G20 urged to invest in Africa

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} African leaders met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday ahead of next monthÔÇÖs G20 summit, and made a case for urgent investment in Africa or parts of the continent could be plunged back into conflict.   The head of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, called AfricaÔÇÖs situation an "emergency" at the meeting in London.   His interpretation is certainly supported by some stark facts, with 500,000 jobs lost in copper mines in Zambia, farmers in Tanzania losing jobs when the cotton price halved, foreign receipts down everywhere because of a decline in tourism and the reduction in money sent home by Africans living abroad.   The prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, said the richest countries in the world should invest in Africa for the benefit of the world economy (and thus themselves) because the global impact of investment dollars spent in Africa was greater than if the same money was spent in the West.   President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, a country recently emerged from conflict, said it made sense for richer countries to fund the poorest now, since it would cost much less than it would to pay for peacekeeping operations later. There was a need to "sustain the gains made by African people over the years with such sacrifice," she said.   Prime Minister Brown has called for a strong commitment from fellow G20 leaders at the summit next month, but for many of them the state of their own economies is a more urgent concern than that of Africa.   Many have not met the commitments they made at the Gleneagles summit in 2005, and some are already contemplating cutting their aid budgets.   All the African leaders in London stressed the need to make finance for trade available again, which has completely dried up.   Prime Minister Zenawi of Ethiopia spoke of a need for better "ease of access", and South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said that far more flexibility from the IMF and the World Bank was needed.   *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *