It will earmark an annual financial award of one million dollars focusing on development research in Africa
Kuwait City: Kuwait’s Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah opened the third
Africa-Arab summit on Tuesday with a pledge to provide $1 billion (Dh3.67
billion) in low-interest loans to African countries over a five-year
period.
Arab and African leaders gathered for the two-day summit in Kuwait City are
to review steps to promote economic ties between wealthy Gulf states and
investment-thirsty Africa.
“I ordered officials of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to
provide soft loans worth $1 billion to Africa over the next five years,” Shaikh
Sabah announced.
He also said that Kuwait, in cooperation with the World Bank and other
international institutions has decided “to provide investments and investment
guarantees worth $1 billion” over the next years and this will focus on
infrastructure projects.
The Kuwait Fund is the oil-rich Gulf state’s investment and aid arm in
African, Asian and Arab countries. So far it has provided billions of dollars in
low-interest loans for development and infrastructure projects.
Thirty-four heads of state, seven Vice-Presidents and three heads of
government are attending the third Africa-Arab summit, which brings together 71
countries and organisations.
The meeting is the first of its kind since 2010, when leaders met in Libya
prior to the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled longstanding dictatorships in
North Africa and the Middle East.
The leaders are expected to approve measures and resolutions adopted by
foreign ministers on Sunday aimed at fostering economic cooperation between the
two regions.
The Emir said the two regions “need to exert efforts to face the challenges
facing our countries”.
Shaikh Sabah said the Kuwaiti private sector companies played a leading role
in helping achieve strategic partnership.
“They are all evidence of our firm conviction of the importance of strategic
partnership. We should also mention ... the philanthropic work of Kuwaiti
charitable associations that expand their activities to include many African
countries,” he said.
Kuwait will earmark an annual financial award of one million dollars in the
name of late Dr Abdul Rahman Al Sumait focusing on development research in
Africa.
The award will be supervised by Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of
Sciences (KFAS).
Al Sumait, the founder of Kuwait-based Direct Aid, started philanthropic work
and charity operations in Africa in the early 1980s.
The Emir told the conference that the proper utilization of “our natural
resources” would contribute to sustainable development and economic integration,
through making good use of skilled manpower to ultimately achieve food security
despite unstable economic conditions around the globe.
Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Shaikh Sabah Khalid Al Sabah said the “Partners in
Development and Investment” summit will discuss a proposal by the Africa-Arab
Economic Forum to create an Arab-African common market for a combined population
of around 1.2 billion people.
The leaders will also focus on how to accelerate investment flows into
Africa, which has huge potentials but is facing an acute investment
gap.
According to the World Bank, Africa needs around $30 billion a year just to
develop its energy section.
The International Monetary Fund says African economic growth was a solid 5.0
per cent in 2012 despite the world economic crisis. Growth is forecast to ease
slightly at 4.8 per cent this year and rebound to 5.1 per cent in
2014.
In addition, Africa has 12 per cent of global oil reserves and 42 per cent of
its gold deposits. The discovery of large quantities of natural gas off Africa’s
east coasts has added to the continent’s economic potential.
On the other hand, the energy-rich Gulf Cooperation Council states have
accumulated surpluses to the tune of $2.0 trillion thanks to persistently high
oil prices. A majority of the assets are invested in the US and
Europe.
The summit held in Libya three years ago adopted an Africa-Arab Partnership
Strategy and a 2011-2016 Joint Action Plan to increase investment, trade and
other economic projects.
But implementation has been slow, in part because of the turmoil unleashed by
the 2011 Arab Spring, which saw the leaders of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen
toppled by mass protests and the outbreak of civil war in Syria.
The leaders are expected to approve a resolution to set up an Africa-Arab
Joint Financial Mechanism to provide the means for implementing projects and
encouraging investment.
They will also discuss establishing an Africa-Arab Technical and Coordination
Committee on Migration to help protect migrant workers.
— With inputs from Habib Toumi, Bahrain Bureau Chief
fecha |
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