African economic summit seeks light amid the gloom

MAPUTO – African political and business leaders gathered in Mozambique for their annual summit yesterday amid fears the world’s poorest continent is stumbling badly in the race for faster economic growth.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) regional meeting hopes to spur business to do more to promote African development, but a new report issued yesterday showed Africa falling behind even though regional conflicts are ending and democracy is spreading. “There are pan-African solutions to pan-African problems… but these cannot be seen in isolation.We need partners to join us,” Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano, the meeting’s official host, told a news conference.The WEF’s annual Africa Competitiveness Report described Africa’s growth performance “as the worst economic disaster of the 20th century” and gave a downbeat assessment of the continent’s prospects.African economies expanded by an estimated 3,7 per cent in 2003 – the highest rate in four years, but slow compared to Asia’s reviving powerhouses.Progress was supported, in part, by debt relief and rising commodity prices.Modest growth is expected this year, but the report said Africa had diminishing hopes of meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which include halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.The three-day summit is billed as Africa’s premier networking opportunity, but has not drawn as many leaders as organisers had hoped with only Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia represented at the presidential level.Organisers nevertheless say the CEOs and ministers at the meeting will explore positive aspects of the African economic picture, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), the continent’s home-grown rescue plan.Nepad aims to spur aid and investment to Africa in return for improved political and economic governance, and has been described as a blueprint for the world’s most powerful economies to help Africa help itself.While the plan has been warmly welcomed by the Group of Eight (G8) and other developed countries, implementation appears to be going slowly as concerns mount that African governments are not eager to undergo the peer review process which is key to assessing their performance.Nepad’s political champions, including Chissano and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, are expected to use the summit to push for more support for Nepad, particularly among business leaders who nevertheless have expressed doubts about the plan’s viability.Chissano said business was still behind the plan, and that key Nepad projects – many of which remain unfunded – would be on the table at the Maputo conference.The summit will also address questions ranging from Zimbabwe, increasingly a model for how political problems can lead to economic collapse, to the continent’s devastating HIV-AIDS epidemic, a threat to future economic growth.It will also look at how African governments are overcoming their problems.A new agreement on public-private partnerships for managing Africa’s water resources is expected at the conference, bringing hope to tens of millions of people who still live without access to clean water.Other items on the agenda include development of African capital markets, removing regional trade barriers and broadening co-operation with India, Brazil and other developing economies.-Nampa-Reuters”There are pan-African solutions to pan-African problems… but these cannot be seen in isolation.We need partners to join us,” Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano, the meeting’s official host, told a news conference.The WEF’s annual Africa Competitiveness Report described Africa’s growth performance “as the worst economic disaster of the 20th century” and gave a downbeat assessment of the continent’s prospects.African economies expanded by an estimated 3,7 per cent in 2003 – the highest rate in four years, but slow compared to Asia’s reviving powerhouses.Progress was supported, in part, by debt relief and rising commodity prices.Modest growth is expected this year, but the report said Africa had diminishing hopes of meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which include halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.The three-day summit is billed as Africa’s premier networking opportunity, but has not drawn as many leaders as organisers had hoped with only Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia represented at the presidential level.Organisers nevertheless say the CEOs and ministers at the meeting will explore positive aspects of the African economic picture, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), the continent’s home-grown rescue plan.Nepad aims to spur aid and investment to Africa in return for improved political and economic governance, and has been described as a blueprint for the world’s most powerful economies to help Africa help itself.While the plan has been warmly welcomed by the Group of Eight (G8) and other developed countries, implementation appears to be going slowly as concerns mount that African governments are not eager to undergo the peer review process which is key to assessing their performance.Nepad’s political champions, including Chissano and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, are expected to use the summit to push for more support for Nepad, particularly among business leaders who nevertheless have expressed doubts about the plan’s viability.Chissano said business was still behind the plan, and that key Nepad projects – many of which remain unfunded – would be on the table at the Maputo conference.The summit will also address questions ranging from Zimbabwe, increasingly a model for how political problems can lead to economic collapse, to the continent’s devastating HIV-AIDS epidemic, a threat to future economic growth.It will also look at how African governments are overcoming their problems.A new agreement on public-private partnerships for managing Africa’s water resources is expected at the conference, bringing hope to tens of millions of people who still live without access to clean water.Other items on the agenda include development of African capital markets, removing regional trade barriers and broadening co-operation with India, Brazil and other developing economies.-Nampa-Reuters