African business hears unity call

African countries need to trade with each other

African businesses need to pull together to break down the trade barriers crippling the continent, a conference set up to inaugurate the new African Union has heard.

South African trade and industry minister Alec Irwin told an audience of business people in Durban that governments alone could not bring about development and reform.

We have to open markets in Africa, and unfortunately we will have to force open markets in the developed world

Alec Irwin
Trade minister

He said the private sector had to pull its weight and collaborate if the idea of an "African renaissance" - one of the key aims of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki - were to be realised.

If you sit back and wait for governments to do it, we will fail," Mr Irwin told his audience. "We are looking for a new world economy based on mutual development."

G8 disappointment

Mr Irwin was speaking at a three-day business summit as part of the events to mark the inauguration of the AU - the successor to the Organisation for African Unity - on 9 July.

The summit comes just days after the G8 group of the world's richest countries came up with a package of African aid measures that fell well short of many African leaders' hopes.

The summit had considered the Nepad (New Partnership for Africa's Development) plan drawn up by Mr Mbeki and three of his fellow African leaders, laying down ground rules which could have released as much as $64bn ($41.8bn) a year for new investment in Africa.

But in the end the summit gave little credence to promises of good governance and economic reform, offering only $6bn, little of which was new money.

'It's not a pipe-dream'

With that in mind, Mr Irwin warned his audience that the Northern hemisphere had shown itself unwilling to open its markets to African goods, making better collaboration a must.

"There is a very low level of interaction between ourselves," he said, referring to the existing levels of trade between African countries.

"As we launch the African Union, it is probably the most fundamental objective to increase interaction and trade with ourselves.

"We have to open markets in Africa, and unfortunately we will have to force open markets in the developed world."

But he held out an optimistic vision of the future too, citing South Africa's development over the last ten years post-apartheid as an example of what could be achieved.

"It's not impossible, it's not a pipe-dream," he said.

"This continent is not short of energy, it's just not in the right place."