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Britain's Blair Pledges to Make Africa a Priority
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday told visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki of plans for more debt relief for African nations and help in attracting more private investment to help Africa throw off the legacy of colonialism and develop into a thriving, democratic economy.
"I regard this as a second term priority for us and something that I care deeply about personally," Blair, re-elected to government a week ago, said after meeting Mbeki at his Downing Street office.
"We can help with aid and development and debt relief. It is essential that countries in Africa are not struggling with massive debt repayments when they are trying to house their people, feed their people, clothe their people properly," he said.
The Prime Minister said Britain would also lend a stronger hand in resolving the continent's conflicts.
He said Britain and the developed world could help by boosting investment in Africa and by using its expertise in conflict resolution.
"I think it is possible to put together an agenda for Africa for the future which is about...making sure Africa gets the investment it deserves and needs because the opportunities there are vast if only we can deal with some of these problems," he added.
Mbeki, on the last full day of his first state visit to Britain, also appealed again to British investors to help change his country.
"I think we have a common project with regards to turning what many people might still regard to be good potential, good prospects in South Africa...into something that will convey a message about the African continent that will be radically different," he told an investment seminar earlier Thursday before meeting Blair.
The South African president also pleaded for debt relief for Africa and touted his own country as the gateway to the continent but badly in need of foreign investment.
Mbeki, traveling with a delegation of eight cabinet ministers and a hundred businessmen, said in the seven years since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy South Africa had built a sound economy with solid policies and good prospects for growth.
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