Africa is at last ready to shake off the shackles of poverty and strife and to play a new role in the global economy as a powerful driver of growth, leaders declared Thursday.
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Several members of the continent's newer generation of leaders came to the World Economic Forum in Davos, a summit of the world's business elite, to make their pitch for being taken seriously as emerging economies.
While admitting that much remains to be done on the poorest continent to build the roads and power grids that support trade and industrialisation, and to educate young Africans, they argued that a corner had been turned.
Indeed, with Europe -- which once held Africa as a series of colonial possessions -- laid low by economic crisis, some argued that investment in Africa would be a powerful means to revive the broader global economy.
Introducing a panel of African leaders, former British prime minister Gordon Brown quoted a question he had once heard asked by former World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was in the audience.
"Which is the one trillion dollar economy that had grown over the last 10 years faster than India, and was to grow in the next 10 years faster than Brazil?" he asked. "And the answer of course is sub-Saharan Africa."
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was cautiously upbeat.
"We know we have grown faster over the past 10 years than has been the case traditionally. On that basis we believe that Africa can and will be the next growth pole of the global economy," he said.
"We believe that we are about where India was at the start of the 1990s. We are about the same size in terms of population, so we're talking about the next growth pole in the world. That's our ambition."
Some might scoff that Africa's underfunded education systems and run-down infrastructure will hold it back as the world returns to growth, but Guinea's President Alpha Conde argued the continent was ready to leap forward.
"This new Africa is represented by its youth and women, who are extremely dynamic," the 73-year-old said, urging his fellow leaders to unify economic development policy under the African Union and pan-continental ministries.
"We have another advantage -- there is an acceleration of history. So, if we push forward in education and master the new technologies, we'll achieve in two or three years what others managed 20 years."
Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete said that Africa, far from being a drag on global economic growth, had in fact been a victim of policy mistakes in the developed world and was watching the situation nervously.
"We are part of the global economy, so whatever is happening in other parts of the world definitely effects us. A few years ago we had the global economic financial crisis and we had a lot of reversals to our growth," he said.
"Now we have a lot of anxiety with the eurozone crisis. I hope it is fixed quickly. If it isn't, there are going to be many problems."
Development experts have long argued that Africa's economies have been undermined by unresponsive governments and political corruption, but in this area too the leaders argued that progress had been made.
"African democracy is now on course," Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said, on the day his finance minister resigned after the International Criminal Court said he should stand trial over election violence in 2007-08.
"There are resistances and pockets of resistance here and there, but by and large I think a lot of progress has been made. And also the Arab Spring lesson is coming down south very fast," he said.
Summarising the debate, Brown -- who as British leader was known as a friend of Africa -- said: "The fastest growing continent in the world is determined to keep reforming, keep innovating, keep coordinating its responses better."
SOURCE: AFP
Dave Clark
