Gaborone — The 15th US-Africa Business summit has been credited as the most successful and engaging meeting that has seen participating heads of state recognise the need to resolve a plethora of challenges affecting the African continent.
"I am pleased that the level of the engagements showed eagerness and quest to deal with Africa's challenges which are multiple.
It showed that Africa is in motion," President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said, as he reflected on the historic summit that was held at the Royal Aria in Tlokweng from July 11-14.
President Masisi said he had received accolades that suggested the event was 'the best US-Africa Summit', owing to the zeal and vigour of the host country.
"This summit showed the quest for our youthful and dynamic population, which is in need for capacitation, skills, development and the need for jobs and opportunities," said the President. He added that participation by some heads of state was motivating and focused on dealing with critical areas and priorities of which the continent wanted to achieve.
President Masisi said investment in indigenous knowledge was an ongoing conversation with different institutions that possessed the tool sets to realise it, adding that through the summit different entities were reached.
He said investing in indigenous knowledge was work in progress and involved engaging the entities on the capacity to patent, distribute, price and develop a business preposition for it to be funded.
"These are some of the exciting realisation that we got out of the summit, but some of these are conversations that need further engagements," he said.
Further, President Masisi noted that the sectors discussed included business development in a variety of sectors and mineral beneficiation as well as showcasing products and services that the country was able to offer.
He applauded youth for their agility as well as level of engagement throughout the summit, which he said showed the quest to do better.
"Botswana is a young country with beautiful people," he said.
Held under the theme; Enhancing Africa's Value in Global Value Chains, the summit's highlights included interactions of successful businesses and government leaders on industry-tested solutions to today's business challenges in agribusiness, finance, energy, health, infrastructure, ICT and creative industries among others.
The summit also included closed-door conversations with key decision makers to discuss business needs and concerns by private sector players.
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The meeting was also a platform for interaction with high-level government officials and business leaders from countries with some of the most promising markets for investments, business opportunities, government policies and success stories.
The four-day summit also connected high-level African government delegations including Heads of State, US senior government officials, CEOs and executives and African companies.
Participants had the opportunity to network and receive updates on available financing from the US government, institutional investors, US and African banks.
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