Africa Development Forum: Opening remarks by K. Y. Amoako, executive secretary, UN economic commission for Africa

Abstract

This Opening remarks presented by K. Y. Amoako Executive Secretary UN Economic Commission for Africa at the Africa Development Forum. Mr. Amoako, on his remarks highlighted that, There will be uneven, but marked progress. We will be more like Asia than we have admitted: we will have our tigers and we will have our disappointments. Overall, in the decades ahead we will live in a predominantly urban Africa, an Africa of business, media and science. In the decades ahead, instead of merely watching life, we will have the nearly godlike ability to repair and manipulate life, almost at will. The issues for Africa will not be whether these changes take place, but how much we can be part of the changes. If we do not prepare for a development based more on science and technology, the marginalization we will feel in the future will eclipse the marginalization we feel now. A wired Africa, an Africa where a significant proportion of our human potential is really developed, an Africa seeing globalizing world markets not as its biggest threat, but as its biggest playing field.