Press Release No. 14/1997

ECA Ministers Strongly Endorse Role of Information and Private Sector in Africa's Development

Addis Ababa, 8 May 1997: African Ministers responsible for economic and social development and planning ended a 5-day meeting at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with a set of resolutions and a declaration on accelerating trade and investment in the region in which they strongly endorsed the role of information and the private sector in Africa's development.

The 'Declaration on Accelerating Trade and Investment in Africa' clearly sets out its purpose, saying: "We are convinced that trade and investment are essential components in any credible strategies to accelerate our countries' development and sustain high rates of economic growth".

The Declaration comes out strongly in favour of partnership with the private sector in general and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in particular as a policy choice.

Broadly-based high rates of economic growth geared towards creating employment and generating rising incomes are recognized as essential components for poverty reduction and its eventual eradication.

The Declaration stresses that to boost domestic savings and investment, attract private foreign capital transfers and expand trade with the rest of the world Africa must, among other things:

(a) change the negative perception of Africa as a high-risk place;

(b) improve information flow on development in Africa;

(c) modernize, expand and diversify production;

(d) reduce the cost of establishing business; and

(e) strengthen international competitiveness.

It takes the Uruguay Round Agreement in its stride by noting that it offers Africa both challenges and opportunities. It however goes on to point out that, though Africa has created a conducive environment for trade expansion with the rest of the world, protectionist policies on the part of others with regard to African agricultural, textile and clothing have frustrated that expansion.

Welcoming the debt-reduction initiative for highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) recently proposed by the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a first step in the right direction, the Declaration calls for additional and more generous resources to "substantially reduce all Africa countries's debt stock". The cost of servicing external debt is estimated to have exceeded US$340 billion by the end of 1996.

The conference -- which met from 5 to 8 May -- came out decisively in favour of implementing the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), a framework adopted by ministers in 1996 to build Africa's national information and communications infrastructure as a part of a strategy to harness information and communication technologies towards development.

"The next step is for African governments in implementing aspects of AISI at national level," said Nancy Hafkin, ECA's AISI focal point. "We at ECA are going to be placing emphasis on action-oriented interventions and are here to work, with our partners, to assist African governments."

Key attention was given to the role information and communications technologies in promoting trade and investment in a major symposium -- organised by ECA together with the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC). The symposium was broadcast live by satellite on Multichoice DSTV by MNET Wednesday.

An executive summary of the GIIC Statement of Addis Ababa is attached below. A full version -- as well as the full text of the Declaration on Accelerating Trade and Investment in Africa -- is distributed under separate e-mail cover.

This and other press releases and background documents relating to the conference are available either by e-mail or post, or at the UN ECA Web site: www.un.org/depts/eca

UN ECA's African Information Society Initiative (AISI) home page is at: www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi, and it includes the full text of the AISI framework.

GIIC Statement of Addis Ababa - Executive Summary

The Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC) strongly supports the forward looking thinking of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in its call for active and on-going private sector participation in the implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI).

As the leading intersectoral global private sector organization which seeks to actively involve the developing countries in the process of building the Information Society, the GIIC was pleased to contribute to the formulation, launch, coordination and dissemination of the AISI.

To further contribute to the success of the AISI, the GIIC proposes a set of principles that should guide the implementation of the AISI within each African country. This Brief Statement is drawn from a longer Policy Statement. The GIIC statement focuses on the following four points:

• The Information Revolution is partially driven by information and communications technologies (ICTs) and is fundamentally important for all societies around the world;
• The ICT revolution is especially important for developing countries and their people;
• While a modern imperative for all countries, diffusing ICT effectively and equitably, is neither easy nor automatic;
• We support and encourage the ECA's commitment to adopt a concrete implementation plan for the AISI as plans for National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) within each African country;
• We recommend that the implementation of the AISI should take place with as much cooperation as possible between the relevant societal sectors