14/07/2020

THE HEAD OF STATE PRESIDES OVER THE LAUNCHING CEREMONY OF THE DJIBOUTI SOVEREIGN FUND (FSD)

The President of the Republic, His Excellency Ismail Omar Guelleh, proceeded today, Monday, in a ceremony held at the Palace of the Republic, to the launch of the Sovereign Fund of Djibouti (FSD).

Created by a law of March 29, 2020, the Sovereign Fund of Djibouti is a new economic and financial instrument that serves national development.

Its creation stems from a redefinition of the priorities and strategies of our country’s development in its quest for an increased and accelerated pace for sustainable growth.

The primary mission of this Sovereign Wealth Fund is to serve as a proximity sponsor and efficient financing authority for all large-scale projects likely to bring significant added value to our country in terms of wealth creation, employment, and public savings…

The initial capital of the Djibouti Sovereign Fund is exclusively National; it shows Djibouti’s total commitment to acquiring all the levels necessary for its independence and economic sovereignty.

The launching ceremony of the Sovereign Fund of Djibouti (FSD) was marked by a speech made by the President of the Republic, His Excellency Ismail Omar Guelleh, at the podium. In his speech, the Head of State described the Sovereign Wealth Fund as a “tool for growth and accelerated economic transformation.”

“The fund aims to mobilize Djibouti’s resources, to centralize them to control our projects better, to greatly increase our room for maneuver and negotiation, to focus on our national and strategic interests,” said in substance the President of the Republic.

“The Fund will also be responsible for supporting all public companies, in the competitive sector, in their management and strategy”; This new instrument is a reliable pledge to “our desire to move up the value chain, to integrate ‘the top of the curve,’ in terms of decision-making capacity, capacity for action, return on investment and know-how,” said the Head of State.

And President Guelleh revealed his faith in the ability of the new Sovereign Wealth Fund of Djibouti to contribute to the rapid advent, under our skies, of a “modern economy, socially inclusive, capable of creating an environment conducive to growth and development.

The Djibouti Sovereign Fund will endow preliminary capital from our main economic structures; Including the Great Horn Investment Holding and Djibouti Telecom, and will also have a savings fund fed, among other things, by endowments from levies carried out in the framework of free zones, military cooperation contracts collected by the State, and royalties from economic development projects …

In addition to all the members of the Government, those of the Board of Directors of the new Djibouti Sovereign Fund, and the leading officials at the head of Djibouti public and private institutions, several world renown personalities from the economic field took part in this event.

The former President of the African Development Bank (ADB), Mr. Donald Keberuka, is among the foreign personalities very well known in the economic field who took part in the launching ceremony of the new Sovereign Wealth Fund of Djibouti.

His participation in this event took the form of an intervention by video conference.

Mr. Lionel Zinsou, former Prime Minister of Benin, and former candidate to the supreme magistracy of the same country, well known in the international economic and financial landscape, is also part of the foreign personalities who made the trip to Djibouti;

They were honored with their presence at the launching ceremony of Djibouti’s new sovereign fund.