Africa to become key world economic hub – UNDP Administrator
Mr Achim Steiner, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), says Africa is well positioned to become the key world economic hub in few years to come if governments improve on best governance practices.
Mr Steiner, said the continent had a lot of potentials that could be leveraged to transform its economic status, and it was important for African leaders to develop an all-inclusive policy that would carry everyone in the growth process.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency during the UNDP Senior Management meeting in Accra as part of UNDP Africa Regional Cluster Meeting, the Administrator said the size of the African market was one big driver that pointed to the realization of the continent as a major world economic hub, considering the fact that the continent was currently a one billion market.
He stated that in the next 20 to 30 years, the world would see Africa investing heavily in its infrastructure and in its industrialization drive and that would make Africa an extraordinary dynamic region both economical and development terms.
Asked what African governments could do to ensure the realization of the above, Mr Steiner said it would be prudent for the continent to develop a clear development policy that would teach both the lessons of countries across the continent and beyond the continent about what makes a successful development and a development that fails.
He said good governance systems were critical for successful economies and that government must be the arbiter that allowed all people in the country to feel they have a share in that development process.
He said: “You can grow your economy by five, seven, eight and 10 per cent and still end up with a revolution and that is why I think the principle of inclusiveness will be a defining part of a successful accelerated development pathways for many Africa countries”.
Mr Steiner said the protest movements in countries like South America, Central America, in Europe, in Asia were essential reactions to a growth model that left too many people behind and called for equity and inclusiveness to be part of growth story, which much depended on governments and public policies.
He said sustainability was critical because producing for 10 billion people globally called for rethinking of the models of producing food, agriculture production systems, the protection of the world ecosystems, how to manage to invest in a local economy.
Mr Steiner said Africa was and will increasingly be at the forefront of inventing 21st Century green economies “because, it would be a success story if we invest the wealth that Africans have today”.
Source: GNA