Distinguished Prime Ministers, 
Authorities, 

I wish to once again sincerely thank you for accepting the Italian Government’s invitation, for the extremely valuable contributions that have come from all the discussions; I intend to take on board all the input received today.

I sincerely believe that this Summit has fulfilled the purpose we had set, which was above all to provide an opportunity for Italy and African nations to share, engage in dialogue and exchange opinions. Thanks to the presence of so many high-level participants, showing the level of interest in Italy’s position, we can say that it has been a success. This is above all thanks to you, your contributions and your participation.  

I am also pleased to have seen a concrete willingness on everyone’s part to envisage and write a new chapter in our relations together, a chapter based on structural cooperation, on cooperation among equals, far from that predatory approach that for too long has characterised relations with Africa and that, one could say, has too often prevented Africa from growing and prospering as it could have.

A new cooperation model that we all must believe in, because it can only work if we all believe in it together; a model based on responsibility, trust and respect.

I very much appreciated the concrete nature of your contributions, and the many, often detailed, proposals on cooperation that emerged during both the plenary session and the working sessions on the various topics. I sincerely wish to thank everyone who took the floor.

These extraordinary contributions are very valuable to us and we will take them on board and work to ensure they can be practically included in the various action areas of our ‘Mattei Plan’.

Today, we have discussed many issues, from economic cooperation and cooperation on infrastructure to food security, the climate-energy nexus, education and training, the fight against illegal immigration and security, and I am very satisfied about the fact that we have found so many points in common.

We are clearly only at the beginning of this work and still have a long way to go. I see today as a new start, the beginning of a new period; we are only at the beginning of the work that we can and must do together.

Today, we have focused on a number of specific issues and have spoken in detail about the initial pilot projects of the Mattei Plan that we intend to implement together. However, I believe that the scope of our cooperation can and must be much broader and more extensive. It is up to us to define that scope, and we intend to define it with all nations that are interested in moving forward with us on this, and clearly also with the contribution of multilateral organisations too, starting with the African Union, which I thank for being here today and for its collaboration.

In my view, to show that something different is being done compared with what we have sometimes seen in the past, from today onwards, it is essential that we manage to ensure that the ideas, projects and goals that have emerged during this Summit have immediate operational follow-ups.

Many speeches today talked about how, often in the past, principles would merely be stated, very often without those statements then being followed up with something concrete. We do not want to go down path; we instead want to be pragmatic and extremely concrete. Those who know me, who have got to know me, know that this is the working method that pretty much drives all of my political commitment.

The Mattei Plan is not made up of good intentions or statements of principles. It is a plan of concrete objectives that can be achieved, and that are to be verified step by step – as I said already this morning and shall say again: this is something I intend to follow personally; a firm, precise and well-defined timeline is needed, because this is how we work and we believe this method can make the difference and present a completely new model.

It is for this very reason that, already in the coming weeks, we will be launching operational task forces in the various nations that are involved in the Plan’s initial implementation phase, but also in others that have stated their readiness and interest in understanding how this initiative can be extended.
What we have presented today is above all a philosophy, but we wanted it to also be more than that, which is why we have explained it through concrete facts; it is above all a cooperation model that we are ready and willing to pursue with all nations that may be interested in this approach and, judging by the participation in today’s proceedings, there are many nations that are.

This work clearly had to involve an initiative like this one in order to discuss proposals and contributions in-depth, precisely because – like I said this morning and shall say again – we do not have a ‘closed box’ to deliver, to present. We have an idea to share and we have waited for this conference to understand whether the idea we have in our heads also resonates with the other countries we are speaking with, because this work can only be done together.

In relation to this work, I am also happy to be able to count on the contribution of the whole of Italy’s economic system, which is amply represented here today. I wish to once again thank all of you, for having understood the importance and scale of this challenge from day one.

I would also like to once again thank the representatives of the United Nations, European Union, African Union and the international organisations, financial institutions and multilateral development banks, whose presence and contributions today have helped us to mark a paradigm shift in relations with Africa. As the Italian Government, we are proud to have laid the foundations for this new path.

Italy will continue to work to involve more and more international players in the process we have launched today, in order to define new instruments, including financial instruments, together, and to support shared development and growth initiatives. As I have already said and shall say again, Africa will continue to be a strategic priority for Italian foreign policy and will therefore also be a key focus of the Italian G7 Presidency this year.

So, thank you very much once again for being here, for your contributions and for your friendship, which is extremely valuable to us, and thank you above all not for what we have built so far but rather for what we will build from today onwards. In organising this conference, I sincerely hope that the Italian Government has lived up to your expectations, because you have certainly lived up to the expectations of the Italian Government.

Thank you and I wish you all the best with your work.

[Courtesy translation]