The Hindu : Front Page : Africa correcting twin mistakes, says Ugandan President

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Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008
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Africa correcting twin mistakes, says Ugandan President

Sandeep Dikshit

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

NEW DELHI: Africa is rectifying the two mistakes that have made it endure decades of deprivation and want, Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said on Tuesday.

The first mistake was the anti-private sector attitude of the African leaders in the 1950s and 1960s, he told delegates at the India-Africa Forum Summit here. The second was the fragmented market despite the fact that Africa was 10 times larger than India. “While Latin America has 16 countries and North America just three, we are the richest in terms of countries and flags. There are 53 of us,” he said to an appreciative audience including six Presidents and about a dozen senior Ministers from India and African countries, besides United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

“This explains why the Asian countries have left us behind. Both mistakes are being corrected,” he said, pointing out that he was representing the five African countries from the eastern coast and Congo President Joseph Kabila was representing the Central African regional bloc. These regional groupings were “part of the therapy to solve the problem of excessive political fragmentation.”

The east African head of state, who offered three proposals, complained in a lighter vein that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had robbed him of the pleasure of articulating one of them by announcing several tariff concessions to exports from the least developed countries. The other two suggestions were to help Africa develop its infrastructure and encourage the Indian private sector to invest heavily there for taking advantage of the tariff concessions offered by the U.S. and the European Union to the least developed countries.

South African President Thabo Mbeki wanted the political leadership to take a lesson from the mass actions led by Mahatma Gandhi and involve the people in all such initiatives.

Earlier, African Union President Alpha Oumar Konare articulated Africa’s terms of engagement with the outside world.

“Tragically, what we produce goes to other markets. Ours is not the policy of begging bowl. We don’t want assistance. We want to deal on equal terms with mutual benefits to both sides. We also don’t want cosmetic activity. We want real funding and there is need to put [people’s] money where people’s mouth is”

Mr. Kabila spelt out why every regional bloc of Africa was represented by a top ranking political personality. “We came because we thought we would gain from India’s experience in reducing poverty through training, green revolution, micro credit and developing a middle class by encouraging small and medium enterprises. We are looking for cooperation that would be better targeted and mutually [more] beneficial than in the past. We are looking for all those things that would make Africa and Asia fundamental players in the 21st century.”

President of Ghana John Agyekum Kufuor wanted Africa to find a dignified place in the global village and said it would be useful to imbibe India’s mastery of information technology and general engineering.

Praising Dr. Singh for lowering the tariff barriers, Senegal President Maitre Abdoulaye Wade hoped that Africa would seize the opportunity to turn a new chapter in global trade.

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