Germany: Merkel says 'more transparency' can increase investment in Africa as summit kicks off

*NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE*
M/S German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes to podium to give speech, Berlin
SOT, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor (German): "Whether it's about freedom, climate protection, economic development, migration, or other big questions of our time, we are all agreed that Africa with its over 50 states and a growing population, in particular a young population, has an important role in the answering global questions. And we see the thing that Africans and Europeans face many common challenges and therefore we've significantly intensified our cooperation in recent years, because we quite firmly believe that it's not just in Africa's interest but also in both our interests, more particularly also as the biggest economy in Germany's interest."
SOT, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor (German): "We believe, and I'm thoroughly convinced, that more transparency can also bring more investors into these countries, because obviously right now for German, or other investors from the G20 states, but for German medium-sized enterprises for example, it's very very important that trust prevails, that transparency prevails, that you know where I'm investing and what the conditions are."
SOT, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor (German): "We are also there agreed that in addition to the development aid that we obviously above all have to create a transition to a self-supporting economic upswing and that was also the reason why during our G20 presidency in 2017 we called the Compact with Africa initiative into life. There is namely the objective to increase in particular private investment in the participating countries."
SOT, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor (German): "I also don't want to paint a too positive picture we also still have problems to solve, and that includes the big question of security, in particular in the Sahel region. Here we have other instruments in order to try to reconcile security and development, but the challenges of terrorism are serious. And we naturally have the subject of population growth obviously as well, a young population in Africa, that is also obviously unbelievably urgent, it is basically the exact opposite of what we're experiencing in Germany. We talk a lot about how many pension recipients we'll have in the future, in Africa you speak more about how many young people we'll have.
M/S Merkel finishes speech and leaves stage
SCRIPT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that "more transparency" could bring "more investors" into Africa, while speaking at the start of the G20-Initiative 'Compact with Africa' summit in Berlin on Tuesday.
"Whether it's about freedom, climate protection, economic development, migration, or other big questions of our time, we are all agreed that Africa with its over 50 states and a growing population, in particular a young population, has an important role in the answering global questions," commented Merkel.
Speaking about the challenges facing the continent the chancellor mentioned "the big question of security, in particular in the Sahel region," as well as "the subject of population growth," which she described as "unbelievably urgent."
Twelve countries are involved in the summit, including Egypt, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tunisia. The dialogue was launched by Germany in 2017 to tackle the root cause of migration by creating more jobs and better infrastructure.