http://www.businessday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1201458-6078-0,00.html

Economic policy experts opened preparatory talks on Wednesday in South Africa ahead of a weekend conference of African ministers on how to implement the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).

"Leading African policymakers will meet in Johannesburg to agree on what it will take to move Nepad from aspiration to implementation," the United Nations Economic Commission For Africa (ECA) said in a statement.

The ECA is the organiser of the 2002 Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development under the theme "Accelerating Africa's performance and progress: the challenge of Nepad".

This weekend's gathering of more than 60 ministers in Sandton is to be preceded by a meeting of the Committee of Experts that started on Wednesday and will run to Friday.

More than 500 delegates including central bank governors, academics and researchers, civil society and private sector representatives will attend the event.

South African deputy finance minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said at the opening session of the pre-conference meeting that economic growth in Africa was marginally higher than the average for all developing countries.

"Economic growth in Africa is expected to average 3.1% this year and 4.2% next year. This is more than twice the average growth we achieved from 1984 to 1993."

He said the conference should look at the logistics of accomplishing further growth.

"These are not abstract deliberations, because lying behind the question of how to take Nepad forward, are questions such as how to take our macro-economic gains down to the farmers of our rural villages and to the shopkeepers and hawkers of our cities," he said.

The conference will focus on three main issues: how to bring the NEPAD principles into operation in African countries, the involvement of Africa's partners, and how to monitor the implementation process.

Previously known as the New African Initiative, Nepad combines two proposals, the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Program (MAP) - the brainchild of the presidents of Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa - and Senegal's OMEGA plan, a long-term plan to finance infrastructure development.

Nepad was launched in October last year and is a pledge by African leaders to eradicate poverty and place their countries on a path of sustainable growth and development while also participating actively in the world economy.