMF.
“Unusual performance in the history of our relations with the Bretton Woods institutions,” said Guinean Prime Minister Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, appointed a few weeks ago in what was considered by the specialized press as a presidential will of accelerate major projects.
In his address to Stephano Manservisi, Director General for Cooperation and International Development of the European Union, the European Union experts, donors and investors, the Guinean Prime Minister returned in detail on the National Plan of Economic and Social Development (PNDES).
“Guinea intends to embody this ambitious and prosperous Africa, determined to create the conditions for rapid growth and development based on its immense natural resource potential and demographic dividend.”
Congratulating on the governance of President Condé, whose performance has been sanctioned economically by a strong increase in investment and growth, the Prime Minister has focused on “growth indicators”, well above the average of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. “Our economic performance is thus confirmed by the upward trend in foreign direct investment, which has seen a sharp increase between 2015 and 2017, rising from 3% to 13% of GDP”.
IMF forecasts confirm this rally for 2018 with net FDI inflows expected to reach 13.5% of GDP, a level well above the average observed in the countries of the region. is set at 8.2% in 2017, driven by unprecedented mineral expansion and take-off of the agricultural sector.
Bauxite production, for example, has increased substantially from less than 20 million tonnes in 2015 to more than 40 million tonnes in 2017, with a projection of nearly 80 million tonnes by 2020. Guinea is now the world’s third largest producer of bauxite and the largest exporter to China, says Fofana.
Guinea has returned to strategic planning by adopting a long-term economic vision for the 2040 horizon and an ambitious National Economic and Social Development Program (PNDES) in the medium term covering the period 2016-2020
The Guinea-Europe Economic Forum is the result of a collaboration between the Embassies of Guinea to the Benelux countries, France, Italy, Great Britain, Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, Private Investment Promotion Agency (APIP-GUINEA), the Belgo-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the Belgian ENABEL Cooperation, the UNDP, the IOM and the Africa Plus Association ASBL.
Balla Moussa Keita, Brussels
