Ｒｅｓｏｕｒｃｅｓ　ｔｏ　Ｒｉｃｈｅｓ？ Wags to Riches

　　Africa’s natural resources can be a cornerstone of development for some countries on the struggling continent
　　
　　Africa is a vast territory with abundant mineral and biological resources, and this is where great hope lies for a better future. Its valuable metallic reserves, which include gold, cobalt, platinum, chromium, manganese, titanium and vanadium, and mineral reserves, such as diamond, bauxite and phosphate, top the world.
　　Its verified oil and natural gas deposits account for 8.8 percent and 7.9 percent of the respective world totals, with production continuing to increase. Africa has become one of the world’s important oil-producing regions. Meanwhile, it has abundant resources in agriculture, fishery, forest and wild animals, and is known as a continent with huge development potential.
　　However, Africa has the most backward economy in the world. Of the 49 most underdeveloped nations throughout the world, according to the UN, Africa has 34. Africa’s population accounts for 30 percent of the world’s people, but its economic aggregate is only 1 percent of the world total and trade value accounts for 2 percent.
　　Of the 38 nations with the heaviest debts in the world, 32 are in Africa, with total debts exceeding $300 billion. African countries have to repay about $23 billion to creditors every year, which accounts for 31 percent of their total foreign exchange revenue. Many African countries have to incur new debts to repay the old ones, and struggle to repay interest on their debts year round.
　　Major economic problems are accompanied by social problems. Africa’s impoverished population doubled in size in the last decade. Of the 850 million people in Africa, 300 million live on less than $1 a day and 200 million are threatened by serious food shortage. Among the 1.2 million people worldwide who succumbed to malaria in 2004, Africans accounted for 85 percent; of the 3.1 million AIDS deaths, 75 percent were from Africa.
　　All these economic and social challenges in Africa not only influence the continent’s rejuvenation and development, but also bring uncertainty to global development and stability. From a humanitarian perspective, the situation in Africa is a nightmare. Thus, Africa’s development is something for the entire world to care about in the 21st century.
　　
　　Political reorganization
　　
　　Africa is not only the world’s most impoverished region, but also a continent facing trouble such as coup d’états, civil wars, border conflicts and chaotic politics.
　　According to estimates, more than 180 coup d’états took place in the continent in the past half century, and more than 30 countries were involved in wars or international conflicts in the past 15 years. These wars and conflicts killed more than 7 million people and made 13 million others homeless, with economic losses reaching $250 billion.
　　But the 1990s witnessed the end of the Cold War and great changes in global politics. After that, the momentum of coup d’états was restrained and popularly elected governments began their rule over various African countries. Mediated by the African Union, various sub-regional African organizations and the United Nations, some problems that seriously impacted Africa’s stability were eased or resolved.
　　Disputes and conflicts in the Great Lake region ended; Angola, a country that had suffered civil war for more than 20 years, embarked on the project of national rejuvenation; Liberia has since maintained primary peace; Sudan, after years of civil war, established a national conciliation government; and the anarchic Somalia established its interim government. Africa’s political situation is becoming more stable as a whole, creating rare opportunities for its economic and social development.
　　The continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America contain most of the world’s developing countries. Compared with Asia and Latin America, Africa had a late start in developing its economy and the gap between Africa and the other two continents is widening. African countries increasingly feel they are on the edge of being marginalized and should make efforts to develop themselves.
　　UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pointed out that African nations not only have an increasingly large gap with developed countries in economic development, but also lag behind developing countries in other continents. According to him, an impoverished Africa would hinder the development of all of humanity. The United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted in September 2000, listed poverty eradication, especially in Africa, as one of its major tasks in the new century and requires developed countries to use 0.7 percent of their GNP to assist impoverished nations.
　　
　　Roots of poverty
　　
　　The reason for Africa’s poverty contains not only historical elements, but also current and continuing factors.
　　In the 16th century, European colonists invaded Africa and the continent was carved up by the 19th century. Starting in the 1950s, African countries gradually won independence. Fundamentally, Africa’s poverty is the result of colonialists’ long-term political oppression and economic plunder.
　　Now the question is, why have these countries been unable to become more prosperous during the half century after winning independence? It is commonly believed that owing to long-term civil strifes, as well as confrontations and wars between various tribes, African countries have failed to maintain a stable environment for economic development.
　　Many African countries do not have short- and long-term economic development strategies, and their abundant resources cannot be effectively developed and fully utilized because of their backward infrastructure. Other problems include shortages of capital and technology, lack of talented personnel, incompetent governance and misuse of capital.
　　A deeper reason for the poverty is unreasonable international political and economic orders. Most African countries are heavily in debt to developed countries, with the debt increasing at an annual rate of 23 percent on average. Under this heavy burden, these countries cannot move forward with their development. According to Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairman of the Commission of the African Union and former Malian President, heavy debt has become a core problem restraining Africa’s economic development.
　　Last July, several industrialized countries undertook debt relief for some heavily indebted African countries, but this commitment has yet to be fully honored. Africa’s development needs capital and talent. However, it isn’t easy for African nations to raise capital all by themselves. Developed countries are reluctant to invest in Africa for various reasons and Africa’s talent frequently flows to developed nations.
　　Besides oil and minerals, African countries mainly export agricultural produce, especially coffee, cotton and cocoa. However, during the two decades from 1980-2000, the prices of these products dropped 47 to 71 percent in the international market. Meanwhile, developed nations subsidized their agricultural exports, and as a result African produce was unable to compete. This resulted in an annual loss of at least $100 billion to Africa’s export revenue.
　　Some African countries believe that debt reduction and exemption is very important, but it is only a temporary remedy in resolving Africa’s poverty. The key is to establish a fair and reasonable international trade system. Thus, the African Union strongly recommends that developed nations remove trade barriers and cancel agricultural export subsidies to create an equal and just international trade environment for Africa.
　　
　　
　　Economic independence
　　
　　To eliminate poverty, it is vitally important for Africa to correctly handle the relationship between foreign aid and self-support.
　　After African countries won independence, they put their hope of getting rich on foreign aid and this became a widely accepted mode of thinking. At that time, these African countries still relied on their suzerain states to a large extent.
　　Meanwhile, some African leaders lacked self-confidence and placed too much value on foreign assistance. According to estimates by U.S. economists, calculated at current exchange rates, aid from developed nations to Africa between 1960 and 2003 topped $568 billion.
　　Another report says the international community supplied nearly $1 trillion in aid to Africa. Still, this help failed to pull the continent out of its impoverished situation. An official from the UN Economic Commission for Africa noted that most aid plans in the past did not fit Africa’s reality. A large quantity of assistance funds were returned to the West through various channels and failed to play its intended role in Africa.
　　On entering the new century, African people started to reconsider their development path. The new generation of African leaders, represented by South African President Thabo Mbeki, raised the idea of Africa rejuvenation.
　　In July 2001, an Organization of African Unity summit adopted the New Partnership for African Development, pledging to eradicate poverty. The plan outlined a blueprint for Africa’s rejuvenation and development in political, economic and social sectors, and set the goal of annually increasing the gross domestic product by 7 percent throughout the continent and halving its impoverished population in the coming15 years.
　　In July 2002, the African Union replaced the Organization of African Unity and decided to intensify coordination and cooperation in areas of politics, security, economy and social development among its members.
　　In March 2003, representatives at an African Union summit meeting suggested the establishment of a peer review mechanism to promote intra-supervision on strengthening governance, devising economic policy and cracking down on corruption to ensure political stability and improved economic sustainability.
　　Currently, of the 53 African Union members, 24 have voluntarily joined the mechanism. This indicates that awareness of the need for self-support in Africa is gaining ground. Thanks to this awareness, mutually beneficial cooperation between African countries has grown and trade volume in the region is increasing greatly.
　　At the same time, more than a dozen African sub-regional economic organizations are activating unprecedented connections and enhancing existing ones, in a bid to establish a unified African market by 2030.
　　
　　Development momentum
　　
　　Owing to different national conditions and different development strategies, African countries have made different achievements in eradicating poverty. Many development modes have appeared in recent years.
　　In the 1990s, South Africa ended apartheid. The new government adopted a pragmatic economic and social policy, which not only prevented capital outflow but also attracted a large quantity of foreign capital. Its rapid development has made the country an engine of economic growth in Africa.
　　South Africa’s practice also encouraged other countries. Botswana and Mauritius are taking advantage of their respective mineral resources and sea transportation, and have gradually become rich through diamond mining and export and textile producing and export.
　　Some African countries adopted comparatively radical socialist economic policies after independence and later carried out drastic reforms according to the development of the international environment. Tanzania adopted new policies in its agricultural and mining sectors and its national economic growth increased from 4.2 percent in 1996 to 6.7 percent in 2004.
　　Mozambique realized political stability after its civil war ended. The country, not so rich in resources, gradually reduced its dependency on foreign aid through policy adjustments and its economy increased at a rate of 8 percent in recent years, making it one of a few African countries with a strong growth impetus.
　　More than 20 African countries are proven to have oil deposits. Libya, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt are traditional oil producers and have long been exporting oil. Angola, Sudan, Gabon and the Republic of Congo are newcomers in this sector.
　　Current soaring oil prices in the international market are greatly boosting the economic development of African oil producers. In 2004, the economic growth in many African oil-producing countries exceeded 5 percent, with the rate in Angola reaching 14 percent. French newspaper Le Figaro reported that oil tapping is very likely to become a reliable capital source for reducing poverty in Africa.
　　A report from the African Development Bank shows the average economic growth in Africa was 3.5 percent from 1995 to 2003, or double that of 15 years ago. The growth rate in 2004 was 5.1 percent. According to a report issued by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Africa’s economic growth is expected to reach a record high of 5.2 percent in 2005. This indicates that Africa’s economy has entered a new era of recovery and development.

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