Businesses and investment crucial to cutting Africa’s poverty, Annan says

Businesses can play a critical role in fostering development in Africa and helping countries of the continent to become fully integrated into the global economy, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

In a message to the Regional Meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce, held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Mr. Annan called on participants to consider “how to liberate the entrepreneurial energies of Africa’s people, and how to promote foreign investment in African countries, and in particular the least developed among them.”

Governments, which play an important role in providing an enabling environment for sustainable business activities, cannot succeed alone, he said. “All too often, countries that are both small and poor find themselves bypassed by investors even if they are adopting the right policies.”

Calling for fresh efforts to overcome this dilemma, he pointed out that the New Agenda for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the UN Global Compact initiative which he initiated could serve this effort.

“At a time when more than 1 billion people are denied the very minimum requirements of human dignity, business cannot afford to be seen as the problem,” he cautioned. “Rather, it must work with governments and all other actors in society to mobilize global science, technology and knowledge to tackle the interlocking crises of hunger, disease, environmental degradation and conflict that are holding back the developing world.”

The message was delivered by Anwarul K. Chowdhury, the UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

Meanwhile, Swiss executives were introduced to the Global Compact initiative at a meeting in Geneva which opened yesterday. The gathering, which attracted some 400 participants, was convened to make Swiss companies aware of the advantages to be derived from partnership with the Global Compact, which aims to combat poverty by promoting a healthier and more equitable world economy.