Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will present today at La Moncloa Palace the document Africa Focus 2023, a work plan that establishes the orientations, priorities and actions of Spain for the development of Africa based on the III Africa Plan approved by the Government in 2019 and the Foreign Action Strategy 2021-2024.
The event, which will be held semi-attendance, will also be attended by the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo, current rotating president of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and whose country hosts the headquarters of the African Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). Addo will also take advantage of his presence in Madrid to carry out a two-day state visit that will include, this afternoon, a business meeting and, tomorrow, an audience with King Philip VI. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya; her Senegalese counterpart, Aissatou Tall Sall; the Executive Director of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina; and the CEO of Elecnor, Rafael Martín de Bustamante, will also be present at the event at La Moncloa.
The presentation of the Africa Focus 2023 will continue in the afternoon with two round tables to be held at the Palacio de Viana and broadcast live on the Internet. The first round table will be dedicated to Spanish investments and business opportunities in Africa and will be moderated by the State Secretary for Trade, Xiana Méndez, and the second will deal with the empowerment of women and will be moderated by Arancha González Laya.
According to Moncloa sources, Africa Focus 2023 is, above all, an action program closely linked to the III Africa Plan and to the priorities of the External Action Strategy 2021-2024 as regards Africa. To this end, the Africa Focus is conceived as a “country document” involving coordination between all the Ministries and State bodies concerned in this area.
The document is based on the principle that Africa is a priority for Spain and, therefore, the Government wishes to build a strategic partnership with the continent based on the many common challenges. Likewise, Africa Focus incorporates an element that, according to the aforementioned sources, does not exist in the African strategies of the EU’s partner countries, which is the boost to the industrialization of the African continent. According to the Government, Africa has undergone a major transformation in recent years, which has resulted in a significant increase in the middle class and in the implementation of ambitious infrastructure plans that could represent an important opportunity for investment and for increasing the presence of Spanish companies.
The Africa Focus 2023, whose preparation has been led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Ministries of Industry, Trade and Tourism; Economy and Digital Transformation, Interior, Defense and Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, lists a series of sectoral priorities for action, such as peace and security, sustainable economy, the fight against climate change, regional integration, trade promotion, business presence, migration management or gender equality.
The document also establishes that Senegal and Morocco will act as “pilot countries” for the implementation of the work program because of the close relations and coordination mechanisms that Spain already has with both countries. Depending on how the actions in these two countries work, the action plan will be extended to the rest of the countries and subregions, divided into three categories, basically taken from the 3rd Africa Plan: the “anchor countries” (Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa), identified as such because of their political and economic relevance and regional weight; the “priority countries” with which it might be easier to work (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Angola, Mozambique and Tanzania) and the priority regions according to the areas of action, such as the Sahel (for peace and security), the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. Precisely, the presentation of the Africa Focus takes place ten days before the tour that Pedro Sánchez will carry out in two of the “priority countries”, Angola and Senegal, which will have a strong economic character and in which Spanish businessmen will participate.
