The German-Senegalese Economic Summit of 8 November 2013 is well on track
Senegal's Ambassador Henri Antoine Turpin met State Secretary Dr. Günther Horzetzky in the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economic Affairs on 27 May 2013
The persons participating in the meeting of 27 May 2013 were Mrs. Sonja Wanke from the Ministry of Economic Affairs NRW, Robert Butschen from the Foreign Trade Department of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Düsseldorf, Friedrich Garenfeld from Garenfeld Consulting, Dr.-Ing. Aliou Dieng, Chairman of the Board of SenGermany and Ibrahim Guèye, Project Manager.
At the outset the Ambassador Turpin assured: "The Senegalese government fully supports the project and has asked me to call on the State Secretary Horzetzky and the representatives of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Industry and Commerce for planning purposes." Mr. Butschen from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce took the opportunity and affirmed that German enterprises show greater interest in the African market, but that the cooperation of all 16 North Rhine-Westphalian Chambers of Commerce will be required for such a Summit. Meanwhile the working group must convince the German entrepreneurs that they should not feel reluctance towards the Francophone part of Africa.
"We should start from a win-win situation", said State Secretary Horzetky in the round and added: "however, I suggest that a working group shall be established, so as to be able to assess the chances and risks". The working group shall meet in June already, and shall design the planning for the Economic Summit. To avoid losing time, three campaigners met on 31 May: Friedrich Garenfeld, Dr. Aliou Dieng and Ibrahim Guèye, who advised over three hours on the sectors (energy, construction, agriculture, mining and tourism), which should be in the foreground and be proposed to the working group. Apart from that, a brainstorming process was initiated on the speakers to be invited and the workshops to be offered. Amongst others, the focus was on two projects to be presented to the persons participating in the Economic Summit on 8 November: the introduction of the dual educational system and the planning of an industrial area for setting up German enterprises, which shall produce from Senegal for the entire West-African market - i.e. a market being just as big as Brazil and partially having a common currency (CFA Franc), which is coupled to the Euro and excludes exchange rate fluctuations.
Finally the Ambassador Turpin emphasized that the African market currently records the highest growth rates worldwide.
