The North Africa Post
French President Emmanuel Macron said that his country supports Morocco’s development efforts in Africa, where the two countries work side-by side to meet challenges relating notably to addressing climate change effects.
The French president said in a message, read on his behalf at the opening of the 10th edition of the World Policy Conference (WPC), that Morocco and France remain committed to addressing climate challenges as evidenced in the UN Climate Summit COP21 and COP22. Much remains to be done notably in terms of gathering public and private funds, he said.
Macron also highlighted Morocco’s openness towards the world, especially Africa, where it has undertaken steady efforts in line with French endeavor to promote Europe-Africa integration.
On the same occasion, Macron laid emphasis on the need for promoting governance on the continent with a view to absorbing shocks and bringing about change.
He shed light on a set of challenges facing the world today that require urgent responses, saying that France earmarks 0.55% of national income to promote innovation, intelligence and local partnerships.
In this respect, the French president noted that the Alliance for the Sahel, which France has launched with the European Union, the World Bank and the UNDP, is an example of this reinforced requirement.
“The second challenge is education and health,” said Macron, who urged the international community to be present in February 2018 in Dakar to rebuild the global partnership for education, which France will co-chair with Senegal.
The French president also called for redoubling efforts to promote the health sector, at a time when diseases that were thought to be forgotten, such as the plague, have emerged.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco also addressed a message to the conference wherein he dealt with the various challenges facing Africa, stressing the need for a “Green Revolution” in the continent based on a large-scale overhaul of technology and production methods suited to the African context and consistent with the requirements of climate change, and calling for achieving a transformation of African agriculture at all levels, from primary production to agro-industrial value chains.
King Mohammed VI also pointed out to the challenges facing the development of the African industry’s competitiveness, mainly the development of innovative activities and the training of a skilled workforce.
The World Policy Conference, hosted in Marrakech, features sixteen plenary sessions, on ”The future of south east Europe”, ”Investing in Africa”, ”Trends in the Middle East”, ”The global economy”, ”America and the world one year after the election of Donald Trump”, ”The European Union and the world”, ”The development of Africa”, in addition to four workshops on “Finance and economy”, “Energy and climate”, “China” and “Russia in twenty years”.
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