South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin urged African business to forge closer ties and to take the conscious steps to help make African unity a reality.
Opening a three-day AU-Business Summit in Durban on the sidelines of the inaugural African Union (AU) Summit, he said unity and the continent’s economic recovery plan, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), were ”not a pipe-dream”.
But, success would require a conscious effort from the business community in Africa to work together and accelerate trade.
”There is a very low level of interaction between ourselves.
”As we launch the African Union, it is probably the most fundamental objective to increase interaction and trade with ourselves.
”We have to open markets in Africa, and unfortunately we will have to force open markets in the developed world,” he said.
The Group of Eight industrialised nations last week endorsed Nepad, but were less willing to commit to opening their markets to products from Africa.
Thousands of delegates are assembling at Durban’s International Conference Centre (ICC) for the launch of the AU — the union will replace the Organisation for African Unity (OAU).
African foreign ministers were on Monday meeting ahead of the arrival of 53 African heads-of-state for the official launch on July 9.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki will be the first chairman of the AU, which will seek to speed up political, social and economic integration on the continent.
Erwin said there was ”cause for tremendous hope” in Africa, but those that were expecting change to come quickly could be disappointed.
The continent held enormous potential and the reward that could await Africans was for the continent to become one of the fastest growing regions in the world. ”This continent is not short of energy, it’s just not in the right place… getting it into the right place offers enormous opportunities.”
Nepad was not a magic formula or a request for aid but a road map to take Africa forward, and business had to play its role.
”If you sit back and wait for governments to do it, we will fail… we are looking for a new world economy based on mutual development.”
The dramatic changes achieved in South Africa over the past ten years showed that it was possible to transform an economy and make it competitive in the global market.
”It is not impossible, it is not a pipe-dream,” he said.
The special session of foreign ministers is scheduled to continue on Tuesday and will be followed by a meeting of the Council of Ministers from Thursday, and the Assembly of Heads-of-State from July 8 to 10. – Sapa