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© 2012 Economic Commission for Africa H
Experts reflect on the different paths to Africa’s growth
ECA Press Release No. 36/2012
Addis Ababa, 23 March 2012 (ECA) – African Economic Policy experts on their second day of meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia reviewed the paths the continent must take to unleash its growth potential, including promoting visionary leadership and good governance, promoting technology and innovation for transformation; and accelerating regional integration.
Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, Director of the Economic Development and NEPAD Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) who was addressing the committee of African economic, finance and planning experts said for Africa to become a growth pole, “African Governments need to be in the driver’s seat, improve the political and economic governance and undertake carefully calibrated policy responses and actions”.
Dr. Rene Kouassi N’guetta, Director of Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission, highlighted the role of governments in creating a conducive policy environment for achieving sustained, high growth that benefits all segments of society.
On their part, the experts underscored the various strategies, including: promoting visionary leadership, strong and quality institutions, and good governance; investing in infrastructure and in people; transforming agriculture; industrializing and developing rural economies; promoting technology and innovation for transformation; increasing intra-Africa trade and accelerating regional integration; strengthening South to South cooperation and rationalizing African partnerships and addressing the daunting challenge of climate change.
Commending the rich dialogue that was held during the meeting, Mr. Patrick Hayford, Director of the Special Adviser on Africa at UN Headquarters, New York said, “There is a disconnect between the rich policy dialogue and the dialogue on Africa that is held in much of the Western world. We must put much of this policy into action to successfully achieve the objective of the theme of the conference”.
The aim of the session was to highlight critical issues related to the theme of the Conference in order to distil policy recommendations for unleashing Africa’s potential as a pole of global growth, for consideration during the two-day Ministerial Conference to be held on 26-27 March.
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Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org
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