Associations dread NEPAD's liberal drift   Paris, France (PANA) - Some associations established in Africa and which attentively followed the just-ended NEPAD summit, said that they dread to see the New Partnership for Africa's Development become an instrument in the service of liberalism, under the guise of development. Sources at the French Committee for International Solidarity said that "if private investments are necessary for the development of Africa, there is a serious risk to see multinational companies invade the continent and freely pillage its resources under the pretext that they were called upon." "Debt and Development," another association fighting for the cancellation of that burden which hinders the blossoming of poor countries, affirmed that NEPAD must first be a tool for co-operation and an exchange of techniques and know-how between the North and the South. Contrary to what people might think, the North has obtained a lot from the South, basically in this present era where people are in search for new environment-friendly modes of life, sources at Debt and Development noted. Meanwhile, "Survie" NGO which advocates new France/Africa relations, hailed NEPAD, saying it's likely to enable the continent to address development in a single and concerted voice. Yet, it raised concerns over a possible wheeling and dealing drift concealed behind the appeal to private investments. However, some queries have been raised as to the likelihood to achieve any development with the same African leaders who have, since the independence era, plunged the African countries into poverty by conniving with foreign Mafia groups to grow richer to the detriment of their own people. Thus the African chapter of the Anti-Globalisation Group (ATTAC) recalled that during the Genoa Summit and the recent Monterrey meeting, NEPAD was perceived by G8 members as a platform likely to facilitate public aid and development management, and not as a way to make Africa fall prey to greedy holding companies and cartels. Senegalese sociologist Abdou Salam Fall, who is also a researcher at the Dakar-based Black Africa Fundamental Institute (IFAN), defended that standpoint Tuesday, while in Paris at the invitation of ATTAC movement's African section. Abdou Salam Fall was invited to give a lecture on the theme: "Popular economy as an alternative to liberalism." Acknowledging that the capital inflow could back up Africa's economic take-off, Salam Fall insisted on good governance and institutional reforms as paramount factors, as well as a better management of the rural sector's initiatives, before pleading for a strong economy capable of finding adequate resources to resist liberalism. He further recalled that Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, one of the NEPAD initiators, is also a renowned liberalism advocate, which according to him, should prompt more vigilance.   Paris - 17/04/2002