Paul Fauvet
17 April 2008
Port Louis — If the economic growth of countries in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region "is less than two or three times their rate of population growth, then we shall be distributing poverty, and not wealth", warned Tomas Salomao, Executive Secretary of SADC on Thursday.
Salomao was talking in Port Louis to the Mozambican journalists who are in Mauritius to cover the weekend SADC conference on development and poverty.
Salomao accepted there is a genuine debate over to what extent high rates of macro-economic growth impact upon the lives of ordinary people, but he was convinced that without those high rates of growth, there is no exit from poverty and misery. "We need continual and consistent high rates of growth for the next 10, 15 or 20 years", he insisted.
In particular, SADC countries had to develop their basic infrastructure - their roads, ports, airports and communications - to attract foreign investment which will produce not only for the domestic market, but also for export, "Nobody is going to invest solely for the Mozambican market, or solely for the Mauritian market", he declared.
The development of southern Africa was going to be a long haul. "We won't be able to wake up one morning and say "now we're developed!", said Salomao. "But we will lay the basis for development to be ongoing and sustainable - so that countries will have the capacity to weather crises caused by oil shocks, or rises in food prices, or falls in the prices for SADC sugar".
Salomao admitted that the relentless rise in oil prices was a particular problem for the non-oil producing members of SADC. "Eventually a dialogue with oil producing countries, and with the G8 group of most industrialized nations could lead to a way out of this", he suggested.
Salomao thought that by and large SADC's current growth rates were satisfactory - the region as a whole currently has an average annual growth rate of five per cent. Angola (thanks largely to its oil) is now growing at 15 per cent a year, and Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Mauritius all have reasonably high growth rates.
The regional picture is marred only by Zimbabwe, which is now in a state of near economic meltdown.
He insisted that the Mauritius conference "must not be just another talking shop. We must try to find pragmatic solutions to our problems, taking into account the world situation from which we cannot escape".
"The conference is to assess what we are doing, and if what we are doing is sufficient, is necessary, and is supported by current policies", said Salomao, "so that we can chart a way to consign poverty to history".
He thought Africa was in an "undignified position" when at international gatherings it is regularly stated that sub-Saharan Africa is the only part of the world that will not meet the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals, set by the United Nations in 2000, by the cut-off date of 2015.
The conference is not just for governments, he stressed. The only way to beat poverty, Salomao argued is through "an appropriate partnership" involving governments, public and private institutions and civil society bodies.
He agreed that issues of good governance "complement the efforts countries make to overcome poverty. Naturally, the delegates will have something to say about governance. But even in governance, we know what should be done - we have to verify if what we are doing is enough".
PF/sg (582)
(AIM / AIMENG)
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