CADES 2024: Message from Professor KELLY MUA Kingsley, President of the Organising Committee

The complexity of the development of the digital economy and electronic communications leads us to think about defining a framework for exchanges and negotiations where good practices can be compared to set them up as recommendations or rules of law: co-regulation. The latter aims to articulate the efforts of private actors (self-regulation) and the intervention of public authorities (regulation) to serve the general interest. In the same way, it is now concerned with the issues of digital sovereignty of African states in the vast project of Africa's digital transformation.

The African Union's Agenda 2063 also highlights the importance of the digital economy for enhanced regional and continental integration. From this perspective, the UNDP Sub-Regional Office highlighted the urgency of initiating digital identity programmes aligned with the A.U.'s 2030 and 2063 agendas to support the countries' digital negotiation capacity in the sub-region.

The choice of the Republic of Central Africa as the host of this significant summit is not accidental. The innovative vision, particularly with the vast development of the digital economy, makes it possible to place Central Africa today at the heart of technological convergence.

An agenda that deserves to be able to look at the future of the sub-region. This summit aims to revisit the principal axes of the development of the digital economy in the face of the global financial pact to consider, at the same time, the opportunities for investment in the digital economy before looking at the improvement of the quality of service and the promotion of "Blockchain" as a disruptive technology.

As a result, CADES 2024 will have to respond to structural concerns on the vast project of public policies in terms of "Africa's digital transformation" to meet the new requirements of digital currency, electronic wallets, e-business, e-learning, e-government, e-agroindustry, the concept of e-services and many other innovative solutions in the digital economy.

CADES 2024 promises to be a platform for reflection and dialogue for A.U. Member States, international institutions (BRICS, ITU, A.U., W.B., IMF, AFDB, BDEAC, COSUMAF, IDB, ATIDI For Africa...), experts, academics, start-ups, economic actors and embassies, to envision the future of Africa.

Africa in the digital field aligns with the A.U. 2030 and 2063 Agenda, one of the fundamental points of which is the "Digital Transformation of Africa". Better still, and hence the conceptual approach of placing ADES 2024 under the central theme "Connecting Africa, this is the moment" because it is about connecting Africa to the new digitalised world.

To implement a national or sub-regional strategy for the interconnection and development of the digital economy in Ethiopia and Africa, the artificial intelligence agency Prima Intelligencia Agency and the Cabinet All Access Agency propose to organise, in partnership with the Central Africa State and under the supervision of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Cooperation, the Central Africa Digital Economy Summit (CADES Bangui 2024). A real platform will serve as a framework for an interconnection strategy between the Central African sub-region and the other states of the world for the development of digital technology.

THE MAIN THEMES OF  PANELS AT THE SUMMIT

Central Africa Digital Economy Summit (CADES 2024) will be organised around major guided themes. These guided themes will form the backbone or common thread of the summit's panels. These are:
Panel 1: Issue of a coordinated investment policy in the digital sector and strengthening cooperation between the States of the sub-region;
Panel 2: Strengthen and extend digital infrastructures concerning the issues of interconnection between countries and make online services operational;
Panel 3: Issue of Digital Sovereignty of African States
Panel 4: High-Level Dialogue on the Digital Economy in Africa
Panel 5: Special Events "The State of Structural Transformation in Central Africa: Challenges and Opportunities"
Panel 7: Demonstration Hub "Digital Transformation to Make the Technological Leap in l Africa – Experiences and Horizons"
Panel 8: Digital and Investment Opportunities in Africa (Invest in Africa)