Linda Ensor
30 October 2009
Cape Town — Chinese and Indian trade and investment in Africa would underpin the continent's emergence from the global financial crisis, but its longer-term salvation would come from regional economic integration, National Planning Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel said yesterday.
Africa would also gain from greater participation in world forums such as the Group of 20 (G-20) emerging and industrialised economies, he told delegates attending the Standard Bank Africa Forum.
The attempt to uplift the continent through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) had stagnated, he said. This was because there had been insufficient investment flows to deal with the challenges, including unlocking Africa's agricultural potential. Also, commitments to double overseas development aid had not been kept and "the change of personalities amongst the key players who initiated Nepad also saw some dimming of the lights".
"It has decelerated for now, but Africa's participation in the G-20 will certainly bring this alive again. As Africans, we have to continue to push for improved participation," he said.
Many African countries were, however, well positioned to return to higher growth to feed China's insatiable demand for commodities. China now accounted for 58% of African exports while India's involvement with Africa had also deepened, with trade already having increased a huge 1000% over the past decade.
"There is no doubt that India views Africa as a major economic and diplomatic priority, not only to secure energy assets but to grow key sectors in Africa in order to boost bilateral trade. For India, the more advanced African economies are the greater bilateral trade prospects," Manuel said.
SA -- one of India's largest trading partners in Africa -- had benefited by the investment of 150m by 35 Indian companies since the end of apartheid, with a further 500m planned.
"The largest clamour is for greater equity -- between countries and peoples. In particular, the clamour is for equity between the financial and the productive economies.... The seismic shift will come when we can reconstruct investment finance at the service of productive enterprise, " Manuel said.
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