PHILIPPE BERNES-LASSERRE, Johannesburg | Tuesday
SOUTH Africa’s leaders are delighted that Africa captured the attention of the powerful G8 nations at their summit in Genoa, Italy, but analysts said Monday they were waiting for results.
Bheki Khumalo, representative for President Thabo Mbeki, echoed the declaration by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi that the summit marked “the beginning of a turning-point for Africa”.
That was because the leaders of the developed world backed the New Africa Initiative, a recovery plan for the continent developed largely by Mbeki and endorsed by the African Union, successor to the Organisation of African Unity.
“For the first time, the G8 leaders chose to embark on an irreversible path of dialogue with the leaders of the developing South,” Khumalo told reporters at a briefing in Johannesburg.
He noted the irony of the violence engendered by demonstrators at Genoa who were demanding that the G8 address questions that were already on the agenda: the problems that globalisation pose for the developing world, and cancellation of Third World debt.
Mbeki himself, one of several African leaders who attended the summit, acknowledged the concerns of the protesters on his return, but condemned their methods.
“We very much appreciate that campaign of solidarity, but we don’t support violence,” he told SABC television.
Business Day newspaper was cautious on expectations.
“It is possible that Mbeki is right to dare hope the world’s rich countries will make the necessary sacrifices to pull the rest out of poverty,” it said.
“But history does not give much comfort.
“A commitment to scrap agricultural subsidies would better help … ”
The G8 leaders said “all the right things on a range of issues from the need to open up trading opportunities for the least developed countries to fighting HIV/AIDS,” Business Day said.
“Their statement on debt is less encouraging, as it merely commits them to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which was criticised for being too slow and not offering enough relief.”
The newspaper poked fun at British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying he “may be suffering from a bout of Afroholism”.
It urged him to argue for debt relief for Nigeria, adding that “Blair’s test lies mainly in dealing with the splitting Zimbabwean headache,” a reference to the political and economic chaos in that country accompanied by the invasion of white-owned farms. Economist Azar Jammime of the Econometrix firm said that the Genoa commitments “are more than superficial”.
He added, though, that “one would actually like to see them put into practice first, and one would like to see the mechanisms … before getting too excited about them”. “What I’m waiting for is more significant investment in the region, especially attempts to lift the skills profile and access to technology in Africa,” he said.
“This will represent a test case of the ability of the West to get globalisation to work to the benefit of everyone.”
In general, analysts concluded that the Genoa summit marked a profound change in G8 attitudes toward the developing world, noting the prospect that Third World representatives may become permanent guests at future G8 summits.
South African Chambers of Commerce chief executive Kevin Wakeford said that the summit meant that the prospects for more investment and economic intervention in Africa had “far greater potential than in the past.”
“It bodes enormously well for future business confidence,” he said.
Wakeford estimated that the New Africa Initiative — the first produced by African leaders themselves — “will in a sense overshadow some of the flashpoints in Africa and its very existence could give rise to further democratisation and stabilisation throughout Africa, including the current flashpoints”. – AFP
ZA*BUSINESS:
Is the West ready to listen to Africa? July 22, 2001