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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters America courts Africa
By Hoda Tawfik
President Bill Clinton this week proclaimed a partnership with the African continent for the 21st century and promised to pursue a broad approach to debt relief worldwide that would include forgiving 70 billion US dollars of debt, most of it owed by poor African countries.
President Clinton
It is a year since President Clinton's tour of six African countries generated so much optimism, and so many promises to the continent most neglected by US policy. After that whirlwind of diplomacy, however, hopes seemed to dissipate quickly, as war broke out in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa, and resumed in Angola.
This week, Clinton reaffirmed America's commitment to Africa, when he met with eighty-three ministers from forty-six sub-Saharan African nations and representatives of four North African countries -- Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. The first ever US-Africa ministerial meeting was held at the State Department for Partnership between America and Africa for the 21st century.
The session was a historic departure in many ways, as Clinton and all the involved cabinet ministers and agency heads were able to talk and interact simultaneously, said Susan Rice, assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
The discussions were free ranging and incredibly frank, there were no punches pulled, no pretenses, no effort to try to gloss over differences or shy away from consensus, she said.
President Clinton presented a six-point plan for debt relief. He told the African countries they can benefit from a worldwide debt relief initiative if they liberalise their economies and integrate with the worldwide economy. "Our goal is to ensure that no country committed to fundamental reform is left with a debt burden,'' said Clinton.
But the African ministers asked the US to show forgiveness, and not merely reschedule bilateral debts, for a broader group of countries. Others said that debt relief for loans owing to multilateral financial institutions has to be deeper, faster and broader, and a few added that debt relief is not the issue at all, while insisting that all debt must be forgiven for the poorest countries. Despite such differences, it was obvious that debt was the main worry for many African nations gathered here in Washington, and that Clinton's proposals do not go far enough to meet the scale of the problem.
Several ministers explained that it is their total debt, domestic and foreign, which constitutes the major impediment to their ability to finance development and social necessities; yet such wide-scope debt remains unaddressed by international debt relief schemes.
Some added that the conditions governing eligibility for debt relief and concessional lending did not take adequate account of the persistence of poverty in certain countries that have relatively high GDPs. President Clinton said he will seek significant improvements to present terms at the Cologne summit of the G-7 countries in June 1999.
Tanzania's minister of foreign affairs, Jakaya Kikwete, appealed for the cancellation of all debts, saying, "We have a serious problem: an average of 50 per cent of government revenue is spent on payment of debt and 50 per cent on salaries. In fact, in some instances, if not in most cases, people are being paid for not working, because you don't have the capacity to give people the facilities to do their work."
While the Africans are focusing on debt cancellation, the US's main concern is with the expansion of American trade and business with Africa, as a promising emerging market for US goods and business.
Clinton stressed this target in his opening speech to the conference, saying, "Africa provides 13 per cent of our oil, nearly as much as the Middle East. Over 100,000 American jobs depends upon our exports to Africa, and there will be millions more when Africa realises its potential." He pointed out that Africa is home to seven hundred million people -- nearly a fifth of the world's population.
The US is looking to Africa as an emerging market for US exports -- and Clinton pointed out that last year the US's growing relationship with this enormous market helped to protect their economy from the global financial crisis that was unfolding elsewhere. While exports were down in other parts of the world, exports from the US to Africa actually went up by 8 per cent, while American investments in Africa produced a 36 per cent return, compared with 16 per cent for Asia, 14 per cent worldwide and 11 per cent in Europe.
The president of the US Export-Import Bank also addressed delegates. He told them that Africa is "the only continent in the world where friendly competitors from Europe -- the French, the Germans and British -- do significantly more business than the US." While he stressed that "we intend all over Africa to do more business than the European and Asians," he also acknowledged that "it will take an effort by American business and Ex-Im Bank to do that."
The bank's business with Africa is up five-fold from last year. Meanwhile, the blueprint for a US-Africa partnership for the 21st century states that US exports to Africa grew more rapidly in 1998 than in the previous year, and are now 45 per cent greater than its exports to all the countries of the former Soviet Union combined. Add to that that on a balance of payment basis, American private investment consistently produces a higher rate of return than in any other region, and it is clear that Africa is finally emerging Ð if not as a sovereign nation, then at least as a serious playground for American capitalists.
