H.E. Professor Oramah, President of Afreximbank,
H.E. Shadiya Alimatou Assouman, Minister of Trade and Industry of Benin
Dear Eric Trachtenberg, Executive Director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee
Dear Gunther Berger, Managing Director, UNIDO
Dear Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice-President, Intra-African Trade and Export Development, Afreximbank
Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, partners and stakeholders,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi and in my personal capacity, I welcome you to this meeting of the Steering Committee of the Partenariat pour le Coton.

I apologize for not being physically present with you in Cairo as originally planned.

I remain fully engaged in the important work we are leading together in the Partnership, and I look forward to the outcomes of your discussions.

Let me warmly thank the Egyptian authorities and Afreximbank for hosting and organizing this important meeting.

My thanks also go to our UNIDO partners, for their pivotal role in our partnership, as well as to all those involved — governments, international organizations, financial institutions, and private sector actors — foremost among whom we recognize all the C4 countries, who are the driving force and who have championed the cause of the cotton economy for nearly a quarter of a century at the WTO.

The objective of our discussions over the next two days is clear: to find ways to strengthen value chains in the cotton, textile and clothing sector in the C4+ countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Côte d' Ivoire — by creating more value added, expanding trade opportunities, and ensuring sustainable development outcomes.

Specifically, this will involve:

• Presenting the national reports and the regional report resulting from various consultations in the C4+ countries;
• Identifying national priorities as well as needs for technical assistance and investment financing;
• Discussing support measures and financing options proposed by financial institutions, based on the reports from the national consultations.

This Steering Committee meeting is taking place at a pivotal moment, following a substantial collective effort to review the current state of the cotton sector and the issues at stake in our partnership. In June 2024, the Steering Committee approved the findings of a baseline study conducted by UNIDO, with support from the International Trade Centre. In September 2024, national consultations were held in the five C4+ countries based on this study. These consultations made it possible to identify priorities in the cotton, textile and clothing sector, which will be presented to you shortly.

The enthusiasm surrounding the Partnership, the diversity of stakeholders and institutions represented here today, the promising outlook revealed by the national studies, and the engagement of financial institutions, all reflect a momentum geared toward action.

It is this momentum we aim to sustain, with the next WTO Ministerial Conference — scheduled for spring 2026 in Yaoundé, on African soil — already on the horizon, and potentially marking a new phase in our collective effort.

It is with this optimistic outlook that I open our Steering Committee meeting. I sincerely hope that our discussions over the next two days will lead to tangible outcomes for industrialization and local cotton processing in partner countries.

We will be able to report these outcomes to WTO Members at our next discussion on cotton, scheduled for 14 May at the WTO, which will address all the challenges facing the cotton industry in C4 countries and other developing nations.

Thank you for your attention. I now give the floor to Her Excellency Ms Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice-President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development at Afreximbank.

See you very soon in Geneva.