NY Forum AFRICA 2015

in conjunction with NYFA 2015

“If you are doing something that you really love, it is not work.”- Barclay Paul Okari
“What keeps you going [as an entrepreneur] is the need to see your idea come to fruition.”- Kwame Abrokwa
“African youth - there will not be the expected growth without your dreams. You need to create your job. In the DNA of Africans, the entrepreneurship gene is there.”- Karl Miville de Chene
“Let’s do everything to make sure youth are key stakeholders and are included.”- Michaëlle Jean
“Europe needs to do more in Africa so that African students can return to help their countries of origin.”- José Manuel Barroso
“The country cannot develop without you. Each of you has the opportunity to reach and accomplish your dreams. The continent of Africa is the continent of the future.”- H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba
“Africa’s strong economic growth (5 percent) is thanks to its youth, which will be the main source of production and innovation in the coming years.”- Lionel Zinsou
“Talent does not exist everywhere. The only difference between countries is access. Without having access, nothing will happen.”- Garry Kasparov
“African women have arrived.”- Isabel dos Santos
“There’s a preconceived idea on Africa which is totally obsolete. Africa is now the future.”- Laurent Fabius
“Ambition is a key factor in transformation. The will to transform a country has to be accompanied by action”- Hafid Elalami
“All the research shows that investing in women is a good investment”- Cherie Blair
“The 21st century is the century of Africa.”- Vincente Fox
“This Forum is a perfect example of Gabon's engagement as a future-thinking country, searching for innovative solutions to the challenges facing Africa in its economic growth.”- Alassane Ouattara
“Africa is now open to all investors. Its leaders are willing to preserve the continent’s resources and willing to engage in a win-win partnership.”- Macky Sall
“Together, we want to encourage young women to venture into new frontiers, and learn that they can achieve anything.”- Sylvia Bongo Ondimba
“Technology is spurring innovation, and the so-called "demographic dividend" has brought change.”- Nouriel Roubini
“We Africans must do business with each other.”- President F.W. de Klerk
“We need to have a competitive economy and proper legal environment to create enterprise, which in turn creates jobs.”- Jean-Louis Billon
“We need peace for security but we also need justice and accountability.”- Fatou Bensouda
“Given technology in tough environments, people will do more with that technology than its engineers could have ever imagined.”- Jared Cohen
“You look at Africa the biggest impediment is our not being able to work together. It’s very simple.”- Kola Karim
“If you get the politics and the policies right, the economics usually follow.”- Lord Mandelson
“The G.D.P. of african countries has been rising swiftly, but we must take into account issues like access to water supply, education, healthcare, infrastructure and employment.”- Olusegun Obasanjo

The New York Forum Institute is a non-profit foundation based in New York that helps business leaders and companies understand and shape the business world by sharing knowledge, perceptions, trends and ideas. The Institute’s findings and work were highlighted and debated at its annual event, The New York Forum.

The New York Forum Institute is a knowledge management platform open to the entire business community that will pursue the call for action launched during the New York Forum, promote future-oriented ideas to the leading decision-makers, and work for the emergence of new businesses. The focus of the Institute will be on concrete and innovative solutions that center on economic growth, creating alliances and fostering relationships, and encouraging young talent and entrepreneurs. It is a contemporary of Bell Labs for concrete business propositions.

The Institute is aimed at providing business leaders and decision-makers with knowledge sharing tools, idea confrontations, a means to follow up proposed initiatives, and best practices, and it intends to help them search for innovative business models. The Institute has transparency of its processes and work at the core of its mission.

The Institute and The New York Forum itself are a response to the wildest economic crisis of modern times. The crisis highlighted the urgent need for innovation and new business models. But the aims of the Institute are far more than a response to current conditions. Business leaders will benefit from engaged discussion, knowledge sharing and a restless spirit of inquiry in good times and bad times. The one certainty for executives in this century will be change. The Institute will be a fundamental platform to help leaders navigate that change.
More concrete actions are planned to follow up on the initial New York Forum: conferences will be organized all over the world, a forum in Paris will soon mirror the New York one, and much more is to come over the next months.

“We want the NYF Institute to be your home for testing, exploring and sharing ways to rebuild confidence and credibility, and to reinvigorate the economy.”

- Richard Attias

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