Meloni: “The Mattei Plan is a concrete initiative, not a list of good intentions”

“I am happy that the nation’s productive fabric has understood this challenge”
“What distinguishes the Mattei Plan from all other initiatives of the past is its concreteness. We have not written a list of good intentions, of declarations of principle. We have written a plan of feasible and achievable objectives, accompanied by a well-defined timetable.” The Prime Minister said it, Giorgia Meloni, in a message at the event “Piano Mattei, what opportunities for Africa, Italy and businesses” at Confcommercio Milan.

“We clearly couldn’t have faced this challenge alone. For this reason – continued Meloni -, when we built the governance of the Plan, we decided to involve a very broad and articulated representation of the Italian System in the Control Room. Confcommercio is obviously one of the entities we have asked to lend us a hand, and I thank all of you again for the contribution and proposals you have shared with us – starting from the attention towards professional training – and for what you will continue to do in the next months”.

“I am very happy that the productive and economic fabric of this nation understood, from the beginning, the importance and strategic nature of the challenge that the government launched with the Mattei Plan initiative” said the Prime Minister.

“This – he continued – is a very precious element because if the Mattei Plan is a success and truly manages to build that new model of cooperation and development with the African nations that we have in mind, much will depend on the contribution of our companies and the possibility to put their energies and their concreteness at the service of this initiative”.

“Concreteness is the distinctive feature of the Mattei Plan, which we have divided into six lines of intervention, which are education and training, health, agriculture, water, energy and infrastructure, and which is finding its first realization with various pilot projects starting from nine nations: Algeria, Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Tunisia. We have brought this approach, this level of concreteness, also to the G7 context. As you know – he continued – this year Italy has the responsibility of leading the forum. At the Borgo Egnazia Summit we established, with the African Development Bank and the World Bank, some very innovative financial instruments to develop co-investment strategies in Africa and we launched structured synergies and coordination activities between the Mattei Plan and the initiatives that already exist particularly on the topic of investments in infrastructure and which are planned by our partners”.

“I am thinking, for example – underlined Meloni – of the decision to contribute, with a financial commitment that can reach up to 320 million euros, to one of the projects of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment which is the creation of the ‘Lobito corridor ‘, the infrastructure system that will connect Angola to Zambia, through the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are talking about an impressive infrastructure, which involves numerous sectors and which also opens up opportunities for Italian companies. But I also want to remember the excellent synergy that Italy has established with the United States in Kenya, a country where two pilot projects of the Mattei Plan in the renewable energy sector are taking shape. The first for the development of the biofuels supply chain, to involve up to around 400 thousand farmers; the second for the production of geothermal energy”.

“For too long Africa has been a land – let’s say – misunderstood, exploited, often looked down upon. Africa is, however, from our point of view, a continent that can surprise, if put in a position to exploit what is extraordinary it possesses and to compete on equal terms” he continued. “We – she continued – have the task of collaborating with the African Nations, and of building together with them, with their increasingly dynamic and enterprising economic and production systems, new opportunities for shared development. A cooperation as equals that must bring a positive balance for all, to grow together, without charitable or paternalistic approaches. And we intend to do this not with proclamations, but with facts, transforming our intentions into infrastructure, concrete projects and jobs.” “We have a lot of work to do, and I am sure that the government can always count on your contribution. And on the contribution of the Italian system as a whole, which has grasped how strategic this initiative is for our future and for that of our African ‘next door'”, said Meloni.

“We have worked a lot in recent months, also to create a framework in which the public sector and the private sector could work together, even in areas of Africa where Italy is not traditionally present. We are committed to further supporting the internationalization of our companies, also reserving a portion of the Simest Fund for those who invest in Africa, in particular our small and medium-sized enterprises, with financing that can also be used for productive investments on the continent” , concluded Meloni.