Rabat Forum: Financial Integration a Prelude to the African Regional Integration

Financial integration is a prelude to the African regional integration, stressed Wednesday in Rabat, participants in a panel on "Investment and Economic Integration" organized by the Forum of Rabat.

In this sense, Mr. Benjelloun-Touimi, CEO of BMCE Bank, stressed the importance for Africans to keep African integration in the spotlight, with the hope that it is rooted in long-term strategy development of African countries and on the agenda of their governments.

For his part, the president of the International Circle of Decision Makers (CID), Oumar Yugo, stressed the importance of taking advantage of areas that remain undeveloped in Africa, such as renewable energy and mineral resources, and human skills that benefits he has described as key to development.

Director of the Moroccan Agency for Investment Development (MIDA), Fathallah Sijilmassi, said that Africa is a booming market with growth expected to reach 6 pc in 2012.

Philippe Hugon, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) and Africa specialist, spoke of the low impact of the global financial crisis on the African continent, calling for developing a triangular cooperation South-South and North-South.