african business A continent of opportunities
By
Yves Leterme first Belgian minister at the conference of Peace in the
Belgian Senaat.
found at nieuws.be
10 dec. 2009
Mr President,
Distinguished Members of Parliaments,
Ladies en Gentlemen,
I would like to start by telling you a story, heard from an EU Commission
official. It is a real life story, about a Chinese young man who lived in a
backward village in the Hunan province and wanted to better his life. So he
decided to go to Africa. He knew next to nothing about that continent. He had
been told that Africa was poor. And he thought: so was China poor and now it is
getting rich. So Africa can become rich too. The other thing he had been told
was that the climate of Africa was hot. And he thought: well, if it is so hot
over there, people might like ice cream. In the Chinese fashion, he collected
money from family and friends, went to Malawi with his small capital, started an
ice cream factory, did good business, started a second one and became a
successful entrepreneur.
Now, this story tells as much about China as it does about Africa. But the
refreshing thing about it is the vision of this young man of Africa as a
continent of opportunity. Here in Europe, we hear continuously about the huge
problems of Africa - and we should of
course. We should care about the violence in Sudan, in Congo and elsewhere; we
should care about sickness and poverty; we should care about the scourge of
aids, and we should do all that is in our power to put a stop to them, and
change the course of Africa.
But we should not forget that there are also success stories, political en
economic. We should - much more than we do today - look upon Africa as the
Chinese young man did, as a continent of opportunity. We should address the
challenge of spreading those opportunities among the Africans, to enable them to
build a better future for their families, for their countries, for their
continent.
I would like to quote Mrs. Gracia Machel-Mandela, President of the AWEPA
Partnership Council and former Minister of Education of Mozambique, a country
that after a harsh civil war found the way to political stability and economic
growth. In an interview on the occasion of the twenty fifth anniversary of AWEPA,
she said, and I quote: 'We at AWEPA have achieved a lot, but we have in front of
us much bigger challenges. It was one thing to fight for political freedom
during apartheid, but the situation now is much more complex. Multiple global
crises make things much more unpredictable. Africa is marginalized economically,
and African parliaments are marginalized in the global debates. Perhaps AWEPA
should help instigate a major parliamentary advocacy forum around the
obscene gap between those many struggling poor and the few who are rich. I don't
speak only of Europe and America. There are rich people in Africa amidst abject
poverty. It is not regional, it is a class issue. The 'first world' also exists
in the southern hemisphere.'
Mrs. Machel-Mandela addresses the same concern I tried to illustrate with my
story: there is wealth in Africa, and there is much more wealth to be created,
but the access to it, the means to create and acquire it, have to be spread much
wider amongst the populations.
That of course, is first and foremost a political task. To quote the Zambian
agronomist and lecturer Tamala Tonga Kambikambi:
'An effective, stable and accountable government is essential in the fight
against poverty. It should protect human rights, provide security, promote
economic growth and deliver essential services.'
african business A continent of opportunities