Africa cooperation at Taormina G7

(ANSA) - Rome, April 27 - Cooperation with and aid to Africa will be one of the topics at the May 26-27 Group of Seven summit in Taormina, Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said Thursday. "The linchpin of our action of cooperation must be aimed at the Mediterranean and Africa, whose development represents our main challenge for the 21st century," Alfano said in opening a conference on EU cooperation for development at the foreign ministry in Rome. Cooperation, Alfano recalled, "is one of the points of our G7 presidency, which by no accident has placed great emphasis on the issues of the Mediterranean and Africa". On the sidelines of the Taormina summit, the foreign minister said, "Italy has planned a session open to the participation of the African Union and several of the continent's heads of State and government during which transversal issues like sustainable development, innovation, infrastructures and migratory crises will be addressed". Recalling the results of foreign development cooperation and aid activities, Alfano said that Italy went from a gross 0.14% of GDP in such spending in 2012 to 0.22% in 2015. According to OECD forecasts, he said, "we should reach 0.26% in 2016". This is not, he said, a "point of arrival but only a point of departure. "The aim is to reach 0.30% of GDP in 2020 and 0.70% in 2030".