Africa is Europe 1 subject for Europe for the next 50 years

"Agenda 2063: looking for African business model".Vast program that that chosen by the Aspen France Institute chaired by Jean-Luc Allavena, in partnership with the World Bank, on the occasion of the 14th Europe-Africa Meetings which have just taken place (from November 25 to 27) at the center ofPensières from the Mérieux Foundation in Annecy.

"Pioneer initiative of a solidarity dialogue between the two continents", these meetings saw the participation of leading African and European personalities*.A former director general of the World Trade Organization, President of the Paris Peace Forum and a member of the board of directors of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Pascal Lamy answered questions from the Africa point.

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The Africa point: how is it relevant to think today about African business model?

Pascal Lamy: Because I believe that it is the development of African companies that the winner will depend between demography and the economy.

What prerequisites take into consideration to set up reliable and viable tools for the development of Africa?

I readily recognize that there are regulatory, legal and political environments which are more or less favorable to the development of businesses.That said, in the African case, I believe it is a mistake to think that they are absolutely essential prerequisites.My experience tells me that the development of business fabric is not done in a mechanically but much more organic way.I know a lot of places in Africa where companies have developed without the prerequisites that I learned in school.We have to change our gaze on this process, make more confidence in entrepreneurs and not always trust theories.

When I say prerequisites, I think of a different approach, of a different look that takes into account local cultural and social elements in the economy ...

There, we do not agree on the concept of prerequisites.For me, "prerequisites", this means conditions without which the economy does not develop.I note that there are other conditions than those that have been classically taught in development theory.

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Which levers to implement to create the most inclusive environment possible in Africa?

In this area, I fall back on classic recipes.If "more inclusive environment" is perceived in the social sense of the term, the two keys are, on the one hand, education, and, on the other hand, systems for reducing social insecurity.This presupposes public resources that can only be seated on the growth of the economy and in particular the formal sector.It is very difficult to collect taxes or social security contributions from the informal sector by definition.So this refers to the question of taxation and compulsory levies.

For education, it is a little different because experience shows that there are mix of public and private education systems and that the cost of collective state investment, sovereign in education, isVery heavy while, in a certain number of countries, whether in East Africa, West Africa or Southern Africa, we have seen private education systems develop in good conditions.

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What methods would you recommend to build political institutions in Africa to which the populations would adhere with less restraint than currently?

It’s diplomatically said that (laughs)! Despite all that I have said about the confidence that must be given to the organic development of entrepreneurship, even if in certain cases it is despite, against or alongside sometimes fragile political institutions, the fact remains that the Political framework counts, and there, the answers to your question reside in the progress of democracy, the best system to legitimize the existence of political powers there to organize the city. And democracy itself implies good governance, respect for constitutions, the fight against corruption, basically everything we do at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which, as you know, is dedicated to the progress of the good governance in Africa. It publishes every two years now this very excavated indicator, which allows you to see where it is better and where it is less well and which rewards, when there are enough candidates, heads of state who behaved in accordance with cannons Good governance, for example when they left power while respecting their constitution. Basically, we come back to the idea of ​​democracy.

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I think the populations adhere to political systems that they can renew when it goes well and refer when it goes bad.When the populations have the feeling that it is they who legitimate power, they adhere to it;When they feel that they are others who hold power, take it, keep it or use it for them, it is quite normal that they feel much more detached.

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What taxation to set up to allow states to fully fulfill their public service mission taking into account the political, economic and social specificities on the continent?

What is a public service mission?There, there is a choice of perimeter to make.I think we all agree that it starts with sovereign functions: justice, police, armies, everything that revolves around public order within the meaning of the security of people and goodsas well as the proper functioning of the rule of law.So much for the core common to all conceptions.Afterwards, there are debates on whether the community goes further in education, social security, economics, health or culture.

In all cases, it is necessary to public resources and we know that African systems are today weakly endowed because the compulsory samples report little and because the formal economy is insufficiently developed.And there, I come back to my starting point: you cannot mow an egg.If we want public services, whatever the design we have of their perimeter, are based on resources, you have to take them, and, where you can take them, it is in the development of theeconomy, that is to say in the growth of added value.

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This brings back to the problem of business development and the formal sector.So it is not the public resources that create the economy, it is the economy that creates public resources.So I think you have to take things in the right direction.This is also the reason why, inevitably, the sequence which consists in going from the informal sector to the formal sector is long because it is often in the informal sector that entrepreneurial initiatives are born, and it is necessary to leave them timeto develop oneself.And pay attention to what the business model "or the African" market model "has specific, as we do at the Aspen Africa-Europe forum.

Quelles sont les tailles des marchés de référence ? Quelle est la bonne mise en capital-risque ? Les champions sont-ils des entreprises plurinationales, des entreprises régionales, des entreprises continentales ? Est-ce qu’elles ressemblent aux trusts américains du XIX^e siècle ou aux chaebols coréens, aux empires japonais ou aux modèles européens plus décentralisés ? Il y a quelque chose de très spécial et qui, je crois, est utile à identifier pour mieux comprendre comment on peut s’appuyer davantage sur le développement des entreprises.

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Education, health, security, economy: how can Africa and Europe play their complementarity to rebalance their relationships and constitute an important pole of geopolitics and global geo-economics?

It is up to Africans to say whether Europe is their geopolitical or geo-economic problem n ° 1.They also have other options.On the other hand, what I know is that, for Europe, Africa is the geopolitical or geo-economic problem n ° 1.

Why do you say problem and not solution?

Because when we look at things in the long term, we are first interested in problems to find solutions.Geopolitical and geo-economic questions must first be as properly identified as possible.I start with that because there is an asymmetry there.Basically, Africans have the choice of what they consider to be their essential geopolitical or geo-economic partners.This can be China or the United States.The answer belongs to them, and not to us Europeans, but I think that, for Europeans, there is no choice.For the next fifty years, Africa is the n ° 1 subject of Europe on the geopolitical or geo-economic level.

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Of course, China, the United States, Russia is important for Europe.But I think they are not more important than Africa.It is on this observation that we must rebalance, rectify, rebuild what is now called, and rightly so, the partnership.A partnership is to identify that we have common problems and decide to deal with them together, at least in part.When you look at the list of Europe’s future problems and the list of African future problems, they are often the same.It starts with the ecological transition;Then, it goes through demography, then the challenges of digitalization and security issues.

Compare our responses to these challenges for the future and find an agreement for joint solutions is a completely different paradigm of the previous one which consisted in wondering how we will help these poor Africans to develop because colonization has something to do with it and becauseThat, if it doesn't work, we're going to have a problem.This Copernican revolution is all the stake of the next European-Africa Union Summit in next February in Brussels, assuming that the COVVID is lending life at this summit, which I hope.

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* The ex-prremors African Ministers such as Lionel Zinsou (Benin), Moussa Mara (Mali) and Cellou Dalein Diallo (Guinea), a former French minister, Élisabeth Guigou, the director general of the international partnership of the European Commission, Koen Doens, Fatoumata Bâ, member of the board of directors of Aspen France and founding president of Janngo Capital, the president of the ECOWAS commission (Economic Community of West African States), Jean-Claude Kassi-Brou, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Water Resources and the ECOWAS Environment, Kako Nubukpo, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of KPMG France and Coordinator of the Presidential Council for Africa (CPA), Wilfrid Lauriano Do Rego, Director of external affairs of the World Bank, Nayé Anna Bathily, the scientific and medical director of the Mérieux Institute, Marc Bonneville, Jean-Christophe Bas, President of the Global COMPASS, Thomas Lambert, managing partner in the business bank L Azard Frères, Nezha Hayat, President of the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority (AMMC), Mossadeck Bally, president of the Azalai hotel group, Abdou Soulèye Diop, Managing Partner and member of the Mazars board, Ibrahima Diouf, advisor to the president of the president of West African Development Bank (BOAD), Kamil Senhaji, vice-president for emerging markets and new territories of Galileo Global Education, Ntoudi Mouyelo, Chief Investment Officer at the International Financial Center in Kigali, Isabelle Bébéar, Director of International Affairs and European of Bpifrance, Falilou Fall, deputy director of the OECD economic division, Pascal Peyrou, secretary general of the Africa Initiative Group, General Dominique Trinquand, recognized media consultant on defense issues, Christophe Asselineau, associate lawyer in the cabinet Norton Rose Fulbright, Richard Amalvy, CEO of the Brazzaville Foundation, among others.