The theme of EXPO, which is taking place from 1 May - 31 October, is 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life'.

The large attendance at this event and the high political level of the speakers was evidence that the Sub-Saharan African region offers huge potential for EU economy and businesses.

440 participants registered for the event.

Most of them came from 22 African countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, DR Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo and Zimbabwe.

There were very large delegations from Angola (33), Burkina Faso (38), Ethiopia (48) and Senegal (18).

On the EU side, there were representatives from 16 member countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

326 companies participated in bilateral talks. 484 Business-to-Business meetings were organised during the afternoon of 18 September and the morning of 19 September. The meetings covered the following sectors: agro-food manufacturing, food security, safety and quality control, food traceability, food conservation and shelf life, health biotechnology, water technologies and environmental management.

The morning session focused on policies and tools to improve the business environment and to promote industrial cooperation, investments and trade between the EU and Sub-Saharan Africa.

All speakers underlined the importance of Africa for Europe and the need for a real regional integration process in Africa. However, to tap opportunities in Sub-Saharan African markets, a number of challenges need to be addressed, such as:

• good governance
• real partnership and a change of mentality
• sustainability
• diversification of the economy
• better infrastructures
• the need for better-qualified staff and higher-level technological skills
• legal security
• the need for smarter regulation, better market access, or easier access to finance

These issues have to be considered while taking wider interests into account, such as the need for sharing prosperity through creating jobs and the need to protect the environment for this and future generations.