Today is Africa Day, marking 61 years since the Organisation of African Unity was first established. It was on this important date that the trade integration process among African nations began.
With the Italia-Africa Summit, we wrote a fresh chapter in our relationship with this Continent, laying the foundations to build a new development and cooperation model compared with the past, a relationship among equals without paternalistic, charity-based or predatory intentions. This new approach is about listening to the needs of our African partners and working together to find the solutions that Italy can help provide, by drawing on the talent and expertise of our business, academic and cultural spheres.
This vision is the inspiration for the ‘Mattei Plan for Africa’, a strategic shared development plan that has already enabled us to strengthen relations with several African nations and through which we aim to achieve concrete and tangible goals. This ambitious path can count on the ties between our respective private sectors as well as the involvement of international partners who share our approach.
Africa is also a priority of the Italian G7 Presidency, which provides us with an extraordinary opportunity to boost the synergies we are able to count on and to develop them further, with the aim of embarking on a new era of development and growth with African nations.
[Courtesy translation]