📅 6 – 8 July 2023
Madrid, Spain
Focus Africa 2023 is the blueprint for Spain’s foreign action plan tailored around five strategic objectives. A stone’s throw away from Africa, Spain is a major European player and the world’s 10th-largest economy. With a GDP of 1,3 trillion Euros, the Spanish economy is well diversified and draws its strength from its robust automotive industry, agricultural production, energy, financial services, telecommunication, infrastructure construction, pharmaceuticals, and social services. Most of these industries have enabled Spain to become the largest foreign investor in Latin America, and the largest trading and industrial partner of neighboring Morocco.
Africa is, by general consensus, the continent of the future, and the world’s last growth frontier. With a great range of opportunities, from young, innovative, and energetic populations, to tremendous growth potential and an increasing middle class, Africa is today open to expanding its horizons beyond its traditional partners.
At a time when other powers are, half-heartedly, letting go of Africa, Spain has approved an ambitious strategic framework for its foreign policy IN and WITH Africa. Focus Africa 2023 is the blueprint for Spain’s foreign action plan tailored around five strategic objectives: peace and security; sustainable development, inclusive economic growth; institutional cooperation, and security.
Spain has turned its attention to Africa in order to address the challenges the continent is facing, from economic development, employment, and decarbonization, the fight against poverty, to the empowerment of women, the management of migration, peace, and economic development, as well as supporting good governance.
African nations are seeking to diversify their alliances and their relationships away from their former colonial powers. This opens a great opportunity for Spain, which could bring great added value to coveted sectors in Africa such as infrastructures, social services, information and technologies, financial services, and R&D.
It is with the objective to build a bridge between Africa and Spain that One Africa Forums is organizing the first Africa-Spain Cooperation Summit. This high-level Forum, to be held in Spain on July 6, 7, and 8 2023, is an opportunity for Spain to weave strong links with the continent.
This Forum will not be a ground to impose Western culture on the continent, but more to explore win-win alliances on various topics of common interest.
This three-day event will gather, in a unique setting, Heads of State and Governments, Ministers and organizations from the African continent, and their Spanish counterparts to discuss bilateral issues of common interest, from Security in the Sahel to business development. It will be a unique opportunity for African leaders to standardize their relations with one of the world’s powerhouses, which is located just 14 kilometers away from the continent.
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Original Source: Africa Spain Cooperation Summit
