Africa braces to become global growth pole, agrees most solutions must come from within

Abstract

African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Development have said that their countries will seize the opportunity provided by developments in the global economy and turn the region into a pole for global growth, underlying their determination to find home-grown solutions for that transition. Although the region’s progress could either be hampered or fostered by external factors such as the escalation of the recent euro zone sovereign debt crisis and the continuation of the global financial and economic crisis, the statement focuses mostly on what can, and should be done by African themselves. In this respect, the ministerial statement engages countries to strengthen individual and collective leadership and capacities to grasp evolving local and global opportunities in order to speed up the attainment of development and transformation in Africa. The statement takes note of on-going regional integration programmes across Africa and urges the promotion of mutually beneficial intra-African and South-South cooperation, including facilitating efforts towards mainstreaming the Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade.