The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confirmed its pioneering role in driving development in African countries and supporting international and regional efforts in cooperation with the African Union to establish security and stability and resolve conflicts. It also affirmed its support for international efforts in combating terrorist groups and extremism in the Sahel and Sahara regions, enhancing the security capabilities of those countries, and the importance of development in African countries and promoting investment therein.
This was stated in the speech delivered by Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, via video call at the summit addressing the challenge of financing for Africa, which was held today in Paris. Below is the text of the speech:
"First, I would like to thank Your Excellency for organizing this important event. This summit is a testament to the keen interest in the future of the African continent, its countries, and its people, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which knows no borders and has impacted all aspects of daily life and humanity across the globe, significantly affecting health and economic sectors. The impact of the pandemic has been acute in low-income African countries, leading to an increase in the financing gap needed to achieve sustainable development goals. It is crucial that we continue our efforts to overcome this crisis through international cooperation.
The most urgent matter is to ensure a rapid and equitable global distribution of vaccines, particularly in low-income African countries and elsewhere in the world, contributing to halting the spread of the pandemic and the swift return of economic activity to normal. In this context, the initiative to accelerate the availability of COVID-19 tools (and the COVAX Facility) for vaccine distribution is a significant achievement, and Saudi Arabia is among the supporting and contributing countries to this initiative; however, the program still requires more support to achieve its objectives effectively.
Your Excellency, esteemed leaders: The G20 countries, under Saudi leadership in 2020, recognized the necessity of supporting low-income countries in Africa and other regions of the world to combat the pandemic. The G20 statement at the extraordinary summit held in March 2020 emphasized the importance of strengthening health systems in Africa as a foundation for the integration of the global health system. Leaders pledged to enhance capacity building and provide technical assistance to the most vulnerable and at-risk communities while being prepared to mobilize necessary development and humanitarian financing for those countries.
Emergency support was provided to low-income countries, including the launch of the G20 initiative to suspend debt service payments, which provided urgent liquidity to 73 of the poorest countries, including 38 African countries that received over 5 billion dollars. For the first time in its history, the G20 launched a framework initiative to address debt that goes beyond suspending debt service payments.
Your Excellency, esteemed leaders: Saudi Arabia has a pioneering role in driving development in African countries. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has several projects and activities in sectors such as energy, mining, telecommunications, and food, totaling 15 billion Saudi Riyals (approximately 4 billion US dollars). The Public Investment Fund aims to continue seeking investment opportunities in Africa, either directly or indirectly in various countries and sectors. Additionally, the Saudi Development Fund has been actively working in Africa for four decades, providing 580 loans and grants to over 45 African countries amounting to over 50 billion Saudi Riyals (approximately 13.5 billion US dollars). The fund has also announced a 200 million Euro initiative (approximately 1 billion Saudi Riyals) to develop Sahel countries in partnership with the French Development Agency. Furthermore, there are future projects, loans, and grants from the Saudi Development Fund in developing African countries exceeding 3 billion Saudi Riyals (approximately 1 billion dollars) during the current year.
Your Excellency, esteemed leaders: Climate change poses a global challenge as it threatens the quality of life for many populations and their livelihoods, particularly in low-income countries. To this end, Saudi Arabia's presidency of the G20 has placed great importance on protecting the planet by launching several initiatives aimed at reducing the effects of climate change and emissions sources. These include promoting circular carbon economy concepts and ensuring access to cleaner, more sustainable, and less costly energy.
In this context, Saudi Arabia announced the Middle East Green Initiative, aiming to plant over 50 billion trees and reduce global carbon emissions by more than 10%, which will include many African countries.
Your Excellency, esteemed leaders: The Kingdom supports international and regional efforts in close cooperation with the African Union to establish security and stability and resolve conflicts, which includes the historic Jeddah peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Kingdom also supports international efforts in combating terrorist groups and extremism in both the Sahel and Sahara regions, having provided 100 million Euros (approximately half a billion Riyals) to support efforts against terrorism and enhance security capabilities in those areas. We are currently working with our partners in the Sahel grouping, particularly South Africa, to support the security forces in Mozambique to confront extremist groups and establish security, stability, and economic development.
The Kingdom's positions emphasize the importance of development in African countries and enhancing investment therein. We look forward to convening the Saudi-African summit and the Arab-African summit soon, which were postponed due to the pandemic.
In conclusion, from our responsibility as donor countries, we hope this summit reaches innovative solutions that assist African countries in breaking free from the debt cycle and ensure these countries can exploit their revenues and resources effectively, making our investments beneficial to their economies and societies, capable of achieving sustainable development that realizes their economic and social goals, such as reducing unemployment and poverty rates.
We wish that these efforts succeed with all due success."
