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| Integration will trigger off investment, says Michel Roussin
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Dakar, Senegal (PANA) -
Regional integration will definitely
encourage private investment in Africa, Michel Roussin, head of
the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific Committee of the Movement of French
Enterprises (MEDEF) said Monday in Dakar.
Speaking in Dakar at the opening ceremony of the conference
on NEPAD financing due to end Wednesday, the erstwhile French
Co-operation Minister said that the regional development of
infrastructures and the free movement of people and their
belongings was important for trade and investors.
Speaking on behalf of 47 European federations of private sector
employers, Roussin therefore that "the private sector was an
essential development partner" in Africa's development.
He said that "nothing is possible without the donors, the public
and a private sector" made up of local and foreign investors.
The international private sector was a real vehicle for
technological know-how which, he said, the local private sector
should strive to acquire and master.
He pleaded for the strengthening of the dialogue between the
African and European private investors.
Roussin submitted two proposals to the conference, on behalf of
the European employers, as a contribution to the NEPAD summit,
which he termed "a crucial turning point."
One of the proposals was the setting up of a working group to
work, in collaboration with the European Union, on the drafting
and implementation of a common procedure for the donors.
He then heralded a series of measures in favour of good
governance which, according to him, "are likely to help mobilise
funds and avoid the selection of half-baked projects and ensure
a good functioning of law-abiding states that give long-term
perspectives to the investors."
On the thorny issue of Africa's huge debt, the former minister
indicated that "the public deficits and the countries' debt must
be curbed".
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| Dakar - 15/04/2002 |
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