The 14th edition of the US Africa Business Summit 2022 which took place from July 19 to 22 in Marrakech under the High Patronage of King Mohammed VI has just ended.
It is in the presence of senior American and African government representatives from more than 50 countries, 6 Ministers of Foreign Affairs and about twenty African sectoral Ministers, American and African government agencies, investment and pension funds, d international and regional organizations that the participants were able to exchange over 3 days on opportunities to strengthen industrial, investment and trade links between our continent and the United States.
The summit, which brought together more than 1,500 participants, 80% of whom were made up of major American and African business circles and with 40% of women, was divided into 37 sessions dealing with issues of health and food sovereignty, innovation, new technologies, energies and infrastructures, themes covered by more than 200 representatives of national and African media.
This event, which was attended by more than 450 American economic operators including Pfizer, Visa, Citi, Procter & Gamble, Chevron, Coca Cola, Google and major African groups, recorded more than 5,000 contacts with many signatures of contracts for business.
This summit was an opportunity for Morocco to consolidate its role as a link between Africa and the United States and to encourage the construction of a forward-looking African economy that draws its strength from its integration into the global system and international value chains.
Organized around the theme “Building Forward Together – Future”, the closing plenary of the event offered the opportunity to reflect collectively on the future of a promising continent in all levels.
On this occasion, Ryad Mezzour, Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade, underlined the vision carried by the King, may God assist him, to adopt “a coherent and integrated policy towards our African brothers, based on the joint investment of wealth, human development and the strengthening of economic cooperation”.
Despite a difficult context full of challenges and marked by the reconfiguration of the international economy, Africa has all the assets to be an active player and better integrate into global value and transformation chains.
African companies thus have a key role to play and are called upon to take commercial risks to seize the opportunities offered by a larger market by expanding their manufacturing base.
“Our priorities, as African countries, must be to place sovereignty at the heart of all sectoral strategies and to consider it as a priority for securing supply and employment. We must commit to encouraging local manufacturing, creating strategic reserves for certain essential products and diversifying the sources of supply of energy and food products”added Mezzour
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