France to organize summit to finance African sub-Saharan economies

The French government is due to organize on the second day of the Paris conference devoted to support the Sudan’s transitional period, a summit for financing the sub-Saharan African economies, to be attended by Prime Minister Dr. Abdullah Hamdouk.

Sudan’s ambassador in France, Ambassador Jubeir Ismail Jubeir noted to (SUNA), that this summit, in which the invitation was presented to Sudan, aims to find new sources for funding this region of the African continent, especially as it has been severely affected by the repercussions of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Jubeir added that Sudan is one of the highly indebted countries and was denied the benefit of the International Monetary Fund’s initiative for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), due to the sanctions that were imposed on it as a result of the policies of the former regime, and which it was removed by the official announcement of the United States of America on December 14 last year.

He indicated that the removing of Sudan from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism can benefit from the initiative, pointing to the initiative of the French President Macron to hold that African summit came after the convictions of a number of economists and analysts that debt treatment is not sufficient, and that a more comprehensive financing strategy is needed, including more external flows to enhance the African private sector, and to attract new sources of financing to Africa.

Sudan’s ambassador in France, pointed to France desire to give development a pivotal role in its foreign police to restore its image in Africa via giving priority to provide more grants than loans.

In his statement to (Suna), Jubeir indicated that the volume of development aid provided by France in 2019 amounted to 10.9 billion euros and 12. 8 billion euros during 2020 which will continue to rise during the current year by focusing on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti in the areas of poverty, health, climate, education and equality between men and women, through the inclusion of two major institutions in development policy, the Technical Cooperation Agency (Expertise France), which Africa represents 60 % of its activities that are carried out by specialists in projects related to health or sustainable development, and the French Development Agency, which will provide loans and grants.

Al-Jubeir emphasized that Sudan will benefit from this summit after the official removal of its name from the terrorism list through a clear explanation that is supported by numbers of the extent of damage to the Sudanese economy due to the policies of the former regime that inherited the transitional government an empty treasury, the implications of the Corona pandemic, and clear demands with numbers, especially in the health and infrastructure field, and in the areas of combating poverty, climate, education and equality between men and women.