2010 African Economic Conference set for Tunis

Conference attendees

Key figures attending the event will include Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organisation and the prime minister of Tunisia, Mohammed Ghannouchi, along with ministers of finance and central bank governors from various African countries.

They will be joined by numerous senior African policymakers, business executives, development experts and academics to review scenarios for Africa's economic recovery and return to strong growth.

Over its five years, the African Economic Conference has become a forum that hosts academics and development practitioners in the field of economics.

African, international institutions participate

The participants will represent an array of African and international institutions including the Central Bank of Kenya, the Bank of Tanzania, the Bank of Uganda, the Egyptian Financial Authority, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Brookings Institution.

The academic community will be represented by numerous universities including Harvard, Oxford, Gothenburg and the London School of Economics.

Effects of economic crisis

The conference will address Africa's position in the post-economic crisis world. The developing world continues to feel the effects of the crisis more than elsewhere. In Africa, the effects of the crisis on capital flows, export volumes and prices, remittances and tourism were far reaching. The crisis threatens to reverse trends in private investment and jeopardises the gains from the good economic performance since 2000.

The AEC will feature a wide-ranging set of seminars to discuss these issues and the economic way forward for Africa. Important subject areas covered will include China-Africa trade; the role of the private sector; the promotion of savings and investment in Africa; the creation of new African financial products; development financing; fiscal policy; governance; green growth, and regional integration.