Minister: France needs Africa to bolster growth

Struggling to accelerate an ailing growth, France looked to prosperous African economies to inject further dynamism in domestic businesses, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday. At the opening ceremony of an economic forum on France-African partnership, Moscovici pointed that the eurozone's second largest economy "needs Africa" where growth rate expanded by 5 percent per year over the past decade, to support its wane growth handicapped by an alarming unemployment. "Africa is not, can not be the recipient of our support to development... It must be a speech of truth: Africa leads us. Its dynamism supports us. Its vitality stimulates us," the minister told the gathering. With the aim to discuss way to reshape Franco-African economic ties, participants at Paris economic forum will dig for fresh tools aimed at better using African assets to promote growth in both sides and to harness new opportunities of partnership. According to the Finance Ministry, 600 participants including business leaders, members of African governments, representatives of African regional organizations and leaders of financial institutions attended the meeting.