The three-day African summit of the World Economic Forum closed
in Cape Town Friday with a rather heated debate as to what is the
next biggest challenge facing Africa, where unprecedented
achievements have been made over the past 30 years.
Looking for new ways to accelerate this growth, the continent's
political and business leaders convened to choose priorities from a
bulk of issues including creating jobs, reducing corruption,
improving infrastructures, increasing primary enrollments,
extending healthcare access, and investing in agriculture or
manufacture.
The continent's needs are immense. Poverty is endemic, with
nearly half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa living on less
than US$1 a day. Life expectancy is less than 50 years due in large
part to armed conflicts, the AIDS epidemic, inadequate health care
and social services.
Encouragingly, important gains have been made across Africa in
recent years. In 2005, the continent achieved a record growth rate
of 5.5 percent and an even higher speed is expected in the year
2006, according to statistics released by the African Development
Bank.
Given that the cash-strapped continent has limited resources
such as financial support and skilled labor force, leaders have to
work out a feasible strategy highlighting the priorities of the
grand mission expected to improve 700 million Africans' living
conditions.
Job creation is among the most urgent issues, said Obiageli
Katryn Ezekwesili, minister of solid minerals of Nigeria, who added
that if economic growth and macroeconomic stability does not
translate into job creation and benefits for citizens, the "bad
guys" could again take charge and seize the political
initiative.
Vice President of World Bank for Africa Gobind Nankani said the
challenge lay in infrastructure, adding that the factory-floor cost
of making a shirt in Kenya, Uganda or Mozambique is no different
from that in China. The problem comes when the shirt leaves the
factory, with costs of inefficient infrastructure and other costs
of doing business looming in the skyline.
He pointed out that telecommunications costs may be falling, but
more remains to be done to improve infrastructure and cut the costs
of doing business.
Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance of South Africa, said that
the task in the future was to "build strong governments" that
create an enabling environment for private enterprise to
flourish.
Steve Booysen, Group Chief Executive for Absa Group of South
Africa, told participants that a crucial factor in maintaining
growth is enabling Africans to build personal capital, property and
savings. He added that entrepreneurs need to have confidence in the
economic and judicial systems, and sustained growth demands a
partnership between business and government.
In a word, it seems that every issue put forward by
representatives during the sessions is worth to be given
priority.
Africa needs sustained growth of at least 7 percent per year,
and it needs job-creating growth, particularly in rural areas.
This, in turn, calls for a lot to be done, such as better roads and
other basic infrastructures, improvements in financial
intermediation, wider access to financial services, promotion of
regional integration to enlarge markets and expand interregional
trade, and better access to education, health and financial
services.
Unfortunately, nothing can be neglected, said South African
President Thabo Mbeki. "We can't say healthcare facilities are more
important than infrastructure construction. How can an ambulance
reach rural areas if there are no roads?"
Nevertheless, the criteria for choosing the development priority
for Africa, experts say, should be in line with the benefits of the
poor and be good to the continent's sustainable development.
Building competition capacity for Africa, experts suggested,
would be the only choice the poor continent could make to tackle
all these tough challenges.
(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2006)
