JOHANNESBURG - President Jacob Zuma has declared to world leaders that Africa is open for business. Addressing the G20 business leaders in Toronto last week on the eve of the G8 and G20 Summits, Zuma said Africa could no longer be viewed only as a destination for development aid. He said that together with the developed world, there must be ways to promote stronger and more effective international partnerships for growth and development.
Zuma said African leaders did not want to create the impression that they had come cap-in-hand to ask for favours.
We reiterate that Africa is open for business. It is open for trade and investment, he said.
Zuma said Africas recent economic success was proving Afro-pessimists wrong.
Sub-Saharan Africas growth rate is only surpassed by China and India. Zuma attributed this to good policies and regulations, business rescue programmes, job retention schemes and huge infrastructure programmes.
“There is every expectation that Africa’s current pace of growth will remain at a high level, at around six percent per year,” he said, also calling for fair trade.
“Our movement forward will be greatly enhanced by the speeding up of economic reforms to enable more inclusive and faster growth,” he said.
He emphasised that changes in both the voting structure and leadership of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank would be crucial in ensuring a more stable and equitable financial infrastructure.
The developing world has an equal right to run these institutions, said Zuma.
Reform of global financial systems will be a priority issue for many G20 members; China, India, and Brazil who will join South Africa in arguing that their economic strength needs to be better reflected in the architecture of major institutions.
Leadership of the World Bank and the IMF has been dominated by Europeans and Americans, which many analysts see as a strong Western influence and an imbalanced voting structure.
With the World Cup in full swing, the president said the country will never be the same again. Through the successful hosting of the event, Zuma said Afro-pessimists would once again be proven wrong.
More than the infrastructure that our future generations will inherit, we remain hopeful that the various skills that our people acquired since we started working on this FIFA World Cup project, will prove useful going forward.
Above the economic benefits, Zuma said there would also be a legacy of education for the African continent- through the 1Goal Education for All Campaign.
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