Expertise France focusses on top European priorities with Global Gateway

Rising to the challenges of environmental transition, economic competitivity and political shake-ups, the EU is stepping up its commitment to its partners by way of Global Gateway. This strategy aims to mobilise 300 billion euros of investments by 2027, to develop sustainable infrastructure, secure chains of strategic value and support inclusive growth.

Expertise France plays a key role here. Harnessing French and European public expertise, the agency is helping to implement organisational projects combining economic development, institutional reinforcement and the creation of international partnerships. Its action falls fully within the “Team Europe” approach, bringing together European institutions, member states and financial establishments with common goals.

The 12 economic corridors identified jointly by the EU and the African Union form one of the pillars of the Global Gateway strategy. They are not mere shipping infrastructure, being henceforth designed as springboards to transform the local economy, capable of giving structure to the territories, stimulating regional value chains and helping their integration into global value chains and fostering economic integration.

This vision is a break from the traditional “pit-to-port” models, focussed on exporting raw materials. It is neatly aligned with the new G7 Evian approach to economic corridors. The goal is now to develop actual development corridors, including infrastructure for transport, energy and digital, facilitating dialogue and regional governance in order to generate more value locally.

Prior to the huge infrastructure projects Expertise France is deploying an integrated offer to support this transformation. It is based on three complementary points: reinforcing governance and coordination between public and private stakeholders; facilitating trade by way of standardising regulations and digitalising procedures; and enhancing logistics chains and sustainable transport.

This expertise has already been mobilised on several major projects with EU backing, especially the Abidjan-Lagos and Abidjan-Ouagadougou corridors in West Africa, the Libreville-N'Djamena and Douala-Kampala corridors in Central Africa, and the trans-Caspian corridor linking Europe to Central Asia. It also supports deliberations on the subject of the Lobito corridor, pinpointed as a strategic connectivity project between southern Africa and international markets, especially Europe and North America.

The acceleration of transitions in energy and digital is leading to a significant rise in global demand for critical raw materials. For many EU partner countries, these resources are a major opportunity for economic development, on condition that their exploitation does actually benefit the areas in question.

Against this backdrop, Expertise France propounds an approach based on the creation of local value and the development of well-balanced industrial partnerships. The point is not only to extract the resources, but to foster the emergence of industrial eco-systems capable of creating jobs, developing skills locally and strengthening national value chains.

The agency thus empowers governments to improve regulatory frameworks, adopt high standards of transparency and reasonable diligence and reinforce governance in mining. This approach helps to secure the business environment and promote responsible supplies that meet European requirements.

Parallel to this, Expertise France helps to foster ties between European businesses, local SMEs and public authorities in order to support territorial industrialisation. This partnership mindset helps to reconcile Europe’s strategic need for critical raw materials with the partner countries’ ambitions of economic sovereignty and sustainable development.

The Global Gateway strategy’s success also hinges on enhanced mobilisation in the private sector. The European Commission launched the Global Gateway Investment Hub to facilitate European investments in partner countries. It has been designed as a single point of entry for businesses to put forward bankable projects and gain easier access to the various European instruments for support.

This mechanism aims to make the European offer more legible by combining funding, guarantees, technical assistance, political support and introductions to pertinent partners. It is a new tool for economic diplomacy serving European competitivity, sustainable development and project quality in the long term.

In France, this dynamic is backed by tight coordination between the main public stakeholders within a Global Gateway Team France especially including the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Directorate of the French Treasury, AFD and Bpifrance Assurance Export.

Expertise France’s specific contribution is its knowledge of local contexts, institutional partners and industry issues. The agency helps to pinpoint investment opportunities and can be mobilised for projects requiring technical assistance.

By facilitating dialogue between public institutions, investors and local partners, Expertise France helps to foster the conditions for sustainable, responsible investments that create shared value, as befits the Global Gateway ambition and the Team Europe approach.