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| African private sector leader commends G8 | |
12 July 2005
One of Africa’s foremost private sector leaders has welcomed the commitment of the Group of Eight leaders to Africa but warned that sustainable development on the continent would be ‘seriously hindered’ without urgent trade reform. Dr Bamanga Tukur, President of the African Business Roundtable and Chairman of the NEPAD Business Group, was speaking in the wake of the G8 Summit, which concluded on Friday 8th July with a commitment by the leaders of the richest nations of the world to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010. "2005 looks like being a watershed year for Africa," said Dr Tukur, "with unprecedented commitments to cancel debt and increase aid. However, without a commitment to dismantle trade subsidies and market access barriers in industrialised countries this historic opportunity risks being squandered. Without more commitment to free trade from the G8 and industrialised nations, Africans will continue to be denied the opportunity to trade their way out of poverty." African leaders are now keenly awaiting the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in December, which will be a critical step towards to a successful completion of the Doha round. The World Bank estimates that successful completion of these negotiations could lift 140 million people out of poverty globally. Dr Tukur also welcomed the G8 leaders’ commitment to support the efforts of the African Union and NEPAD to improve the continent’s investment climate. Making Africa more attractive to business was, he said, crucial if "we are to end Africa’s dependency on aid and ensure the self-sustaining growth that is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Africa". Africa will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals on current form. It was against this background that last week over 200 leaders from the worlds of business, government, civil society and the development community came together in London at Bending the Arc, a unique forum to look at ways of accelerating development in Africa. Kofi Annan, Paul Wolfowitz, Mark Malloch-Brown and President Obasanjo were among the high-profile contributors to Bending the Arc. Outcomes from the meeting are available in a communiqué, which is being presented to the UN World Summit in September. Bending the Arc was convened by NEPAD and the United Nations with the support of the African Business Roundtable. One of the areas of focus was the role of the private sector, looking specifically at ways in which businesses can mobilise their resources in support of NEPAD MDG campaigns. africapractice |
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