Plenary VII: Financing Infrastructures: Time for a Big Push in Africa

December 14, 2017

Moderator: David Applefield, Special Representative for Africa, the Middle East, and Emerging Markets, Financial Times Business - Jorge Arbache, International Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, Brazil - Dominique Lafont, CEO and Founder, Lafont Africa Corporation, former President and CEO, Bolloré Africa - Frannie Léautier, Founder and Managing Partner, The Fezembat Group Matthew A. Swift, Chairman & CEO, Concordia

Speakers

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Meryam Amarir
    August 13, 2026
    Les crises récentes au Moyen-Orient, notamment les attaques ciblant les navires commerciaux en mer Rouge et les tensions autour du détroit d'Ormuz, ont mis en évidence la vulnérabilité des principaux corridors stratégiques du commerce mondial. Plus qu'un bouleversement de l'organisation des échanges, elles accélèrent une transformation déjà engagée, fondée sur la recherche de chaînes de connectivité plus résilientes, la diversification des itinéraires commerciaux et le développement ...
  • Authors
    Meryam Amarir
    August 13, 2026
    Recent crises in the Middle East, particularly attacks targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea and tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, have highlighted the vulnerability of the main strategic corridors of global trade. Rather than fundamentally disrupting the organization of trade flows, these crises are accelerating an ongoing transformation driven by the search for more resilient connectivity chains, the diversification of trade routes, and the development of logistics ...
  • Authors
    August 12, 2026
    La géographie mondiale des hydrocarbures n'est évidemment pas figée. De nouveaux producteurs de pétrole et/ou de gaz naturel apparaissent suite à des découvertes, le plus souvent réalisées par des compagnies pétrolières internationales. On pense notamment au Mozambique, qui produit et exporte du gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL) depuis la fin 2022, au Sénégal, qui est un producteur de pétrole offshore depuis la mi-2024, et au Sénégal et à la Mauritanie, qui sont devenus conjointement expor ...
  • Authors
    January 27, 2026
    This paper revisits Big Push industrialization theory in the context of open economies deeply integrated into global value chains (GVCs). While classical Big Push models emphasize demand complementarities and coordination failures in largely closed economies, many middle-income countries now industrialize through foreign-owned, import-intensive production networks. We develop an extended Big Push framework that incorporates GVC integration and import leakage, and show how these feat ...
  • Authors
    Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo
    Bernardo Sorj
    Frannie Léautier
    Iskander Erzini Vernoit
    Kassie Freeman
    Nathalie Delapalme
    J. Peter Pham
    March 7, 2022
    The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy and has challenged the best minds to rethink how to design and implement an effective recovery. Countries in the wider Atlantic region have exhibited differential trajectories in traversing the pandemic. A number of countries in Europe succeeded in vaccinating most of their eligible populations, enabling life to return somewhat to normal. A smaller group of countries in Europe could manage infection rates even more ti ...
  • December 15, 2020
    In modern societies, technology plays an important role and thus creates new challenges. Information, of which ICT is the vector, has become a strategic resource. Today, ICTs are already playing a central role in the fight against global inequalities. They are now asserting themselves, ...
  • December 14, 2017
    Moderator: Jordi Bacaria, General Director, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs - Newai Gebre-ab, Executive Director, Ethiopian Development Research Institute, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia - Paulo Neves, President, Institute for the Promotion of...
  • December 14, 2017
    Moderator: David Applefield, Special Representative for Africa, the Middle East, and Emerging Markets, Financial Times Business - Jorge Arbache, International Secretary of the Ministry of Planning, Brazil - Dominique Lafont, CEO and Founder, Lafont Africa Corporation, former President a...