742 (XXVIII). Strategic objectives for Africa's economic development in the 1990s The Conference of Ministers.
Annex I
Recalling the important strategies and programmes that have been adopted by African countries and the international community in support of Africa's socio-economic development in the past three decades,
Cognizant of the momentous changes unleashed in Africa and the world by the end of the cold war, Cognizant further of the formidable new challenges which face Africa in the increasingly competitive post-cold war world and the need for Africa to adjust,
~ of the long-standing challenges, constraints and vulnerabilities underlying Africa's development problems,
Noting. at the same time, the important reserves of strength that Africa can harness to put itself on the path of sustained recovery and robust economic growth and transformation,
Noting further that the objectives of all these strategies, plans of action, and programmes have yet to be fully achieved but that they remain relevant and crucial to Africa's development,
1. Welcomes the document "Strategic objectives for Africa's economic development in the 1990s" prepared and elaborated by the Commission for Africa as a synthesis re-affirming and updating Africa's long-standing strategies in the spirit of the theme for the twenty-eighth session of the Commission/nineteenth meeting of the Conference of Ministers, "Taking Africa into the twenty-first centur)' ";
2. Takes note of the strategic objectives on which African Governments and peoples must focus in the 1990s, namely identified in this document: a negotiated continental framework for regional security, stability and peace; implementation of the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community;
building human capacities, including entrepreneurial skills, indeginising science and technology in the African society, improving the health status of the population and reducing productive and social years lost;
revitalizing the African region and its institutions and improving the quality of governance; sustainable development of Africa's agricultural potential to ensure food security and sufficiency; sustainable industrialization focusing on increasing the value added to Africa's natural resources and generating employment for the fast-growing work-force especially in the rapidly expanding cities; developing the continent's transport, communications and energy infrastructures; effective participation with a common voice in the ongoing global processes that are shaping the global economic system of the twenty-first century; international relations both with industrially developed and developing countries, based on mutual benefit: and the mobilization of financial resources required for Africa's development, with primary emphasis on domestic resources and external resources playing a complementary but crucial role;
3. Calls upon member States, each and all, to take note of the identified strategic objectives and be guided by them in their programmes of structural adjustment, transformation and development;
4. Further calls upon member States, each and all, to implement policies aimed at improving the investment climate geared to removing distortions and increasing economic efficiency and competitiveness; reforming the financial sector to step up the gross domestic saving rate to the range of 25 to 30 per cent to mobilize the massive amounts of domestic resources required to boost the gross domestic investment rate and sustain it in the range of 30 to 35 per cent of gross domestic product and to channel scarce resources efficiently to where they are most productive; and to take steps to boost African economies' absorptive capacities for external resources;
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5. Also calls upon Africa's external partners to live up to their commitments under the compact of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s to boost official development assistance to Africa, especially on concessional and debt-reducing terms, to reduce conditionalities attached to such resources, and to speed up its rate of disbursement; to maintain a stable international economic climate conducive to Africa's sustained development; to open markets to African non-traditional agricultural and industrial exports; to apply measures to genuinely reduce African countries' external debt burden by debt cancellation and conversion; and to set up new or extend existing multilateral guarantee schemes to encourage private and institutional investors to channel resources to African economies.
743 (XXVIII). Implementation of the Abuja Treaty for the establishment of the African Economic Community
The Conference of Ministers.
Recalling the signing by the Heads of State and Government on 3 June 1991, in Abuja, Nigeria, of the Treaty for the establishment of the African Economic Community and the Treaty's provisions calling for the institutional and sectoral reinforcement of the regional economic communities as building blocks of the Pan-African Community,
Recalling also the Lagos Plan of Action, the Final Act of Lagos and their provisions on collective self-reliance and self-sustaining development,
Noting recent initiatives taken in the world towards the establishment of large economic and trading blocs,
Mindful of the need for Africa to meet these and other development challenges by building up cohesive economic spaces, promoting strong sectoral and inter-sectoral linkages in priority areas such as transport and communications, agriculture, industry, money and finance and by harmonizing national economic policies and enhancing intra-African trade through progressive trade liberalization schemes,
Noting the efforts exerted throughout the continent to promote economic integration within the frameworks of various subregional and regional institutions,
Noting that subregional and regional economic integration programmes and related cooperative arrangements have mainly been foiled by the dire economic, financial and social conditions currently affecting African countries and weak political will,
~ of the need for rationalization, harmonization and coordination among the various economic groupings and institutions,
Aware also of the need for strong national structures and mechanisms for economic integration that would help implement Community decisions,
Recalling resolution AGA.179(XXV) by which the Organization of African Unity Assembly of Heads of State and Government have directed the Organization of African Unity, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank to coordinate and pool their resources together in a joint secretariat to support the process for the effective establishment of the African Economic Community,
l. Reaffirms their commitment to the Treaty and the effective establishment of the African Economic Community;
Annex I Page 3
2. Notes with satjsfactjon efforts deployed by the Joint OAU/ECA/ADB Secretariat to help establish the African Economic Community;
3.
CaHs
upon member States to speed up the ratification of the Abuja Treaty, and the protocols annexed to it and to ensure its immediate entry into force;4. Further calls upon African Governments to establish sound structures capable of furthering the objectives of the African Economic Community at the national, subregional and regional levels;
S. ~ the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Afri<:a and the President of the African Development Bank to assist subregional economic communities further their economic integration programmes and activities including the building up of cohesive economic spaces and the promotion of sectoral and inter-sectoral linkages in priority areas such as transport and communications, agriculture, industry, money and finance and the promotion of intra-African trade;
6. Further calls upon member States, the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Prnsident of the African Development Bank to take the necussary measures to facilitate the rationalization and integration of subregional economic institutions as called for in the Final Act of Lagos and subsequent resolutions of the Organization of African Unity, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and those of the various regional groupings;
7. Further
urges
the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity, the Exucutive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the President of the African Development Bank to assist in carrying out the necessary studies and effectively establishing self-financing mechanisms for the funding of Community activities at the subregional and regional levels on a sustained basis;8. ~ member countries to phj in full their arrears and current contributions to the budgets of the subregional economic communities to enable them function effectively and efficiently;
9. Calls upon the President of the African. Development Bank to assist in furthering Community object:ives of the African countries by providing substantial resources for the funding of rel:ated tec:hnical assistance programmes and ensuring the optimal utilization of the maximum possible resources allocated for the financing of multinational and regional development projects;
10. Requests the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to follow up on the implementation of the Treaty and to report to the next Conference of Ministers progress made in implementing the provisions of this resolution.