International business and political leaders have a unique opportunity to recognise the ”moral reprehensibility” of what is allowed to happen in Africa, Reuters chairperson Niall FitzGerald said on Wednesday.
”There is a sense, it seems to me, with this generation that we cannot allow, we must not allow, we should not be judged as having allowed this to continue any longer,” FitzGerald told a media briefing at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Cape Town.
About 700 participants are expected to attend the three-day annual Africa Economic Summit, which started proceedings on Wednesday.
FitzGerald said ”hard-nosed, sometimes cynical” business people recognise that supporting Africa is the right thing to do, as witnessed at the WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year.
He said there is a growing awareness of the improving economics and politics of the continent, with the average economic growth across Africa approaching 5%.
”There is an absolutely realistic aspiration that that can grow up to 7%, maybe 8%.”
FitzGerald said business is aware there are approximately 800-million consumers in Africa, with every increment in their disposable income presenting a business opportunity.
There have also been positive developments in the political arena, with multiparty elections occurring in almost two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africa in the past five years.
FitzGerald said there is now an opportunity for rich nations to support Africans in the rebuilding of the continent.
”This is not an initiative [in] which the rich nations are saying, ‘We will show you what to do and we will do it for you.’ This is a recognition that Africa knows what it needs to do, but it does need support and it needs support in a very business-like, pragmatic and realistic way.”
This will be debated at the Group of Eight meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland in less than a month.
He said business has now reached a point where it needs to make up its mind — to be part of the initiative to help Africa or to wait and see.
”I suggest that if you wait and see beyond 2005, you will never see … That’s why I hope at the end of Friday that we will have a strong endorsement by the business people … to get behind in the most practical possible way the recommendations of the Commission for Africa, which are in support of Nepad [the New Partnership for Africa’s Development].”
Asked about the peer-review initiative for African countries, FitzGerald said people will know this year whether it is ”real or a sham”.
On the issue of leadership, he said it needs to be brave and visionary, while applying itself to practical realities.
Graham Mackay, chief executive of SABMiller, said while it is easy to dismiss something that does not come from Africa as ”externally imposed” and ”irrelevant”, the merit of the peer-review initiative is that it is generated by Africans for Africans.
Lazarus Zim, chief executive of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, said the Africa Commission’s report is detailed in what needs to be done both continentally and internationally.
”Where we are today, I believe, is completely unprecedented. We have never had this type of attention, global attention on Africa in such a structured way, and therefore, this is why this summit is so important.” — Sapa