Africa wants to face up to its problems, Annan says

Africans are showing a new will and capacity to face up to their problems but need to convince industrialised countries of Africa's importance and the need to keep supporting the continent, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the 21st Franco-African Summit on Thursday. "We must appeal to their enlightened self-interest," Annan said. "We must convince them that Africa matters, and that this is a time to increase, not diminish, their positive engagement with us."

He said industrialised countries could help Africa by lifting barriers against its products and reducing subsidies to their own farmers, practices which make it hard for African farmers to compete. However, most African countries will first need help in the form of debt relief, he said.

The focus of 17-19 January summit is globalisation, and Annan warned that Africa would fall further behind if it allowed itself to be left on the margins of the new knowledge-based world economy. "But that need not happen," he said. "For a relatively small investment - mainly an investment in basic education, for girls and boys alike - we can bring all kinds of knowledge within reach of poor people."

He also urged leaders to remove impediments to new technology in many African countries. "Too often, state monopolies charge exorbitant prices for the use of bandwidths, thereby putting the new world economy beyond the reach of most of their citizens," he said.