During his career, Rémy Rioux, Senior Advisor at the Court of Auditors, has alternately held responsibilities in France and to support development in Africa.
He works for France’s economic and financial policy and conducted control missions in the energy and defense sectors at the Court of Auditors from 1997 to 2000, and subsequently from 2002 to 2004. At the Ministry of the Interior from 2000 to 2002, with Minister Daniel Vaillant, he was responsible for the management of the Ministry and the changeover to the euro. He was Chief Investment Officer at the State Holdings Agency (APE) from 2007 to 2010, responsible for the transport and media sectors, and sat on the Boards of Directors of various companies (SNCF, RATP, ADP, Renault, France Télévisions, France Médias Monde, Arte, le Grand Port Maritime du Havre). As Director of the Office of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade, Pierre Moscovici, from 2012 to 2014, he contributed to efforts to restore the competitiveness of the French economy, consolidate public accounts and deal with a number of financial and industrial cases (Bpifrance, Dexia, PSA-Dongfeng, STX, etc.).
However, it is Africa and development which have guided his career path. While he got to know this continent during an ENA internship in Benin in 1995, then as a militant to promote the harmonization of OHADA business law, it was for the General Directorate of the Treasury that he travelled across Africa from 2004 onwards. For his first position, he followed affairs in the Franc Zone. He made many trips to the continent and, for three years, travelled across its sixteen countries and many other African countries. He established close ties there, and acquired a recognized expertise in development issues. As Deputy Director of International Financial Affairs and Development from 2010 to 2012, he contributed to resolving the Ivorian crisis and placing the issues of infrastructure (high-level panel chaired by Tidjane Thiam) and development (creation of a standing working group) on the international agenda during the French Presidency of the G20. With Pierre Moscovici, he was behind the work entrusted to Hubert Vedrine, Lionel Zinsou, Jean-Michel Severino, Hakim El Kharoui and Tidjane Thiam to redefine economic relations between Africa and France (2013), and Jacques Attali’s report on economic Francophonie (2014).
In 2014, he headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, at the request of Laurent Fabius, who appointed him as Deputy General Secretary. He was the pillar for the economic diplomacy policy driven by the Minister. A specialist in public finances, he contributed to the reform of operators and financial instruments for foreign trade, tourism and the attractiveness of France. The Minister, President of COP21, also asked him to coordinate, throughout 2015 and up to the final negotiation of the Paris Agreement, the “finance” agenda of the climate negotiation with the French negotiation team led by Laurence Tubiana. In addition to the issues concerning public finances – how to achieve the USD 100bn pledged by the international community? – and private finance – how to redirect all financial market actors towards low-carbon investments? –, he placed particular emphasis on scaling up renewable energies in Africa, for which an initiative was launched during COP21 at Le Bourget.
Rémy Rioux is an expert in international financial institutions, particularly development banks, and is familiar with Agence Française de Développement (AFD), where he was a Board Member from 2010 to 2012, after having been a Board Member of PROPARCO, its private sector financing arm, from 2004 to 2007. In September 2015, the French President entrusted him with a mission to prepare for a reform to establish closer ties between AFD and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.
Rémy Rioux, 46, married with three children, is a historian by training and is recognized as being a man of dialogue. He is deeply attached to the Massif Central region – Lozère and especially Corrèze, the home area of his family, where he likes to get away to read, play sport and look for mushrooms around the the village of Theillet, on the plateau which overlooks the town of Tulle and whose forests extend as far as the Dordogne Valley.
His knowledge of French institutions and companies, his passion for issues related to development and the climate, as well as his close ties with Africa, are advantages that will help meet the challenges of AFD. AFD’s financing will increase by 50% by 2020 in order to support a more just and sustainable world, for the benefit of all. With over half of its financing abroad to support the climate, in recent years AFD has become a key player in the fight against climate change.
