Berlin's second "Compact with Africa"dialogue, launched in 2017 when Germany held the G20 presidency and set to run for two days, began in Berlin Tuesday, with heads of government and business from 12 African partner nations invited, Eurasia Diary reports citing Deutsche Welle.
Acknowledging that she had visited less than half of Africa's 54 nations, Merkel said she was "convinced" that boosting private investment from Europe's largest economy would help the African continent to achieve a "self-supporting upturn."
The first guest speaker, authoritarian Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said investment would be a "stabilizing factor" for employment and energy supply across Africa.