OWN CORRESPONDENT, Davos, Switzerland | Saturday
FRUSTRATED with what he sees as the failure of western aid programs in Africa, South African President Thabo Mbeki has emerged as one of the architects of a plan to boost private sector investment and develop more home-grown solutions to the continent’s deep economic and social problems.
Mbeki and fellow-presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika are seeking a rethink in relations with richer nations and a radical review of the west’s multibillion-dollar aid program for the continent.
The three plan to present their plan to the Organisation of African Unity soon, but Mbeki and Obasanjo also will give details to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos Sunday.
The project, dubbed the Millennium African Renaissance Plan, stresses the importance of restoring private sector confidence in Africa to spur investment and a mutual respect for regulations. It also aims to give African countries a “greater ownership” over the continent’s International Monetary Fund and World Bank-backed economic reform programs.
African governments also want the European Union to take down tariff barriers to imports from the continent.
“We all know how difficult it is to get access to industrialised countries’ markets,” said Simba Makoni, Zimbabwe’s finance minister. “If we could level the playing field, a lot of good would be realized by smaller countries.”
African ministers dismissed worries the plan could lead to a multi-speed Africa, with reforming countries signing up and others being left behind.
“If you look at the European Union, it was anchored on one or two countries at the start,” one minister said. “If it has to be approved by 53 countries, then it’s dead.”
South African Trade and Industry Minister Erwin said African countries needed three things from richer nations -debt relief, reform of the world trading system and steps to make drugs affordable to combat widespread HIV/AIDS infection, as well as tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases