Foreign Minister returns home from Dakar Summit

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman returned home from Dakar, Senegal on Thursday after participation in the summit on the private sector financing of the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

A statement in Accra said the minister, who represented the President was accompanied by Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Co-operation, Mr. Kwamena Bartels, Minister for Private Sector Development, government officials and representatives of the private sector, including Alhaji

Asuma Banda, Chief Executive of Antrak Ltd.

The summit was at the invitation of President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and was attended by 12 African leaders, including President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Joachim Chisano of Mozambique.

The objective was to provide a platform for representatives of the private sector to engage in a dialogue with African leaders and other stakeholders on how they could, together push forward the Development agenda envisaged under the NEPAD.

There was a consensus among participants that, to engage the private sector in a constructive way, African governments would have to put their houses in order by creating the necessary enabling environment for the private sector to operate.

African countries were also asked to mobilise their vast internal resources as well as capital invested by their citizens abroad. It was acknowledged that if the estimated 320 billion dollars believed to be invested by Africans abroad could be brought back to Africa, would represent a substantial portion of the capital needed for Africa's development requirements.

The private sector finance for major projects required for Africa's development, including infrastructure, education, capacity building and sustainable health including programmes to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other communicable diseases were also discussed.