Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh: Africa, the youngest continent is strategic to world future

AMMAN - HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global), has  participated as a keynote speaker at the opening of the 9th African Forum of Investment and Commerce (AFIC9), in Algeria online. The Forum was organized by the Arab-African Center for Investment and Development (CAAID).

In his keynote statement, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh confirmed that the African continent, though the world’s youngest continent, has a tremendous future opportunities, pointing out that the world is currently embracing a Knowledge Revolution that is radically changing  lifestyle and will continue to do so in the future. He called for moving toward digital transformation and digital trade in order to successfully compete on a global scale. 

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh called on all countries to achieve internal self-sufficiency in food, medicine, and technology, while focusing at the same time on the development of education.

He noted that innovation is a key factor in creating wealth, stating that the largest corporations that dominate globally in terms of size, importance, and influence are knowledge-based businesses, such as ‘Google’. Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh also underlined that innovation will be necessary to create wealth in the future, where one innovated digital product could become as large as the economies of several countries. 

For his part, the Director General of CAAID, Mr. Amine Boutalbi, emphasized the importance of the Forum, which was attended by more than 650 businessmen and entrepreneurs from all over the world. He said that the gathering is an important opportunity to support African countries’ endeavor to move toward increasing their exports to effectively contribute to the growth of their local economies. 

During the Forum, participants discussed several topics including Africa and the Future, Agriculture and Food Security, Infrastructure and Logistics Services, and African Continental Free Trade Area (Zone de Libre-Échange Continentale Africaine (AfCFTA ), in addition to energy and renewable energy, innovation, Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and others.

The Forum was held with the participation of more than 150 investors, businessmen and experts from 21 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.