Growth does not happen by chance… It is planned, nurtured and sustained – ECA Official
ECA Press Release No. 26/2011
Addis Ababa, 24 March 2011 (ECA) - The Director of Economic Development and NEPAD Division at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr.
Emmanuel Nnandoze told a press conference in Addis Ababa today that growth and economic prosperity do not happen by chance, they must be planned, nurtured and sustained to bring real change in the lives of ordinary citizens.
Addressing a press conference before the formal opening next Monday of the Fourth Joint Annual Meetings of AU Ministers of Economy and Finance and the UNECA Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, two senior officials of the AU and the UNECA met with the press to familiarize them with the critical issues to be presented at the Ministerial Meetings.
The Information and Communication Service (ICS) of ECA reports that Messrs Réné Kouassi, Director of Economic Affairs at the African Union and Emmanuel Nnadozie, exchanged ideas with journalists drawn from the media across Africa and present in Addis
Ababa to cover the event on a wide range of setbacks impeding Africa’s economic takeoff.
Media representatives were also briefed on the essential parts of the 2011 edition of the Economic Report on Africa (ERA2011) - a report to be released next Tuesday on Africa’s economic performance for 2010 and projections for the coming years.
The two officials acknowledged that Africa was set on a new path of growth, the only continent with a projected growth rate of about five percent this year.
However, this situation does not call for immediate celebration because many efforts still need to be made to ensure that such growth has a noticeable impact on poverty reduction because ordinary people are yet to feel this upbeat economic posture.
While Prof. Nnadozie called for guarded optimism, his colleague, Dr Kouassi advised that measures had to be taken to ensure that this upward trend is sustainable for, he argued, there is no point registering a positive growth rate in a year and dropping the next year just because adequate measures were not taken to ensure that the status quo is not only maintained but that growth actually continues.
For Nnadozie, the State must be in a more proactive posture by providing an enabling environment for growth.
This can be done by ensuring that institutions are strong while incentives such as good taxation policies and improved governance are put in place. For the two officials, Africa must step up its productive capacity and try to conquer new export markets.
This Fourth Annual Joint Meetings will be trying to see how the State can best help in promoting economic development.
In answer to a question as to whether proposals of ERA2011 were tantamount to a call for nationalization of key production apparatus in Africa, both Nnandoze and
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Kouassi stressed that the initiative was not about nationalization.
What the report calls for is greater involvement of the State in matters that are exclusively of its domain, such as the taxation system, the provision of essential services such as good transport systems or reliable energy supply, which accompany development.
Nnandoze argued that broadening the tax base, so as to avoid a situation where very few overpay, will help inject more money into the economy and spur growth.
The recent cases in Europe where the State ran to the rescue of countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal were used as illustrations to justify the desire to see the State get better involved in the running of African economies.
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 5 percent in 2011. However, there is concern as to whether such growth could be sustained for a full decade, a condition for the benefits of growth to become perceptible and palpable.
The Fourth Joint Annual Ministerial meeting of ministers is holding under the theme “Governing Development in Africa: The Role of the State in Economic Transformation” and will be chaired by the Minister of Finance of Malawi, the current chair of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance. It will be attended by over 54 Ministers of Finance, Planning, Economic Development, Health and Environment.
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: ecainfo@uneca.org Web: www.uneca.org
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