By Bayano Valy – SANF 04 no 47
The Africa Economic Summit 2004 opened on Wednesday in the Mozambican capital Maputo focusing on a wide-ranging agenda of development challenges currently facing the continent as it searches for ways of accelerating economic reform.
Organisers expect more than 700 participants from over 48 countries to have attended the summit when it ends on 4 June. The participants will engage in outcome-oriented dialogue focusing on the role and contribution of business in development, and in support of the New Partnership for Africa´s Development (NEPAD). The summit, which has attracted leaders from all sectors of society, will highlight best practices, draw lessons, propose practical solutions and provoke concerted action to act as a catalyst for change and impact on the African development agenda, say organisers.
A number of challenges such as lack of infrastructure, high cost of doing business and a general lack of competitiveness hampers flow of investment and trade on the African continent. Recent efforts to address these problems include the adoption of NEPAD by the African Union as its development framework.
At the regional level, the Southern African Development Community has adopted its blueprint for long-term development, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP). These initiatives seek to buttress Millennium Development Goals and thus end Africa´s poverty and vulnerability to disease and hunger.
In Maputo, business, political and civil society leaders are discussing how best to participate in these and other initiatives, as well as exploring partnerships that can help shore up Africa´s competitiveness and make it a key global player. Host President Joaquim Chissano, speaking at the start of the African forum, said that the event offered an opportunity for all “the participants to come together as partners and endeavour to make the world a better place”.
Chissano said he hoped participants will provide answers that can help correct past shortcomings and mistakes, as well as come up with solutions that can help integrate southern Africa and the entire continent.
Africa can come up with its own solutions, but owing to globalisation it cannot do so in isolation, he said. Consequently, when looking for alternatives it is important to call on other partners. This philosophy has been applied to NEPAD, which Chissano said is a classic example of a pan-African solution to the challenges facing the continent.
He dispelled worries that NEPAD is not achieving the desired results saying, “businesspeople are entering in partnerships to invest in the continent, inspired by the idea of NEPAD,” he said.
The Africa Economic Summit is an offshoot of the World Economic Forum held every year in the Swiss resort town of Davos. Also on the agenda of the Africa Summit are issues such as governance, water, technology, HIV and AIDS, tourism, foreign direct investment and trade.
In Maputo, the World Economic Forum unveiled a report called “The Africa Competitiveness Report 2004”, which provides a guide to understanding and tackling some of the economic problems facing Africa. Third in a series, the report includes in-depth analysis of factors that are likely to hold back Africa. The report ranks countries on the basis of a competitiveness index. (SARDC)
