Today, Africans wish to achieve sustainable development based on cultural values and sovereignty — Marie Noelle Koyara, Minister of National Defense and Army Reconstruction of the Central African Republic.

The sovereignty of each country should be maintained at the level of national legislation and should ensure that all governmental and non-governmental organizations are subject to law and government decisions. Changes in the legal framework, energy, electricity generation and education are required. Legislative changes are needed to combat corruption, fraud and money laundering. Depoliticization of the energy sector is needed — Vaiva Adomaityte, Founder, Chief Executive Officer, ADMIS Consultancy.

We need development, we need new policies that will be based on local solutions that go vertically from the bottom up. And of course, we are talking about associations that need space for qualified young people, not only in Africa, who can bring to the continent something that will lead to further development — Jose Matemulane, President, Association for Free Research and International Cooperation.

Africa is a continent that is developing very rapidly. It boasts vast natural resources, human resources and, of course, those countries that will have the most influence on the continent will determine global policy as well — Anton Morozov, Deputy of the State Duma, Member of the Committee on International Affairs.

Africa is the most competitive and attractive place to invest from all over the world. At a time when many banks do not have any profits, we now see that we do not have negative rates — Clifton Ellis, Founder, Chairman, International Sustainable Energy Organisation.

It is very important and significant that Russia and its African partners are talking not only about business, not only about the economy, not only about investments, but also about humanitarian projects, education and the search for that joint future <…> where everything will be implemented based on the win-win strategy and where one partner will not take advantage of the temporary weaknesses of another — Alexander Malkevich, President, Foundation for National Values Protection; Chairman, Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Development of the Information Community, Mass Media and Mass Communications.

The vision of Africa's history and future should not be based on the French neo-colonial point of view. The Russian point of view is quite different: it is the logic of mutually beneficial cooperation, in particular, cooperation between private enterprises of our countries — Nathalie Yamb, Executive Adviser, Liberty and Democracy for the Republic Party (LIDER) of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.

The fact that Russia has never been a metropolis makes up our approach to our foreign partners. Our foreign policy concept does not have and never had any provisions that would impose our cultural values, standards of democracy and so on. We always respect the sovereignty of our partners. In this sense, it is much more beneficial for African countries to cooperate with Russia — Anton Morozov, Deputy of the State Duma, Member of the Committee on International Affairs.

After centuries of slavery, colonization, pseudo-independence, we may have gained freedom – but freedom in the closed space of the Francophone Africa. Today, in 2019, our Francophone Africa is essentially under French control — Nathalie Yamb, Executive Adviser, Liberty and Democracy for the Republic Party (LIDER) of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.

We have been developing for 60 years, but our development projects are facing great difficulties. It is very difficult for many countries to defeat poverty, resolve climate issues, and political and economic problems. Sub-Saharan Africa is a very poor region. For 50 years, the population's income was only USD 1.25 a day. <...> 70% of Cameroon's population lives below the poverty line. Much has been said today about the reasons for this, but I would like to talk about another reason. This is a lack of respect for African sovereignty. It is a structural problem. For a very long time, African countries have not had their sovereignty — Laurence Ndong, Vice-President, «Pour le Gabon».

The new government of Sudan is making plans to use Russia's experience in a variety of fields. <...> Sudan has always suffered from political instability and internal wars, and this has led to the destruction of infrastructure. Mismanagement issues, absence of various important laws and the spread of corruption, led to a decrease in investments. Wrong policies over the past 30 years have led to a deterioration of the economic situation — Abdelrahman Noureldayem Saeed Abdelwahab, Member, Sudanese Economists Association.

The presence of Russia, which has no colonial tradition, can be very useful. <...> We would like to invite Russian companies to participate in the development of our agricultural sector, our mining industry and so on — Nathalie Yamb, Executive Adviser, Liberty and Democracy for the Republic Party (LIDER) of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.

Many of the economic problems we now see in Africa are similar to those economic issues that Russia faced in the 1990s. <...> At some point, we chose our own path, the path of economic sovereignty. This is always a very difficult choice, but we see our strength in it. <...> We feel very confident in terms of practical experience in implementing these reforms. <...> In general, Russian specialists are ready to work in various African countries — Maksim Moskalev, Russian economist.

African governments now have the opportunity to radically change their societies, using distributed registry technologies and using quality and quantity to maximize this impact — Nathalie Yamb, Executive Adviser, Liberty and Democracy for the Republic Party (LIDER) of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.

In most African countries, the majority of the population is rural. Those are agricultural countries; therefore, the development of the agro-industrial sector in these countries should be given a priority — Marie Noelle Koyara, Minister of National Defense and Army Reconstruction of the Central African Republic.

At legislation level both our African partners and us, we need to prescribe certain mechanisms in order to create certain preferences for Russian companies working in African markets — Anton Morozov, Deputy of the State Duma, Member of the Committee on International Affairs.