UK/FILE: Uganda and Zambia set out Africa's priorities to G8, calling for aid to help trade and investment in electricity and transport

Record ID: 454698

  • Title: UK/FILE: Uganda and Zambia set out Africa's priorities to G8, calling for aid to help trade and investment in electricity and transport
  • Date: 8th June 2007
  • Summary: STREET LIGHT/MAN WATCHING TRAFFIC VARIOUS OF RECENTLY INSTALLED SMALL STREET LIGHTS IN CITY CENTRE
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVABUMNS9346JNW39NIF95E2VIV6
  • Story Text: Africa
    Africa needs targeted aid in order to trade and practical help on energy generation and infrastructure, the presidents of Uganda and Zambia said on Tuesday (June 5) ahead of the G8 summit of world leaders later this week.
    Large influxes of foreign cash that are not specifically targeted can unbalance African economies by artificially bolstering local currencies and undermining efforts to export, they added.
    Addressing hundreds of business leaders and government officials attending the Africa Business Forum in London aimed at stimulating investment in the continent, Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni on Tuesday (June 5) urged the G8 to target assistance on energy generation and transport infrastructure. The East African nation suffers crippling electricity shortages that deters investors.
    "Where we need assistance now, or if it is not assistance, at least no obstruction, is in two areas: first cheap electricity, cheap electricity, hydro, geothermal, nuclear, trying to go for nuclear energy," said Museveni
    The Ugandan president also said that his country could not avoid nuclear energy given its power shortages. While mentioning the nuclear option with a fair deal of humour, Museveni singled out the development of good transport links, especially railway links, as the second most vital priority for the continent. Museveni said Africa's market was big, but unlike large countries like China or India, it was fragmented among dozens of nations and suffered from poor infrastructure.
    Museveni was speaking as the Group of Eight Summit in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm got underway. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosts the June 6-8 summit, has made Africa, along with climate change, a focus of Germany's G8 presidency.
    Museveni used a colourful metaphor to give a diagnosis of Africa's ailments.
    "What's the relationship between the G8 and Africa? Are we talking about continuous blood transfusion, somebody is incredibly anaemic, suffering from anaemia, and you keep giving him blood transfusion, or are we talking about stimulating the bone marrow of this patient, so he can manufacture his own blood cells?"
    "But we all recognize that you can't buy a flourishing economy with aid. It needs patience, well designed policies designed to build growth and opportunity. And whilst the G8, the richest countries in the world can advise, it is for African governments to take the initiative, you understand your markets, your opportunities, your resources better than any of us ever will," Lord Triesman, UK parliamentary under secretary of state and minister responsible for Africa told delegates.
    Stephen Lussier, executive director of De Beers said the outlook for Africa, despite some of its problems, was generally bright.
    "We should be optimistic about Africa, the solutions lie in trade not aid, and as we say, in giving Africa a head up, not a handout. If we create that environment, people there will make a success of it," Lussier said.
    Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said African nations were not interested in aid "just for the sake of it". Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Mwanawasa said he wanted Western companies to exploit Zambia's raw materials but they should do this by setting up local factories to produce value-added goods rather than simply extracting minerals.
    He said China's massive investment in Africa marked a welcome development. China recently boosted its planned investment to $900 million in Zambia's mineral-rich Copper Belt over the next four years. Analysts say the move fitted in China's strategy to tap raw materials from African nations in exchange for grants and unconditional loans to the world's poorest continent.
    "Well, the good thing is that I know of no strings which are attached to Chinese investment. Those who are opposed to Chinese investment, all they need to do is to equal the trade, the help which we are getting from China, because if you must know, we've only time to waste when you people in the West let us down," Mwanawasa said.
    Activists are urging the G8 to live up to their aid pledges made at the previous summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005. World leaders a agreed a $50 billion increase in aid per year by 2010, half of which would go to Africa. They also agreed 100 percent debt cancellation. But many countries still have to deliver on their pledges.
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