Africa has reasons to be moderately optimistic – Minister for Finance Prof. Edward Scicluna

“African countries have reasons to be moderately optimistic with regard to bridging the huge existing financing gap, since both globally and for us Europeans the financial crisis and its associated austerity is behind us.”

“Various initiatives by existing and newly set-up international development banks including the European Investment Bank, the EBRD, the AIIB and the World Bank are showing greater enthusiasm in investment projects in Africa. So is the G20 Compact with Africa initiative driven by the Ger- man Presidency. But Africans themselves can do more in channelling their savings in home grown start-ups and back young entrepreneurs. They need to put more emphasis on the workings of the capital markets.”

Minister for Finance Prof. Edward Scicluna was one of the leading panel speakers during a plenary session on Bridging Africa’s Financing Gap as part of the annual Atlantic Dialogues held in Marrakech, from 13 to 15 December.

This was the sixth edition of The Atlantic Dialogues, a high-level conference that has become a tradition since its launch in 2012 by its founding partners the German Marshall Fund of the United States and OCP Policy Centre in Morocco.

This annual conference convenes influential public and private sector leaders from around the Atlantic basin for open, informal discussion on cross-regional issues. The event encourages a lively, interactive and informal exchange of views between young professionals and today’s leaders. This year’s theme was Africa in the Atlantic: Time for action.