OWN CORRESPONDENT, Libreville | Tuesday
FRANCE’S Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin has warned African countries that they risk falling out of the loop of international trade and investment, calling for rapid democratisation to retain a share of foreign markets.
“The difficulties that some countries are having in building legal and tax mechanisms likely to secure investment means Africa remains left out of most international trade,” Josselin said while attending a meeting of African trade ministers.
The minister said he regretted a “feeling of insecurity… in too great a number of African countries,” but pointed the finger at the failings of African governments, too often embroiled in local or regional conflicts.
“The concept of national interest is still too often foreign, even to the leaders,” Josselin said in an interview ahead of the ministerial meeting here, hosted by Gabon and organised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“Africa’s success on the industrial and commercial level will only happen if behaviour and even morals are modified,” he added.
The minister noted with concern that “the share of Africa in international trade remains not only very weak but continues to weaken, as does its share of international investment.”
The share of sub-Saharan Africa in international trade declined from 4% in 1980 to 1.6% in 1998, he said.
Among other factors paralysing Africa’s development, Josselin also pointed to ongoing conflicts – both internal and regional – and AIDS, all of which served to create a “tendency which has international investment moving towards other continents, such as Asia, which bring bigger, faster returns.”
He called on the future US government to “fully take stock of their responsibilities and play a greater role in the common struggle against the world’s inequalities.”
But he said Africa could at least gain some courage by seeing that even in the United States, democracy does not always run so smoothly.
“It can appear paradoxical that the most powerful country in the world, equipped with sophisticated technology … is stuck with manual (vote) counting,” he noted. – AFP