Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Keynote Address by H.E. Ato Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Mr. Chairman, Dear Colleagues and Friends, Distinguished Ministers, Excellencies, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with great pleasure that I wish to welcome to Addis Ababa all those who have come from outside Ethiopia for this important Conference and the Fortieth Session of the Commission. The theme of your Conference is " Accelerating Africa's growth and development to meet the MDGs: Emerging challenges and the way forward". One is hard pressed to come up with a more timely or more apt theme for a conference of the leaders of Africa's economic transformation. Growth is clearly at the center of Africa's efforts to achieve the MDG's. As we all know, the MDGs are goals that cover not only economic issues but also social issues. At the core of all these goals is reducing poverty. It is only by accelerating growth that we can make a sustainable dent not only on the economic indicators of poverty, but also on the social ones. It is therefore appropriate that we concentrate on growth. But of course growth alone is not enough. If the fruits of growth are to be passed on to the poor in drips and drops; if the fruits of growth are, as they say, to trickle down to the poor, it will take a long time before the drips and drops accumulate to such an extent as to make a meaningful dent on poverty. We thus need, not only accelerated growth, but also a reasonably equitable one. The accelerated and pro-poor growth that we seek to achieve cannot be a sustained one so long as the structure of our economies remains what it is today. Only accelerated growth that transforms the structure of our, economies away from the. production of low value added products can help us achieve the MDGs in a sustainable way. In other words, accelerated -growth- that is pro-poor and that results in the transformation of our economies is the key instrument that we need to achieve the MDGs. Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, Dear Delegates, In recent years Africa's economy has been growing at an average rate of more than 5%. Obviously, this is an average and some countries have been doing better than others, but the overall picture is quite clear –our economies are on the mend. Most experts agree that African economies have to grow at more than 7% per annum if we are to achieve the MDGs. This assessment was done some years back, which means that there is bound to be some backlog that has to be addressed through future growth. We may therefore need to grow at significantly higher rates than 7% per annum to achieve our goals. We have a long way to go before we can confidently declare that we are going to make it. It seems to me therefore that your task today is to come up with ideas that would help us achieve accelerated growth at significantly higher than 7% and one that is both pro-poor and transformative. Your task is to put your heads together, to learn from each other and from others who have successfully combated poverty, in order to chart the course our economies should take. I am confident that you will come up with precisely such set of ideas, a set of ideas rather than a single formula because in spite of the fact that there are certain ideas that are likely to be relevant to all or to most of our countries, our economies are too diverse to be amenable to a one size fits all solution. Some of our countries have, as they say, struck gold, black of yellow, and as a result their main challenge is likely to be one of transforming their economy and ensuring equity rather than growth per se. Some of us have had no such luck or, curse, as some would have it, and accelerating our growth is bound to be an important aspect of our task for which we I have no alternative. Some of us are starting the race much further from the MDGs than others, and hence will need to redouble our efforts to catch up. Inspite of the monstrous homogeneity in policy stance that we have allowed ourselves to be shackled with, there is some space for policy experimentation and diversity commensurate with our diverse circumstances. All of these diverse circumstances suggest that while we all have the same goals, and while there are bound to be some commonalities in our policies, what we really need to do is come up with a set of different options that will take us to where we want to go. I am confident that we can do so. In recent weeks, the South Africans have been running a promotional piece on TV that is full of inspiring thoughts. In this piece about the possibilities of transforming the rain-bow nation, Bishop Tutu says "All I need do is believe". I think, in his own way, he is right. All we need do is believe 'a little bit more in our capacity to be the authors of our own fate, our own destiny and a little bit less in the possibility of deliverance from outside. I Thank You! |
