African Leaders to Sell New African Initiative to G8 SummitAfrican leaders are planning to sell a "new African initiative" to the forthcoming Group of Eight (G8) Summit to be held in Genoa, a northern city of Italy, from July 20 to 22, the News Agency of Nigeria reported on Thursday.The "new African initiative" will be presented at the summit by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Abdoullahi Wade of Senegal, who are specially invited to the summit, said the report. The new initiative, ratified at the 37th Summit of the Organization of African Unity early July in Lusaka, Zambia, is a merger of the Millennium Partnership for African Recovery Program, designed by Obasanjo, Mbeki and their Algerian counterpart Abdulazeze Boutaflika, with the Omega Plan, designed by another group of African leaders, chaired by Wade. The new initiative is African leaders' fresh efforts to move the continent out of its economic predicaments, and ensure that it works in partnership with the rest of the world so that the continent will not be left behind in the new millennium. The African leaders are also planning to use the opportunity to press ahead with their international campaign for debt remission, forgiveness or relief to poor countries, especially those in Africa, which are facing huge amount of unpaid debt and interest arrears. The issue of HIV/AIDS pandemic is another main topic the African leaders are expected to address their counterparts in the West industrialized countries at the summit. |
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