CLOSING OF THE 11TH EDITION OF THE CGECI ACADEMY: STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS MADE

Autres Friday 15 December 2023

The 2023 edition of the CGECI Academy closed its doors on Friday 27 October 2023, during a ceremony presided over by the Prime Minister, Mr. Robert Beugré MAMBÉ.

For two days, public decision-makers, leaders from the private and public sectors, and young entrepreneurs worked through panels, round tables and master classes on the challenges of sustainable business growth and competitiveness factors.

At the end of these meetings, the Chairman of the CGECI, Mr. Ahmed Cissé, noted that this forum of reflection had highlighted the will and determination of all stakeholders to ensure that African companies are among the most competitive in the world. To achieve this, the following conditions are necessary: an attractive and dynamic business environment and regulatory framework; transparency in market rules; a high-quality training system and human capital; reasonable production factor costs; support from the public authorities in accessing international markets; vigorous local content policies; and an appropriate institutional framework to promote and foster the emergence of national champions.

In his closing speech, the prime minister placed particular emphasis on the issue of the sustainability of business growth. To this end, he invited companies to adapt and implement innovative strategies to remain competitive, while being socially responsible. To support them in this approach, he reaffirmed the Ivorian government's determination to pursue and strengthen all the actions undertaken to build a more dynamic and competitive private sector in Côte d'Ivoire, one that provides decent and sustainable jobs for young people in particular.

At the end of the 18 panels at this economic forum, recommendations were made to improve the competitiveness of companies in Africa. These include:

• accelerating the structural transformation of our value chains, through the widespread adoption of digital technology;
• setting up an ecosystem based on partnerships between the private sector, academia, the research community and the State;
• building integrated databases, enabling an exhaustive mapping of the sectors of activity of economic players and their operations, accessible in particular to financial institutions;
• strengthening regional integration and setting up a harmonised tax policy in Africa;
• advocating at ECOWAS level for the pooling of certain key sectors, encouraging the creation of regional champions in order to offer a critical mass of consumers to companies in the sub-region;
• making companies understand the importance of putting people at the heart of the organisation;
• supporting business resilience by encouraging agile organisational models;
• setting up an industrial intelligence and innovation platform;
• encouraging the development of intermediary companies for local subcontractors throughout the industrial value chain, through public incentive policies, particularly fiscal.

 

In addition, the six master classes provided valuable advice to young entrepreneurs on issues such as financing, the importance of human capital, access to markets, innovation, Corporate Social Responsibility and digital transformation.