Mbeki calls for Africa aid

Mbeki: Africa needs "partners" to revive its economies

South African President Thabo Mbeki has appealed to the participants of this week's G8 summit in Canada to help revive Africa's underdeveloped economies and prevent poverty.

There is an unprecedented resolve on the [African] continent to turn away from the begging bowl and engage in new efforts to build a better life

Thabo Mbeki

"A great moment is at hand: a chance for developed countries to make a sound investment while helping," Mr Mbeki wrote in an article for the New York Times newspaper.

"The common thread here is the renewed determination among political leaders and civil society to build a humane world of shared prosperity."

The G8 summit - a meeting of the seven most powerful industrial nations plus Russia - is expected to focus on developing an aid package for the continent called the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), of which Mr Mbeki was one of the founders.

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The plan, which calls for massive investment in the continent in return for a commitment to democracy by African nations, has won the support of the Organisation for African Unity and several African leaders.

It has been described as the African equivalent of the Marshall Plan, when the United States poured billions of dollars into Europe's ailing economies following World War II.

'Concrete proposals'

"There is an unprecedented resolve on the continent to turn away from the begging bowl and engage in new efforts to build a better life," Mr Mbeki said.

The South African leader said that the continent needed "partners" to improve African nations' infrastructures, expand limited telecommunications systems and rebuild its poor roads, rail and port facilities and cities.

Mbeki wants Africans to take an active part in improvement programmes

He added that African leaders intended to arrive at the remote resort town of Kananaskis in Canada, where the summit is to be held, with "concrete proposals" as to how to begin putting the plan into action.

Mr Mbeki also cited the importance that the Nepad plan had been formulated by Africans themselves, and called on the continent's population to continue to take on the task of planning such packages.

"If programs in manufacturing, agriculture, education and health are to succeed, Africans in their millions must take an active part," he said.