Gentlemen, thank you for doing this. It's awfully nice of you to do this. I'd just like to go right down the line. And first to you, President Mnangagwa. Again, thanks. In as clear terms as you can, I wonder if you would contrast your experience with China versus the Western powers. Do you think that Zimbabwe and other African countries, to be totally blunt, get a better deal from Chinese investment than they have with Western powers over the past 150 years?
Well, my view is that initially as we became independent, most of our development thrust was from the West. But as we evolved, we have also benefited from investment and cooperation from countries like China.
But what are, I mean, the basic structure seems the same? Foreign powers extract mineral wealth from various African countries. But do you think that the arrangement that Zimbabwe and other countries currently have with China is better or worse for Zimbabwe than it was under, say, the Brits?
I think the premises upon which you construct your question, I don't think is perfect.
Yes. Zimbabwe is a sovereign state. You understand? And we move on the basis that gives us the best results of our resources. Whether it is relation with the West or the East, what is primarily important is what we ourselves as a nation are satisfied with. We don't need to please the West or please the East. We please ourselves.
Good. That seems like a good model for every sovereign country. President Bio, thank you for this. Do you think that there is a substantial difference? I'm just trying to understand from a Western perspective how the East does business in Africa versus how the West does, and it may be too sensitive a topic really even to talk about out loud, but to the extent you have a view you can share, would you?
I'm sure relations cannot be measured country by country. Relations depend on the historical background of countries between one country and another. That's the base on which relations grow and are nurtured. For us in Zimbabwe, yes, we are a former British colony, but we are very happy with the relations that have now developed with, say, countries like China and so on.
Yes, despite being a former British colony. I think this may be one of these topics that's too difficult to talk about in public. So let me just ask you, President Bio, about one of the strengths of your country and in the continent, which is its birth rate, which so far surpasses that of any other region in the world, and that seems like a strength. How has your country, Sierra Leone, but also many other countries in Africa, been able to maintain a birth rate at replacement when Europe, the US, Canada, lots of other parts of the world have not been able to?
Thank you very much. I think we are hard workers and we work both in the day and at night. That is such great advice. It is essential to have young people and to keep the birth rate at the right level so that there is sustainability in development. What we do today as leaders, we provide the enabling environment, provide them with the tools, the young people, to navigate the world, which is extremely tough, complicated, and evolving and changing all the time. So it is our responsibility to bear that in mind. We have to plan ahead, be ahead of the curve to be able to replace accordingly so that we don't have a gap in our development process. So we have been busy producing as much as we can a lot of good people and we are investing in their education so that they are fit for purpose for a world that is becoming digital and of course going extremely to the edge of technological advancement.
If I could just ask a quick follow-up to you, Mr. President, do you keep track precisely of how many of your young educated citizens leave and how many stay? Are you thinking hard about how to retain the smartest, most energetic people?
Definitely. In fact, what my administration did was to make sure that we provide basic primary and secondary education free of charge to the citizens. Every child born in Sierra Leone can go to school and finish high school without paying a penny. We don't just provide tuition. We also make sure that we provide other essentials to make it possible so that nobody has an excuse not to go to school because in the 21st century without education, definitely you can't make it. And we do not just want to make it at the personal level, family level. We want to grow as a nation. We want to be useful citizens of West Africa, the community that I chair today, but we also want to be useful citizens, global useful citizens that can contribute to the world. So we are taking stock of that and we are educating them, equipping them. In fact, I call education as an equipment, a navigation equipment in a world that is becoming very, very complicated and complex.
Thank you, President Bio. If as you look at young people in Botswana who are educated and energetic, what's your pitch to them? What's your argument to them to stay in Botswana, not go to South Africa, Europe, the United States?
Young people are generally innovative. They are entrepreneurial. They now have become digital natives. And that presents immense opportunities to them. These opportunities mean they can pretty much operate wherever they are and they must as a matter of course remain within Botswana so that they can then spread their reach and influence to every part from Botswana. And so the opportunities that there are in Botswana, the training, the education, the acquisition of skills, the support, the environment that nurtures them and feeds and fuels their vitality is what Botswana offers and what will power Africa. Africa generally is a very young continent with a median age of 19.3. Botswana's median age is 25. And so with such a population, Africa is poised to rule the world.
So what are your plans for the world once you rule it?
To make it fairer, to make it more equitable, to ensure that intellectual property is internalized in every part of the African continent, that innovation serves humanity, not just a predatory elite, and that everybody can partake equitably and benefit from the fruits of the economy and the vast opportunities that are available in the world.
