Spain aspires to become a “Strategic and special partner” Africa, where its economic presence is still modest, said Monday, March 29, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during the presentation of a plan entitled “ Focus Africa 2023 ”. “We are going to make these next ten years […] the decade of Spain in Africa ”, he said when presenting this plan which, in addition to the economic component, includes a cooperation component in migration, another on security and yet another aimed at enhancing the role of women.
Few concrete details were given during the presentation of this plan, made alongside the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, who took advantage of his visit to Madrid to push to invest in Africa, recently endowed with a continental zone of free trade, the ZLEC, still in its infancy. “Imagine the business and investment opportunities that these infrastructures will bring to connect our markets more efficiently”, declared the Ghanaian president, whose country hosts the secretariat of this new free trade zone set up on 1er January and which still has to work to remove tariffs and other obstacles.
Africa so far accounts for 6% of Spain’s exports and 7% of its imports, according to government figures. A continent where the great economic powers like China, the United States and France are very present and where the progress of Spanish companies is, according to Mr. Sanchez, the“One of the current objectives” of the government. The Prime Minister will visit Angola and Senegal on April 8 and 9, two countries considered to be priorities. In Senegal, the visit will also have a security aspect, since the country is one of Madrid’s main partners in the fight against illegal immigration.