HRH Crown Prince: Saudi Arabia affirms its pioneering role in advancing development in African continent, its support for international and regional efforts to lay foundations of security and stability

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed its pioneering role in advancing development in the African continent countries and its support for international and regional efforts in cooperation with the African Union to lay the foundations of security, stability, and conflict resolution.

The Kingdom has also affirmed its support for international efforts in combating terrorist groups and extremism for each of the Sahel and Saharan countries, combating terrorism, improving the security capabilities of those countries, and the importance of development in the countries of the African continent and the promotion of investment in them.

This came during the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's speech delivered virtually by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense before the Summit on Financing African Economies, held today in Paris.

Following is the full text of HRH Crown Prince's speech:

"In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

His Excellency President Emmanuel Macron,

Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Your Highnesses,

Peace be with you,

First of all, I would like to thank your Excellency for organizing this important event.

This summit confirms the great concern for the future of the African continent, its states, and peoples, especially in light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has no borders and touched all aspects of daily life and people around the world. The virus has dramatically affected the health and the economy. The impact of the pandemic has been severe in low-income African countries, where the pandemic has increased the financing gap needed to achieve sustainable development goals. We must continue to exert efforts to overcome this crisis through joint international action.

The most urgent matter is to ensure the rapid and fair global distribution of vaccines, especially in low-income countries in Africa and the rest of the world, which contributes to stopping the spread of the epidemic and returning economic activity to normal as soon as possible. From this standpoint, the initiative to accelerate the availability of tools to combat the Coronavirus and the COVAX Facility to make vaccines available is an important achievement. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the donating countries to the initiative. However, the program still needs more support to achieve its goals effectively.

Your Excellency the President, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Your Highnesses,

The G20 countries under the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's presidency in 2020 realized the need to support low-income African countries and the rest of the world to address the pandemic. The G20 countries' statement at the extraordinary summit held in March 2020 considers that strengthening the African health system is a basis for the integration of the global health system. The leaders of the G20 countries pledged to enhance capacity building and provide specialized technical assistance to the most vulnerable communities, as well as their willingness to mobilize the necessary development and humanitarian funding for these countries.

Emergency support has been provided to low-income countries, including the launch of the G20 initiative to suspend debt service payments. This historic initiative provided urgent liquidity to 73 of the poorest countries, including 38 African countries that have received more than USD 5 billion. Furthermore, G20 launched the Common Framework for Debt Treatment for the first time in its history, which goes beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative.

Your Excellency the President, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Your Highnesses,

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a pioneering role in advancing development in the African continent countries. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) in the Kingdom has a number of projects in energy, mining, telecommunications, and food sectors amounting to SAR 15 billion, nearly USD 4 billion. The PIF intends to continue efforts to search for investment opportunities in the African continent, whether directly or indirectly, in other countries and sectors.

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has been operating effectively in Africa for four decades, during which it provided loans and 580 grants to more than 45 African countries with a value exceeding SAR 50 billion, or approximately USD 13.5 billion. The Fund also announced an initiative of EUR 200 million, nearly SAR 1 billion, to develop the Sahel countries in partnership with the French Development Agency. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has future projects, loans, and grants that the Saudi Fund for Development will implement (SFD) in developing countries in Africa exceeding SAR 3 billion, nearly USD 1 billion during the current year.

Your Excellency the President, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Your Highnesses,

The climate change phenomenon is a global challenge as it threatens the quality of life for many people and their livelihoods, especially in low-income countries.

Therefore, the Saudi G20 Presidency has attached great importance to protecting the planet, as it has launched a number of initiatives aimed to reduce the effects of climate change and the sources of emissions of the most affecting gases in the atmosphere, including pushing for the adoption of the concepts of a circular carbon economy and ensure getting clear and more sustainable and affordable energy.

From this standpoint, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced the Middle East Green Initiative, which aims to plant more than 50 billion trees and reduce more than 10% of carbon emissions globally, and this initiative includes many African countries.

Your Excellency the President, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Your Highnesses,

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports international and regional efforts in close cooperation with the African Union to lay the foundations of security, stability, and conflict resolution, including the historic Jeddah Peace Agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Kingdom also supports international efforts in combating terrorism and extremism in each of the Sahel and Sahara countries. The Kingdom had provided support amounting to EUR 100 million, nearly SAR 500 million, for efforts to combat terrorism and improve the security capabilities of these countries.

We are now working with our partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADAC), foremost among which is South Africa, to support the capabilities of the security forces in Mozambique to confront extremist groups to lay the foundations for security, stability, and economic development.

The Kingdom's positions also affirmed the importance of development in the African countries and the promotion of investment in it. We look forward to holding the Saudi-African Summit and the Arab-African Summit soon, which was postponed due to the pandemic.

Finally, as donor countries, we hope that this summit will result in innovative solutions that will help the African countries out of the debt spiral and guarantee these countries the ability to exploit their revenues and capabilities. Moreover, benefit their economies and societies from the investments we offer and realize sustainable development that achieves its economic and social goals, such as reducing the unemployment and poverty rates.

We wish that all these efforts succeed,

Thank you"