Opening Session : Opening Remarks by Co-Chairs

The effects of new technologies on the ways in which we think, govern, work and socialize are already posing complex problems for decision-makers, citizens and corporates, leading to reactions of rejection that reflect fear or lack of preparation in coping with digital transformations. Due to these changes, the classical patterns shaping our society - be it within the political, economic, or social spheres - have been rapidly altered. With this fast-paced transformation, the general ...

Created as a State-owned company in the late 1960s, Embraer was privatized in the mid- 1990s and became the main Brazilian company producing and exporting high-technology goods. The company diversified its operations within the aircraft business and added to its portfolio goods and services associated to its core activities. ...

La décennie 2009-2019 a vu se développer les crypto-monnaies. Ce que certains appellent des unités de compte cryptées. Cette étude est consacrée à deux d’entre elles : le Bitcoin, créé en 2009, et la Libra, dont les premières devraient apparaître en 2020. Deux crypto-monnaies qui peuvent s’opposer ou se compléter. Unité de compte reconnue, le Bitcoin va vite apparaître aussi spéculatif, l’éloignant du caractère monétaire que certains veulent lui attribuer. A l’inverse, la Libra, mon ...

The growth slowdown became evident in late 2017. World GDP at market exchange rates slowed from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of between 4 and 5% in the second half of 2017 to between 1.5% to 2% in the first half of 2019. The slowdown came as a big surprise and led to continuous revisions downwards of growth forecasts as shown yet again by the IMF’s World Economic Outlook issued last week. Nearly all observers and experts had expected the expansion of 2016/2017 to continue. Tha ...

The Trump government has been imposing restrictions on access to technologies by Chinese telecommunications firms. Why and what are the consequences? The Federal Communications Commission is about to ban carriers from using government funds to buy equipment from Huawei and ZTE. Other government agencies are expected to take similar measures. This is just the latest episode of a gradual squeeze that the Trump government has been giving over China's telecommunications giant Huawei, ...

In this brief, we review the evidence on Morocco’s export concentration, discuss its causes, and then draw some policy implications. The main message is that Morocco needs to raise its game in some less familiar markets and move outside its comfort zone. This implies not only investments by private firms, greater efforts on export promotion by the government and professional associations, but also deeper changes within Morocco, including in its educational system. Over the past two ...

Since 2013, armed conflict has raged in the Central African Republic, between the largely Muslim Seleka rebels and the predominantly Christian militias (known as the anti-Balaka). Rebel groups are controlling broad swathes of the country, exploiting mineral wealth, and levying taxes on cattle migration. Non-state actors such as the Popular Front for the Governance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), which claims to “govern” the country’s northeast, have severely tested the autho ...

The author is an alumnus of the Atlantic Dialogues Emeging Leaders Program 2014. The discussion on industry 4.0 (also often referred to as smart manufacturing or industrial internet of things – which is the term mostly used in the United States of America) has graduated from being a niche topic discussed (and implemented) by engineers in the world’s richest economies. If industry 4.0 has not physically arrived everywhere, it is at least in the minds of some: industry 4.0 in Africa, ...

Africa, as a continent of economic opportunities, is attracting foreign players. In this context, India is emerging as an important partner, especially for Eastern and Southern Africa. The complexity of its geopolitical environment combined with internal specificities motivated the revival of interest for the continent. This paper draws on historical developments between India and African countries to provide the state of play of recent linkages. Those trends are better perceived th ...