Equatorial Guinea will host the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) 54th Annual Meeting from 11-14 June 2019, under the theme of ‘Regional integration for Africas economic prosperity’
The meetings aim to bring together about 2000 delegates to provide a unique forum for governments, businesses, civil society, think tanks, academia, and the media worldwide, to dialogue on critical issues concerning Africa's development.
The meetings will include statutory sittings of the Governors and shareholders of the Bank, and a series of knowledge events, including discussions around the Africa Economic Outlook, one of the Bank's flagship reports. A High-Level Presidential Dialogue on Boosting Africa's Economic Integration will provide Heads of States an opportunity to discuss challenges and corrective measures to fast track Regional Integration.
Celestin Monga, chief economist and vice-president of economic governance and knowledge management, said, “Trade is and will remain the main engine of growth for many of our countries. More than 60 per cent of global trade now occurs in global value chains. We need to see that African economies are getting into global value chains, not just to process unprocessed raw commodities but transform goods creating value additions, creation jobs locally.”
More than 75 per cent of sub-Saharan African countries have a population of less than 25mn and about half the countries have a gross domestic product (GDP) of less than US$10bn in 2017 (nominal terms).
On the Continental Free Trade Area, the AfDB has provided the grounds to the African Union Commission to launch the Secretariat with around US$5mn.
Gauthier Bourlard, representing the Bank's Resource Mobilisation and Partnership Department, provided an update on the African Development Fund (ADF) 15th replenishment. ADF, the concessional loan arm of the Bank, seeks to increase funding for fragile countries, focusing on cross-cutting themes such as gender, governance, climate change and the private sector. The next round of negotiations with donor countries is slated for early July in Madagascar before a decision is made later in the year.
Around 28 journalists from twenty-one Africa countries attended the press conference, moderated by Dr Victor Oladokun, director of communication and external relations at AfDB.
The journalists are taking part in a three-day sustainable development reporting course, first of its kind at the Bank, organised in collaboration with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
