Consensual Framework on Role of State in Governing Development in Africa Emerges from Experts’ Meeting
ECA Press Release No. 27/2011
Addis Ababa, 26 March 2011 (ECA) - A draft consensual framework on the role of the State in governing development in Africa emerged last night from three days of deliberations on this year’s theme of the Joint Annual Ministerial Meetings of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, according to ECA’s Information and Communication Service.
Economic, financial and development experts had been meeting here since Thursday in preparation for the ministerial meetings which open in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 28 March, 2011 under the theme “Governing Development in Africa: The Role of the State in Economic Transformation”.
Recommendations by the experts that will be tabled for discussion by the ministers during
the conference are now being fine-tuned, sources indicate.
For two days, experts examined the role of the State in the context of globalization and free enterprise and concluded that State intervention in the economic development process is not tantamount to nationalization of the private sector, which in any case, remains an essential driver of the development process.
In one of the marathon sessions yesterday, two leading African economists used historical perspectives and concrete modern day examples to allay the concerns expressed by some participants as to the “dangers” inherent in what they called too much State powers in the productive sector of the economy.
Messrs Emmanuel Nnandoze and Dr. Réné Kouassi, respectively Director of Economic Development and NEPAD Division at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and Director of Economic Affairs at the African Union Commission, explained that in the context of scarce investment resources that characterize most African economies, sustained economic growth would be impossible without States taking the lead, or at least playing a major role.
But that was not the central argument Nnandoze pushed through to justify calls for State participation in development initiatives.
In a highly applauded presentation, he outlined a number of key areas in which no other stakeholders could play a better role than the State – infrastructural transformation, the formulation of suitable taxation laws, public/private partnerships, the use of national development plans, as well as a judicial system in which investors and citizens have faith.
This is why he underscored the key facilitation role of the State, while cautioning that “we are not recommending copying exactly what China, South Korea or Malaysia did, because the historical and contemporary conditions are not necessarily the same.”
Although Africa grew on average by 4.5 percent in 2010 up from 2.3 percent in 2009 and will most likely maintain steady growth of about Five percent in 2011, governments and development partners, including the ECA are worried about the sustainability of that
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growth, observers say.
The UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, opened the experts’ meeting.
Next Monday’s ministerial meetings will coincide with the launch of the 2011 edition of the Economic Report on Africa (ERA2011), a flagship publication jointly produced by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union.
Issued by:
ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.uneca.org
