By Andualem Sisay Gessesse, St. Petersburg, Russia – In an effort to enhance and strengthen the existing ties, President Vladmir Putin of Russia Federation on Thursday launched a multi-sectoral cooperation with African nations that involves economic, education healthcare, energy, and humanitarian, among others.
Recalling that Russia (the former Soviet Union) had supported anti-colonialism struggles of African countries, President Putin stressed the commitment of his country to widen and strengthen the cooperation. He made the remark at the opening of the opening of the second Russia-Africa Summit, a forum opened in St. Petersburgthat focused on economic and humanitarian affairs.
“I would like to note that many useful and constructive discussions are held within the profile sessions of the forum – on energy, logistics and transport, agriculture, finance, healthcare. Promising ideas and proposals on new mutually beneficial joint projects, specific practical agreements, and commercial contracts are being considered,” said President Putin.
“Africa’s potential is obvious to everyone. Thus, the average annual growth rate of the continent’s GDP over the past 20 years (4-4.5 percent per year) exceeds the global ones. The population is approaching 1.5 billion and growing faster than anywhere else in the world. It is also characteristic that the growth of the middle class, which forms the main demand for modern goods and services, outstrips similar indicators in most regions of the world,” he said.
Energy Cooperation
Currently, Russian companies are implementing new mutually beneficial projects aimed at meeting the growing needs of the African economies for fuel and generating capacity, to provide Africans with access to affordable and reliable, sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources, according to President Putin.
President Putin stated that more than 30 promising energy projects with Russian participation in 16 African states are now in varying degrees of development. “The total capacity of the power projects we are working on is about 3.7 gigawatts. Our company “RusHydro” offers a wide range of services to African partners – from the design and supply of equipment to the modernization and construction of new turnkey generation facilities. Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil, Zarubezhneft are our companies that are engaged in the development of oil and gas fields in Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, and the Republic of the Congo. Over the past two years, exports of Russian crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas to Africa have increased by 2.6 times,” he said.
“Rosatom, our leading company in the use of nuclear energy, is building the Dabaa nuclear power plant in Egypt. At the same time, our state corporation can provide African countries with its unique experience and technologies that have no analogues in the world in the field of non-energy use of the “peaceful atom”, for example, in medicine and in the same agriculture,” president Putin added.
Trade and Logistics
President Putin also stated that in order to further expand the entire range of trade and economic ties, it is important to move more energetically in financial settlements on trade transactions to national currencies, including the ruble.
“In this regard, we are ready to work with African countries to develop their financial infrastructure, to connect banking institutions to the Financial Message Transmission System created in Russia, which allows cross-border payments to be made regardless of some of the currently existing and restrictive Western systems. This will help increase the stability, predictability and security of mutual trade exchanges.”
“Russia is also actively engaged in the reorientation of transport and logistics flows towards the states of the Global South, including, of course, Africa. The North-South International Transport Corridor, which we are developing, aims to provide Russian goods with access to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, from where they can reach the African continent by the shortest sea route. Naturally, this corridor can also be used in the opposite direction to supply African goods to the Russian market,” he said, indicating that Russian-African trade reached $18 billion last year.
“…the figures speak for themselves: last year, trade in agricultural products between Russia and African countries grew by 10 percent and amounted to $6.7 billion, and in January-June of this year it has already increased by another 60 percent. Russia exported 11.5 million tons of grains to Africa in 2022, and in the first six months of this year alone, almost 10 million tons. And this is despite the illegal sanctions imposed on our exports, which seriously impede the supply of Russian food, complicate transportation, logistics, insurance and bank payments,” he said.
“Connecting the North-South transport corridor with Africa, launching regular shipping cargo lines – that’s what we are striving for – opening a Russian transport and logistics center in one of the ports on the African east coast would be a good thing, a good start to this joint work. We consider it very important to ensure a wider coverage of the African continent by direct flights, participation in the development of the African railway network – these are the urgent tasks that we invite our African friends to work on together,” he said.
Supporting Industrialization in Africa
In relation to making available Russian industrial products for Africans, President Putin said: “…Of particular importance is the deepening of Russian-African industrial cooperation. Our industrial products, including automobiles, construction equipment, and so on, are well-known on the continent and are in great demand, they are distinguished by good quality, reliability and ease of operation. In Africa, there are special service centers for servicing Russian equipment.”
“New instruments of concessional lending are being developed for the purchase by Africans of our industrial products, their transportation to the continent and after-sales services. The Russian Export Credit and Investment Insurance Agency provides insurance coverage for loans,” he said.
“An Africa-oriented leasing mechanism and a specialized investment fund are being formed to participate in the financing of infrastructure projects. In Egypt – I spoke with my colleague President Sisi yesterday – we are discussing, and I hope we will launch the Russian Industrial Zone near the Suez Canal in the near future. We hope that the construction of the first production facilities will begin this year, and in the future, the manufactured goods will be exported throughout Africa,” said President Putin.
Among the major attendants of the meeting are Chairman of the African Union, President of the Union of the Comoros Azali Assoumani, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, President, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank Benedict Orama and President of the New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff . The moderator of the discussion was Irina Abramova, Director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Organized by Roscongress, the second Russia-Africa economic and humanitarian forum has attracted p[articipants from all cornors of Africa. During the summit bilateral agreements are signed to enhance collaborations between African entities and Russian businesses.