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opening plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa meeting here yesterday, Dr Dlamini-Zuma said she was confident the continent had the potential to achieve high growth levels if it capitalised on its strengths while working on challenges such as conflicts that have dogged Africa for long.
“The most precious asset is our people,” she said. “We need to invest in our people and this means investment in health, education, skills, science and technology and research and innovation.
“Singapore is at the same level, yet they don’t have many resources but concentrate on the skills that their people have. They have US$29 000 per capita.”
Peace on the continent was of the essence, said Dr Dhlamini-Zuma.
The future of the continent also lay in agriculture, she said, given Africa’s land and its resources. Africa could feed the United States of America, Europe and other parts of the globe if it made use of all its land.
Presently, at least 60 percent of the continent’s arable land is unused.
“We can sell food to the world and create jobs, even in downstream industries where we can export processed foods.
“The development of key infrastructure, such as transport networks, could feed into the creation of transport networks to link all capitals either by rail or road. The introduction of speed trains would provide a formidable solution. It’s possible. We must set our minds to it . . . it’s possible,” she said.
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So much potential lay in young people and women who had the capacity to help transform the continent.
The AU will from May 25 celebrate 50 years in existence. This whole year will be targeted towards the celebrations as all spheres that make the continent position itself toward Vision 2063.
“Our business people should define what they want to be,” she said. “Africa’s development cannot just be only the business of governments, but also of its citizens as well.
“In the next 50 years, Africa should well be described as a prosperous continent.”
Speaking during the opening plenary, South African President Jacob Zuma urged African countries to deal with political conflicts if sustainable economic growth were to be achieved.
“As long as we have conflicts, Africa will not develop,” he said. The membership of South Africa in Brics placed the African continent in the mainstream of global economics.
He said the Brics provided the continent an opportunity to speak with one voice when global economic matters come into play.
For long, he said, Africa had been overlooked when it came to participation on the global economic events.
The Brics is a grouping of the world’s fastest emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“Our belief is that, the SA membership represents one billion people in the continent. The Brics link indicates that Africa cannot be by-passed by events that are changing the landscape economically, socially and politically in the world. Africa’s attitude to itself and how it should interact towards the world has changed.”
President Zuma said finance ministers of the Brics nations were working on modalities on how the proposed “ Brics Bank” could be capitalised. During the Durban Brics summit last month, member countries agreed to set up a US$50 billion bank to mobilise resources for infrastructural projects.
Online Reporter