ADB boss calls for visa-free Africa

From Cecilia Akwetey, GNA Special Correspondent, Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou, May 16, GNA - Dr Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank Group, on Tuesday called for the abolition of visas across Africa, saying it was not fostering growth and was a major hindrance to developing the strong linkages and synergy for progress.

He explained that there were phenomenal changes occurring all over the world today, and it was sad that Africa was not only being left behind, but that Africans cannot even move easily on the continent to pursue business opportunities.

Dr. Kaberuka said when visas were scraped on the continent, goods and services would move fast and business would grow tremendously with transportation taking a centre stage, as was the case in other parts of the world such as Europe.

Dr. Kaberuka, who was addressing the opening session of the joint African Development Bank/UN Economic Commission for Africa symposium in Ouagadougou, said he was aware of the presence of drug dealers, money launderers and criminal gangs, "but together we can all deal with these groups better than we can do as individuals."

The joint symposium is one of the high points of the Annual Meetings and was attended by the Burkinabe Prime Minister Paramanga Ernest Yonli, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Mr. Abduallie Janneh, bank governors, financial experts and key economists from the Bank Group, World Bank and other financial institutions.

Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning is leading Ghana's delegation It is under the theme, "Infrastructure Development and Regional Integration, Issues, Opportunities and Challenges" and is meant to address critical issues affecting infrastructure development and regional integration, explore opportunities and challenges faced by African governments and draw lessons on what has been done so far. Dr Kaberuka said Africa needed to create a favourable investment climate for business growth adding that with the current poor state of infrastructure there could only be poor business, a trend, which is bad for poverty alleviation.

"This situation must change as it only helps in the marginalisation of Africa in the world market place of ideas, business and commerce." On electricity sources, the AfDB expressed regret that Africa had developed only three per cent of its hydropower potential and was therefore generating energy from very expensive energy sources. He said the continent had to move faster than before since, for instance, only 300 million Africans had access to good drinking water. The situation, he noted, had to change if the continent were to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Dr Kaberuka said very soon Africa's population would hit the one billion mark, but the continent of 53 countries had only small markets generating less than one billion dollars annually.

He called for a critical analysis of the issues and constraints involved and the development of an appropriate policy framework for infrastructure development and regional integration.

"There is the need to mobilize huge capital since infrastructure requires substantial expenditures which have historically been financed through public funds."

He noted that given the increasing demands on public funds there was the need to address the issue of resource mobilization to meet the investment needs for infrastructure development and integration. Dr Kaberuka urged the establishment of centres of excellence to conduct research on infrastructure development, coordinate and monitor implementation of best practices among countries and technical agencies to facilitate knowledge sharing.

Mr Janneh on his part called for the full integration of Africa and Africans.

He advocated the establishment of efficient and easy international transport systems among and between African countries to make integration a reality.

Mr Janneh said African leaders must, of necessity stimulate public-private sector cooperation on the issue of developing infrastructure on the continent.

He said the UN Commission had worked tirelessly over the years to establish infrastructure, but admitted that more had to be done to engender better living standards on the continent. Opening the joint symposium, Mr Paramanga said economic integration called for a modern communication and energy network that was powerful and capable to facilitate progress.

He said weaknesses of infrastructure were a bane on a lot of fronts making the continent to rely unusually on foreign partners. For countries coming out of conflict, he said, the burden was even more compounding since they had to do extra things under extreme conditions to survive.

He was, however, happy that the West African Gas Pipeline was coming on stream soon to feed Ghana, Togo and Benin. He said the pipeline would "later serve Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal and this would be the basis for a strong and reliable power infrastructure for us". 16 May 06