President Donald Trump said that the US would extend economic support for African countries “committed to self reliance” and foster mutual job creation in a speech to African leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Trump invoked wealthy friends investing in the continent and added that Africa has “tremendous business potential …for American firms. It’s really become a place that they have to go”.

Source: African Business, October 2017

A two-day Global Sustainable Finance Conference will be held from 13th to 14th of July 2017 in Karlsruhe, Germany. This event will bring together senior executives of financial institutions, policy makers and regulators, development banking community, commercial bankers, senior government officials, representatives of multilateral institutions and other major stakeholders.

The conference delegates will discuss key issue including: Disruptive innovation in the financial industry; strategies and practices for holistically embedding sustainability in organizational culture, lending and investing and decision making; latest developments in financial inclusion and SME Finance; and large-scale project financing for sustainable development.

This global gathering of committed stakeholders offers a distinctive opportunity to deliberate on cutting-edge financial services for advancing sustainable infrastructure projects including clean energy, smart manufacturing industry and financing innovations for creating an inclusive, green and sustainable economy.

In addition to presenting a big picture view of the 21st century financial services and offering actionable insights to the participating delegates, the upcoming conference aims to build global partnerships for sustainable banking and finance. This multi-stakeholder conference provides an excellent opportunity to network with the senior leadership of financial industry, multilateral agencies, government institutions and other stakeholders from around the world. An optional excursion/ get-together will take place on Saturday the 15th of July 2017.

Further details are available on the conference website: http://eosd.org/en/gsfc_fi.html.

The brochure can be downloaded by clicking this link: gsfc2017

By Bill Gates:

In our networked world, inequality and poverty in one place inevitably trigger responses to another. Problems like diseases overcome every limit. Security and stability can only be achieved by deepening international cooperation. This begins with the obligation to eradicate poverty and inequality.
Germany shows us today that cooperation is a major step forward. We have defeated the smallpox and are about to eliminate child paralysis. In the past 25 years the rate of child mortality has been halved. The number of poor people in the world has more than halved.
This progress was made possible by the financial support and the know-how of Germany and other countries. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go. Hundreds of millions of people are sick, malnourished and unable to lead a life of dignity for a lifetime. Nearly 6 million children die each year – especially in poorer countries and primarily on preventable causes. However, I am optimistic that we can achieve even greater progress over the next 25 years. There are two crucial findings of the past quarter-century on which Germany and other countries can build.

Germany plays a central role

We must first invest further in innovation. Much of the progress that makes our lives so much better is the result of public investment in research labs and universities. This can be seen on the smartphone or the contents of today’s medicine cabinet – all innovations that have started in state laboratories or universities. Secondly, we must ensure that innovations reach people who can help themselves the least. This can not always be guaranteed by markets. Vaccines, for example, are a proven and highly effective tool to prevent childhood diseases and related deaths. Unfortunately, for many years, there was no market mechanism to make life-saving vaccines and medicines available to people in the world’s poorest countries, even if they had been available in the industry for decades. There was a gap between the ability of developing countries to pay and the need for a vaccine manufacturer to provide them at a reasonable price.

To solve this problem, Germany and other donors have launched a public-private partnership called “Gavi”. Gavi pooled the demand of dozens of the poorest countries for vital drugs. This results in the necessary quantity forecasts to be able to offer products more favorably. Just a few months ago, in collaboration with Unicef, Gavi managed to negotiate the lowest price ever for five vaccines each child needs.
Germany as one of the strongest economies and leading democracies is excellently positioned to help create a more just and stable world. As the host of the G-20 summit in 2017, Germany plays a central role in making the benefits of innovation available to more than two billion people still living in extreme poverty. Everyone is entitled to lead a healthy, fulfilling life, regardless of where he or she is born. It is only when we pursue a policy which is in harmony with this basic idea that we create the conditions for a secure world.

Source: faz.net, February 2017

The 5th financial investment services conference shows up in London on the 3rd May of 2017.

AFSIC has shown continued strong annual growth in delegate numbers with 500 delegates expected to attend in 2017, and welcomed over 100 speakers in solo and moderated panel sessions in 2016.

With companies from over 30 African countries expected to attend in 2017 this is your chance to develop and nurture a robust, extremely high quality network of friends, colleagues, investors and business contacts across the continent in preparation for Africa’s continued emergence as the most exciting investment destination in the world.

A preliminary Agenda for AFSIC 2017 is now available in pdf by clicking on the link below:

AFSIC-Annual-Conference-2017