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Economic Summit Adds Impetus to Quest for African Renaissance 15 July 2000 by Grace Buhera Poverty. peace and stability in Africa were the main challenges that confronted the participants at the 21-23 June economic summit in Durban whose theme was "The African Economic Renaissance: Making it Happen". Dubbed the Southern African Economic Summit, the conference is part of the annual forums co- chaired by Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the World Economic Forum. Issues discussed at the summit included the role of business and government in the battle against AIDS, poverty alleviation, debt implications on development, peace and stability, trade and investment as well as globalisation. Other issues which attracted interest, in the wake of recent developments in Zimbabwe, were land reforms as well as disaster management, following the floods that hit Mozambique early in the year . Addressing the summit, Mozambican President and current SADC chairman Joaquim Chissano explained that for the II African renaissance" to be successful. Africans should be independent from rich countries. He said the continent should strengthen its fight against corruption and mismanagement of public resources, and promote peace and respect for human rights. He also stressed the need to bring peace to Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) both member countries of SADC for which he is the current chairman. Prega Ramsamy, SADC Acting Executive Secretary, said the African Economic Renaissance "implies the renewal of the continent. This should be based on the recognition of its failures and difficulties, and its potential for development. Africa must move into the mainstream of the world economy, and face up to the challenges of globalisation". Trade and investment flows into the continent also came under the spotlight. Although global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased four-fold during the 1990s to a staggering sum of US$850 billion. the share that has been apportioned to the emerging markets including SADC averaged around 30 percent. Chissano lamented the ever-widening gap between the developed world and Africa despite the latter's efforts in putting into place measures aimed at creating a conducive environment to attract foreign investment. Also noted were the glaring disparities in terms of expenditure in key sectors such as education, health and other social services which have "impacted negatively on the standard of living and quality of the life of the African masses." Prof. Anthony Hawkins of the University of Zimbabwe argued for globalisation and regionalisation, thus opening markets. A policy of open regionalism with low external tariffs needs to be followed, he said. He noted that of the US$2.1 billion FDI inflow into sub-Saharan Africa, the lion's share is split between Nigeria and South Africa. There was strong support from panellists at the session for a new round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations as a vehicle through which developing countries could achieve their goals in the organisation. A negotiated approach to globalisation is needed given the fact that countries in different parts of the world are not starting on the same footing. Commenting on the level of development assistance to the region, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, said that promoting good governance, fighting corruption and wooing foreign investors were Since the 1960s, he said, "approaches to foreign economic developmental assistance had shifted from aid to trade and back to aid, with the yardsticks changing all the time. Now aid through NGOs is being stressed as a means of stimulating economic growth that fits in the framework of globalisation. Today trade and foreign investment are falling, and foreign aid has yet to reach promised amounts." South Africa's Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, said privatisation of industry had robbed African countries of a key source of revenue, putting it instead in the hands of foreign shareholders. He described a generally hopeless situation of governments with too much debt and too little foreign aid to better the lot of rural Africans. As a result, talk of improving the investment environment and tackling the continent's social and political problems are somewhat unrealistic. Peter Hain, an assistant secretary in the British foreign and commonwealth office, argued that responses need to be found to the "privatisation of conflict". He said in Angola it is no longer apartheid ideology and the Central Intelligence Agency aiding rebel movement Unita -now the war is funded by diamonds and oil and fuelled by businesspeople in Europe and Africa who profit from arms and logistics supplies. Africa is awash with small arms, which represent one of the greatest threats to peace. Strategies are needed to reduce the number in circulation, he said. On the issue of Ams which is increasingly reversing economic gains, delegates said more resources needed to be channelled towards the development of vaccines. Seth Berkley, President of the International Ams Vaccine Initiative, pointed out that less than two percent of US$20 billion spending on AIDS in Africa was directed at vaccine development. Since 1998, four vaccines have been put on trial, two of them with African partners. The approach of the initiative is to offer licence rights to manufacturers who offer the lowest cost to end-users and hence the highest access. . Following recent floods that affected Mozambique and Zimbabwe, Burahani S. Nyenzi, vice-chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change based in Zimbabwe, suggested that the region needs to establish a centralised point responsible for issuing seasonal forecasts. This centre would keep the SADC region informed on what can be expected. On land reforms, Sam Moyo, a Zimbabwean land expert, said developments on the land issue in Zimbabwe had to be seen in the political context. "The problem is to find a balance in increasing the number of small farmers while deracialising the land issue". Although agreeing that the immediate effect of farm invasions was a 10 percent loss of production on commercial farms, coupled with losses caused by poor tobacco prices and delays in marketing, he argued against the idea that redistribution destroys the economy. There is increasing evidence internationally that small farmers occupying optimum space are more productive than large-scale farmers, he said. " As soon as the [farm] invasions [in Zimbabwe] are resolved and there is a repackaged land reform deal, we will see a reversal in the fall in production." (SARDC)
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