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Africa: OAU President on Globalization
Africa: OAU President on Globalization
Date distributed (ymd): 000223
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains several articles from the Algerian
News Agency (http://www.aps.dz), reporting recent statements
by the Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is also
the current president of the Organization of African Unity.
The highlight is President Bouteflika's statement at the UN
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Summit in Bangkok
(http://www.unctad-10.org), in which he spoke out forcefully
against marginalization of Africa in globalization arenas
dominated by rich states.
The agency also quoted President Bouteflika's comments on the
summit meeting between the European Community and the
Organization of African Unity, to be held in Cairo in April,
and his message to the National Summit on Africa in
Washington, held simultaneously with the global Bangkok event.
[APIC will be posting more later related to the National
Summit, once post-summit documents are available. The best
coverage and links on the summit can be found at the Africa
News web site (http://www.africanews.org/usafrica).]
The Third World Network (http://www.twnside.org.sg) also
highlighted President Bouteflika's remarks, terming them "a
comprehensive analysis of the plight of Africa and a
devastating critique of the response to it by Western
governments."
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
President Bouteflika, as cited by Third World Network
"Once we attained independence, African countries, sad to say,
chose the wrong development model. Those that chose socialism
or the free market failed equally. There was a lack of
executive personnel, services, infrastructure. It was
disastrous. There was a general imbalance at every level."
"The international economic order kept the African countries
as suppliers of raw materials and as markets for manufactured
products. By deregulating trade and bringing in competition
when the forces in the North and South are so
disproportionate, it is obvious that Africa is absolutely out
of the race."
"But what are the 33 countries that have benefitted [from debt
relief so far]? We have written off the debts of the countries
that are bankrupt and that cannot pay. ... We are looking at
a macabre scene of someone visiting a dying man and telling
him 'you can die without debts, you can die happy because you
do not have debts to pay.'
The debt problem will not be solved this way. We knew the 33
countries could not squeeze anything out anymore, anyway."
News Summary: 19 February 1999
(http://www.aps.dz)
UNCTAD/10th session: Globalisation: President Bouteflika warns
against a definitive marginalisation of Africa [excerpts]
"A vibrant Speech" such was the title used by the state run
daily El Moudjahid which writes "In a draft copy of the
so-called Bangkok Declaration, President Bouteflika expressed
hope of easing poverty and improving security by "creating a
fairer and better world economic system" that would allow the
world's poorest countries to "raise their standards of living
and lead a full and decent life", a final declaration is
expected to be formally adopted when the conference ends
Saturday.
For the paper, it is a message where "distress and hope" are
mingled, described by observers as "very important" and "very
positive" for it makes the debate on major issues progress.
...
For El Chaab, the president's allocution focused on finding
ways for the world's 48 least-developed countries to benefit
from increasing globalisation of the world's economy. The
draft declaration acknowledges that, "Globalisation can be a
powerful and dynamic force for growth and development" and
recognises the global economy presents "opportunities as well
as risks and challenges."
Speakers at the conference have included UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan, the director-general of the World Trade
Organisation Mike Moore and International Monetary Fund
Managing Director Michel Camdessus. According to the report,
a major UN trade conference will today (Saturday) adopt a
modest plan of action aimed at nudging governments into
reviving stalled global trade negotiations. Delegates late
Friday hammered out a consensus among about 160 members but
developing states failed to extract fresh concessions from
rich nations on key issues of market access and agricultural
subsidies.
For the paper, the president's allocution brings a breath of
hope and concern and calls for an urgent consideration for a
possible commitment by developed countries to grant duty-free
and quota-free market access for essentially all exports" by
the 48 poorest countries, Algerian press quoted.
According to El Moudjahid, "the Bangkok meeting, which is
considering the possible perils of economic globalisation, is
the first global trade conference since the disastrous WTO
summit in Seattle", adding further "the developing countries
which felt threatened by "globalisation" for the UN agency to
increase its role in formulating a new "international
financial architecture, instead, the document called on UNCTAD
to "contribute to the debate on issues related to the
strengthening and the ongoing reform of the international
financial institutions".
Under the title "Algeria Rejects Blackmail", Le Quotidien
d'Oran writes "with his usual direct language style, Algerian
President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika denounces on behalf of his
African counterparts the policy of the big and powerful
countries vis-a-vis the developing countries in particular
Africa".
Le Jeune Independant says on its turn "President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika did not hesitate to accuse the rich countries by
asserting that we are making a new map of the world in which
the African continent has been deliberately dropped".
Algeria/Africa/UNCTAD: President Bouteflika's speech in favour
of a fairer and more interdependent world
Algiers, 19/02/00 (aps)- President of the Republic and OAU
[Organization of African Unity] President-in-Office Abdelaziz
Bouteflika on Friday vigorously defended in Bangkok the idea
of a globalisation with a human purpose as the only
alternative to a fundamentally unfair and far from
interdependent world.
Echoing Africa's views, a continent which on its own
crystallises the constant aggravation of inequalities,
President Bouteflika at no moment did question the principle
of globalisation as a stage of the human evolution, but
denounced plainly the little attention granted by the richest
to the swing of large parts of humanity in poverty,
precariousness and ignorance, a direct consequence of the
mechanical implementation and without distinction of the logic
of the market.
As such, the president claimed, "the mechanisms of
international relations should be directed towards the
reduction of inequalities, the elimination of misery and
backwardness, hearths of frustration and as such of potential
violence", even threatening the principle of collective
security.
Not taking into account the enormous development discrepancy
between an ever dominating North and a South maintained to the
status of a source of wealth for row material, what is more,
yielded at a cheap price, represents a great paradox in a
globalisation process aiming to be a factor for the planet's
harmonious progress. This all powerful financial logic,
applied in the same way to the whole world, even justified a
sudden fall of the governmental aid to development to .22% in
1998 instead of the .70% recommended by UNO for years.
In the name of the market's predominance, the overwhelming
majority of the planet's inhabitants found themselves actually
excluded from the decision group and held to the one-sided
respect of the rules of the market, whereas the promotion of
international exchanges of goods and investments is an
essential factor for the collective greater comfort. In
reality, "a new card of the world has been drawn, where a
whole continent as Africa is purely and simply erased", the
president would note. Said clearly, the pitiless law of
competition, applied on the weakest without nets of
protection, automatically excludes the latter from the world
process of development.
In spite of Africa's efforts, the poorest of poorest
continents, for a better management of its political, economic
and security affairs, they will remain, the president would
say, "illusory as long as the continent shall continue to
undergo the effects of a world environment contributing more
than in the past to worsen its backward movement and its
difficulties, and to perpetuate the major causes of
perversions resulting from it."
Several interdependent exogenous aspects block Africa's
development, the eternal deterioration of the terms of trade
to start with, due to the chronic instability of the raw
material prices, the continent's main and random source of
income. In 1998, the drop of the prices of the exported basic
commodities generated clear losses estimated at 2.5% of the
African gross national product.
Foreign direct investment (FDI), an irreplaceable source of
economic development and social progress, remains on its part
insignificant in Africa, representing only 1% of the whole of
foreign investments in the world and not more than 5% of FDI
intended for under developed countries.
The foreign debt, another injury in an already bloodless
Africa, benefited very little from suitable treatments from
creditor countries, making of so-called countries with
intermediate income the exporters of net capital, which is
equivalent "by a cruel paradox, to financing the rich by the
poor", according to the president.
President Bouteflika on the other hand was pleased with the
initiatives taken concerning the debt of the developing
countries at the G7 summit in Cologne or at the summit of
Libreville and which, even if limited, "translates," he said,
"an unquestionable evolution in the attitudes towards the
least advanced countries". These initiatives related to the
cancellation of the debt of the very poor countries and the
president wished that they be extended to the countries with
intermediate income.
Finally, and to those who advocate the restoration of
democracy and human rights in Africa before any assistance to
development is granted, the president wondered, with a certain
relevance, whether we could "continue posing good governing as
a preliminary to the best dealing with the problems of
development, while sapping, by policies of structural
adjustment, the minimum of social harmony which supposes good
governing."
Algeria/UNCTAD/Session: Total agreement between Africans and
Europeans as to the preparations for the OAU-EU summit,
President Bouteflika declared
Bangkok, 19/02/00 (aps)- Africans and Europeans reached a
"total agreement" on all the points relating to the
preparations of the summit due on April 3-4 in Cairo between
the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the European Union
(EU), on Friday President of the Republic and OAU
President-in-Office Abdelaziz Bouteflika indicated in Bangkok.
"All is left is to give to this summit a complete content,
important and worthy of what the Euro-African relations could
be in the future", the president stressed in a press
conference following his speech in plenary session at the 10th
United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Mr. Bouteflika first of all recalled that some of the
questions related to the summit, on top of which its agenda,
resulted in a dialogue between Europeans and Africans.
"The more Africans emphasised their interest for economic
issues, i.e. partnership, commercial co-operation, the
transfer of technologies and other capital flows, the more the
European Union emphasised its interest for political issues,
namely good governing, democracy, pluralism and human rights",
he specified.
As many principles to which moreover African states entirely
adhere, but which cannot occult the need for dealing with
their concerns as regards economic and social development.
We are agreed on a consensual agenda whose heading could be
the economic and political issues, he affirmed, specifying
that three meetings would be devoted to the former and another
three to the latter.
The two sides also reached an agreement on the follow-up
mechanisms similar to those existing between Asia and Europe,
as well as the summit's periodicity called to be held every
three years.
As concerns Morocco's participation, he said that this
question was sorted out in that this country will receive
invitations from the OAU, the host country (Egypt) and the EU.
In this respect, President Bouteflika recalled that OAU's
acting presidency registered with great satisfaction the
decision of the Democratic Sahraoui Arab Republic not to take
part in the summit's works "as a major contribution for its
success".
USA/Africa/Summit: Bouteflika compliments the participating
members in the national summit on Africa
Washington, 19/02/00 (aps)- The president of the republic,
Abdelaziz Bouteflika who is the current chairman of the OAU
international body addressed a message of congratulation to
the members who are going to participate in the national
summit on Africa and which takes place in Washington.
In his message and on behalf of the OAU organisation,
Bouteflika complimented welcomed the organisation of such
summit, which ails at defending a noble cause: establishing
good relations between two different worlds, the United States
of America and the African continent.
The message also pledged for the defence of human rights,
fostering equal partnership and acknowledging the value of the
African patrimony, which can never be neglected or ignored. As
a recall, the summit, which aims to educate the American
public about Africa and to help guide US relations with the
African countries, was opened this morning by President Bill
Clinton. UNCTAD/10th session: Globalisation: President
Bouteflika warns against a definitive marginalisation of
Africa
Bangkok, 19/02/00 (aps)- Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president of
the republic, OAU president in office warned Saturday in
Bangkok against the risk of a definitive marginalisation of
the African continent from the globalisation process underway
if significant measures are not taken by the international
community in its favour.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who took part in a round table
which constituted the crowning of the 10th UNCTAD session
pointed out that "Africa because of its economic and social
delay started to separate from the globalisation process".
In this context, he recalled that during the meeting of the
world trade organisation in Seattle, Africans participated as
if they were "non-concerned observers", the debate took place
only between Americans and Europeans.
"Globalisation such as it is today profits only to countries
which have a material, technological and technical basis", he
noted.
"Globalisation towards which we want to go is the
globalisation which excludes anybody", he stressed.
Quoting causes at the origin of the present situation in
Africa, the president of the republic notably referred to the
colonisation which has broken the traditional social
structures, involved ethnical conflicts and impoverished
countries of the continent" .
But this situation is also due, he added, to the "bad choice"
by the African states of the developing systems after the
national independence, the lack of supervision, a deficient
management of resources, a disastrous management of the
state's affairs and a generalised corruption which affected
even the lowest social level.
To these multiple causes is added, he said, an international
economic order which sees in Africa only a reservoir of raw
materials and a market for finished and semi-finished
products.
"It is evident that in the frame of exchanges between the
developed and under-developed countries, the African continent
is out of race", he declared.
Putting a stress on certain dramatic aspects of the situation
lived through by Africa, the OAU president in office pointed
out that certain countries of the continent, 40 per cent of
the population is affected by AIDS.
"There are African peoples which are in the process of
disappearing", he emphasised, noting that in the rich
countries, peoples affected by AIDS are treated with drugs
called of third generation at the time when treatments of
first generation are not always available in Africa.
On another turn, Mr Bouteflika dealt with the question of the
African debt which constitutes, he noted "the most serious
problem" to which Africa is confronted.
While hailing the decisions of the G7 in Cologne, of the
recent Libreville summit, of the French president Jacques
Chirac and the British premier, Tony Blair, to cancel or to
reduce the debt of the African less advanced countries, the
OAU president in office called for a treatment of the debt of
the African countries with intermediate incomes, enabling them
to reach a strong economic growth at the image of the "dragons
of Asia".
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's primary
objective is to widen international policy debates around
African issues, by concentrating on providing accessible
policy-relevant information and analysis usable by a wide
range of groups and individuals.
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