The Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire d’Abidjan serves as the setting from February 10 to 11 2020 at the Inaugural Conference of the Joint Development Program of financial markets, J-CAP 2020. Placed under the high patronage of SEM Alassane Dramane OUATTARA, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire and President of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), represented by his Prime Minister Amadou Gon COULIBALY, this conference was opened by Mr. Romuald WADAGNI, Minister of Economy and Finance of Benin, President of the statutory Council of Ministers of UEMOA. Of them days, more than three hundred (300) administrators public and different sectors of activity from five continents discuss the most notable developments, obstacles and opportunities on the WAEMU financial market. At the opening of the Conference, Romuald WADAGNI insisted on two points: the interest and the urgent need to act to diversify and revitalize the capital market of UEMOA then the main expectations of these two days of conference. Regarding of the urgency to act, Romuald WADAGNI explained that it is not possible to develop a country or a region in the absence of attractive and dynamic capital. However, he points out, the main characteristic of the good growth of the economies of the countries of UEMOA is that it is essentially driven by investment public to the detriment of the private sector. Capital markets being the source from which the private sector can draw resources to take over from the States, he invited all actors to now focus their efforts on creating the conditions necessary for private investment to take over from States. “It is obvious that if we find it difficult to mobilize on our regional market, resources with long maturities and rates low, it will be the same for external financing ”he said. highlighted. Regarding the expectations of this meeting, Romuald WADAGNI encouraged reflections and proposals to cover mainly three dimensions: the institutional framework and regulatory; issuers and investors. Finally, The President of the WAEMU statutory council of ministers thanked the Group of the World Bank and all the technical partners and financial support for reforms of this type, while inviting participants to recognize that there is still some way to go for the development of our capital markets. These foundations constitute an opportunity to showcase development experiences from around the world whole, to examine the possibility of transposing them elsewhere and explore new niches of partnership, investment and business for foreign and local players. In addition, ideas innovations are studied during lively debates between public actors and private and in practical working groups. JCAP Initiative Promote the development of viable local financial markets in the countries handled by the Joint Market Development Program (J-CAP) namely Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Vietnam and UEMOA. This is the purpose of this priority initiative of the World Bank Group which has focused this year its conference on UEMOA. Most of the countries in development does not have the necessary preconditions for healthy capital market: stable macroeconomic fundamentals, a healthy banking system, a good institutional and regulatory framework, an efficient market infrastructure and a sufficiently large market. Leaving of this observation, the World Bank and the Finance Corporation Internationale launched the Joint Capital Market Program (JCAP) in June 2017 to help developing countries reap the benefits a strong local capital market. The initiative is supported by Australia, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway and Swiss. UEMOA joined this program in December 2018 from the signing of a joint World Bank Group agreement – Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF). Concept of capital markets For reminder, capital markets are places that connect economic agents with excess capital and those who have financing needs. Thanks to this junction, the markets of In particular, capital helps finance the economy. Traditionally, the capital market is divided into two segments: the money market and the financial market (equity market, bond, foreign exchange market, derivatives market).