Governments And Business Are Bullish On Africa

EDITH M. LEDERER

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Asia's still the economic darling but it's hard to find anybody in government or business who isn't optimistic about Africa as the hot new continent for trade and investment.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is optimistic. So are Ethiopia's president, Zimbabwe's prime minister, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and business executives from South Africa, Egypt, India and many other countries.

But at the same time, there is also concern at the exploitation of poor nations by corporations and conglomerates as well as red tape, regulations and taxes in some African countries that hinder investment.

Nonetheless, at a panel Thursday on Africa's natural resources at the World Economic Forum chaired by Blair, there was a buzz of enthusiasm about the continent that is always relegated to last place when it comes to economic progress.

"It was unanimous. everybody's optimistic." Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said. "Definitely Africa's moving positively forward. We're going to realign our policies so that we can exploit our national resources."

One business leader at the session, Prakash Hinduja, European chairman of the privately held Hinduja Group of Companies, one of India's major conglomerates, said the group operates in Nigeria, Ghana, Angola and Tanzania and "will welcome any partnership with the African countries."

"The African continent is going to be the golden continent of the period," he said, if African nations can meet and exchange knowledge about the continent's success stories.

Ban, who will be attending the upcoming African Union summit, said African countries have "huge potential," especially with their natural resources and increasingly educated work force.

"Basically I'm optimistic," he told AP before after a private meeting with Blair. "These are all very much encouraging developments but we need to do more. They need support to strengthen their capacity. This is what the U.N. is doing."