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| Wade explains Africa's new expectations to investors
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Dakar, Senegal (PANA) -
President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said
that he was pleased with the strong presence of African and
international businessmen at the first conference on the
participation of the private sector in the financing of a New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Wade, who explained to his guests the main theme of the
conference, declared that it was not about leaving Dakar with a
handful of fully preconceived projects.
By calling on the private sector, Wade said that Africa sought to
break with the past of "the infernal duet of aid-loan, the two
levers on which Africa has been relying for 40 years to achieve
development in vain."
"The private sector is the one that developed America, helped
Europe recover from the ruins left by the two world wars and it
is the one that ensured the dynamism of Asian dragons," he said.
"You have been invited in Dakar to create the optimal conditions
that may restore the vital functions of the private sector on the
continent," he told thousands of businessmen at the huge hall of
Dakar's International Centre for Foreign Trade (CICES).
"Given the priorities that are clearly identified here through
NEPAD, the heads of states expect to know under which
conditions you would accept to share the way with us," Wade said.
"We are listening to you to know your exact needs in terms of
production costs, profitability, tax advantages, financial
mechanisms, transfer of profits and institutional business
environment," he added.
Wade also briefed the audience on the process that created NEPAD,
stressing its originality in comparison with preceding plans.
"NEPAD is not the product of experts and is not destined to be
kept in drawers. It is rather a vision of Africa that the Heads
of States themselves have turned into an operational plan,"
Wade explained.
The plan was also based upon two brand new options, taking the
five big areas of the continent as a launching ground and "calls
on the private sector to mobilise the enormous natural resources
of the continent and participate in the creation of its riches in
order to fight poverty."
The other notable aspects of NEPAD, he said, were its clearly
identified eight priority areas: good political and economic
governance, infrastructures, education, health, agriculture,
energy and environment.
"This is the reason why the G8 summit decided to endorse the plan
in the last summit of Genoa in Italy. It also resolved to draw an
application plan for it through concrete public involvement in
the framework of a negotiated partnership action plan that will
be discussed at the June summit in the Canadian town of
Kananaskis," Wade said.
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| Dakar - 15/04/2002 |
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