Tanzania Urges Rich North to Help Africa Overcome Poverty

Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa has accused rich nations of lacking political will and good faith by giving a lot of hype to prospects of globalization but failing to help Africa overcome poverty.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Mkapa said African and other developing countries could benefit much from globalization if the rules of the game were practical, fair and humane.

"Globalization will not deliver to the poor countries, unless the developed industrialized nations and multilateral corporations help the least developed to build capacity and compete," he said in a speech titled "How Can Globalization Deliver The Goods: The View from The South" at the annual gathering of world leaders.

The Tanzanian president noted that the wealth gap between the rich and poor countries is widening, the digital divide getting worse and in the face of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other debilitating and fatal diseases, a new gap is emerging.

"While HIV/AIDS is increasingly turning into a serious but manageable disease like diabetes in rich countries, it has eroded health progress in Africa, drastically cutting life expectations and threatening entire societies and their well being," he underlined.

According to Mkapa, evidence suggests that Africa's share of the world trade has declined steadily over the last decade, as boosted by the common feature of non-tariff barriers against developing countries.

"The imposition of escalating tariffs against processed products from poor countries, including agricultural products, questions the depth of good faith," he pointed out.

He said sustained development required much more than good governance, prudent policies and macro-economic stability.

What is required is the need to address supply side constraints, including poor infrastructure, increased flow of foreign direct investment and improved terms of trade, he said.

In Tanzania, he said, you can not rely on the private sector alone to put up good roads, railway lines, ports and telecommunication facilities.

"For these we need increased non-debt creating aid and concessional loans," he said.

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