The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Af r ic a Economi c Summit, held early June in the Mozambican capital Maputo, came out strongly against repeated negative imaging of Africa, noting that there are many positive changes that are often ignored.

The summit, which brought together political, business and civil society leaders, heard that while mistakes had been made in the past, a lot was being done to create an environment conducive for foreign investment.

Using an example of remarks by South African President Thabo Mbeki made during one of the sessions at the summit, host President Joaquim Chissano said journalists only reported when the South African airline departures were late.

"Please report when we start leaving on time, and Africa has started leaving on time," Chissano said, emphasising, "Let us travel together and let us arrive at our destination on time. The destination today is the Millennium Development Goals, the defeat of absolute poverty and the beginning of sustainable development for all.”

The Africa Economic Summit is an annual event of the Swiss-based WEF. The Maputo summit focused on the role and contribution of business in development, highlighted best practices and provoked concerted action among role players.

Thulani Gcabashe, Chief Executive of South Africa’s power utility company, Eskom, challenged stakeholders to align and integrate their actions and discover synergies. As an example, he said the private sector is not aware of what the New Partnership for Africa’s Developme n t (NE PA D ) i s doing in short-term infrastructure projects. He said 20 NEPAD projects are awaiting deve lopment and implementation, five of them in the energy sector. The largest and most ambitious is the West Corridor project, which plans to develop hydroelectric power at Inga III in the Democratic Republic of Congo and supply several countries in SADC.

The NEPAD secretariat was challenged to ensure a better flow of information so that businesses are aware of such opportunities.

Levy Mwanawasa, President of Zambia, said governments have a responsibility to ensure that development is equitable and as such business should be given guidelines on where to invest in a country. He said this is also important to curb urban migration from underdeveloped areas.

Like other African countries, President Mwanawasa said, Zambia encourages foreign direct investment, but wants investors to go into joint ventures with local partners. He argued that this is necessary so that local people can also own the instruments of development and to ensure that, if investors leave, the investments will remain.

Hilde F. Johnson, Minister of International Development of Norway, called for a global reform agenda, which she said was an essential prerequisite for Africa’s success. She said the challenge of getting investment into the continent is shown by the fact that Africa’s share of foreign direct investment is only 2-3 percent. Africa is significantly behind on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, and donors and investors have had mixed experiences within the continent, she noted.

If Africa is to have better and more aid, the continent and its cooperating partners must improve the way they work together. A major impediment is the multiplicity of international framework conditions in financing, trade and tender documents. Efforts to harmonise these requirements are making slow progress.

Johnson cited the example of the United Republic of Tanzania where the finance minister had complained some years ago that he had to read 10,000 reports and meet 2,000 donor missions every year.

She criticised what she termed the "donor circus" where some donors are more intent on waving flags and raising their own profile than in delivering progress on the ground. The objective is to have one unified tender document but some "profile oriented" donors are resisting this, said the Norwegian minister.

In keeping with the African tradition, participants in one of the sessions on African Leadership for Tomorrow gathered under the spreading fig trees of Maputo, stressing the need to invest resources in developing leadership at the community level.

The participants noted that Africa has values of it own ¨C traditional wisdom, in particular, which leads to consensus. They agreed that such values should be used for cultivating Africa¡¯s leaders for tomorrow. The previous Africa Economic Summit was held in 2003 in Durban, South Africa.