World Economic Forum’s Africa Economic Summit held in Cape Town

(2005-06-06)

From 1-3 June the leaders of Africa’s governments and biggest businesses were joined at the Cape Town International Convention Centre by key players from around the world to discuss ways to boost development on the continent through economic growth. The more than 700 leaders from 42 countries – 500 of them from business – also gave their backing to Britain’s Commission for Africa Report, which aims to get the leading industrialised nations to support growth on the continent.

The Co-Chairs of the 15th annual Africa Economic Summit, Niall FitzGerald, Chairman of Reuters, Graham Mackay, CEO of SABMiller, and Lazarus Zim, CEO of Anglo American South Africa, noted that the Commission for Africa’s Report makes clear the importance of economic growth as the means to drive poverty reduction.

Britain’s mission is for rich nations to double the amount of aid to Africa – $25 billion a year – until 2010, at the same time as writing off poor countries’ debts, stopping protectionist practices and boosting trade opportunities for the continent. The plan supports the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African plan which also aims to promote better governance and more political stability within African countries.

The Co-Chairs agreed that 2005 is the “Year of Africa”, with pledges of support and plans for action from many of the heads of the G8 countries, as well as strong co-operation with the West from African leaders such as South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa. The leaders of the G8 will be meeting next month in Gleneagles, Scotland, to discuss the Commission for Africa’s Report and decide whether to give it their backing. President Mbeki was also in Washington D.C. earlier in the week meeting with George Bush to lobby for his support ahead of the G8 summit.

The African leaders in Cape Town also raised the issue of Africa’s “image problem”, pointing out that the world’s media tends to focus on Africa’s problems while completely ignoring the significant improvements that have been shown over the past decade. These include the continent’s average economic growth rate of 5%, the considerable decrease in the number of wars and the significant increase in democratically elected governments. Calling on the media to be more balanced and to report the good news too, Tanzanian President Mkapa said “We are not angels, but we can’t all be devils all the time.”