The development recipes are known, use them - ADB head

African countries need to further private-sector development, improve governance - especially in the judiciary - and tackle budget deficits, African Development Bank (ADB) President Omar Kabbaj told journalists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday.

“The countries themselves know what they have to do because now they are in the driving seat,” Kabbaj said at a news conference held at the end of the ADB's annual board of governors' meeting, which came to a close a day early on Wednesday. “These recipes are very well known and we are not lecturing countries because they know those are the remedies. Of course African countries cannot do these things by themselves without the support of the international community. Because of the level of poverty, the very low savings rate and investment rates there needs to be a push or help from the international community.”

Kabbaj said support would be channelled through overseas development assistance (ODA), trade and debt relief - of which the ADB has provided some US$2.2 billion. He also said the ADB was continuing its fight against farm subsidies which, he said, were hampering African exports.

The ADB president said the continent needed US$50 billion on top of the US$50 billion in ODA it receives each year. He welcomed the fact that at their recent summit, G8 leaders had expressed their backing for the ADB. “Clearly there was strong support for Africa,” he said. However, he noted, prior to the talks the G8 had pledged US$16 billion in assistance whereas US$50 billion was required. “That is something that was not enough and so we would appeal again to industrial countries to make sure that they increase quickly this share of their ODA.”

He also reaffirmed the ADB’s commitment to return to its headquarters in Cote d’Ivoire's economic capital, Abidjan, if stability returned to the country. In the meantime, the Bank will remain for about two years in Tunis, to which it relocated its operations earlier this year. Kabbaj said the governors would review the situation in Abidjan next year and, once a decision was made to return to that city, the bank would give one year notice. “Our wish is to go back to Abidjan as soon as normal conditions are restored,” he said at the news conference, held at the headquarters of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.