Kufuor calls for better governance in Africa at ADB meet

VALENCIA, Spain - The annual meeting of the African Development Bank (ADB) was due to begin here Tuesday as Ghana's President John Kufuor called for better governance on a continent wracked by poverty and debt.

Describing the lending institution as "the best local partner for development", Kufuor said African governments needed to weed out corruption in order to draw private investment and support from international agencies.

"We can only justify and utilise assistance from the ADB and other international agencies if we prepare ourselves well to absorb the support we get efficently, transparently and with utter dedication the crying needs of our people," Kufour told a symposium here Monday, ahead of the official opening of the 36th annual meeting of the ADB's governors.

The three-day meeting, the first in a non-African venue, is set to focus on debt and poverty relief as well as mounting arrears owed to the Bank by some member countries.

Created in 1966, the ADB counts 53 African and 24 non-African nations. It has its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's economic capital, but is meeting in Valencia, Spain, following 18 months of political turmoil in the west African country.

In a keynote address to delegates from the private sector, academics, and Bretton Woods institutions, the newly elected Ghanaian president urged governments to "put aside excessive fear of conditionalities... and live by standards of probity and transparency.

"We must make the rule of law a routine fact of life in Africa," said Kufuor, who was sworn into office in January after landmark elections that ended nearly two decades of rule by former president Jerry Rawlings.

Kufuor said his government has declared "zero tolerance for corruption as a foundation stone for good governance."

Other high-profile figures attending the conference in the Mediterranean port city are former managing director of the International Monetary Fund Michel Camdessus, vice president of the World Bank Thomas Vinod, Liberian opposition leader Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell.

The annual meeting, from Tuesday to Thursday, comes at a time when the global economy is in the doldrums.

While an increase in the price of petroleum has benefitted some African countries, average economic growth on the continent has dipped from 3.2 percent for 2000 against 2.7 percent a year ago.

Foreign investment in Africa has dropped over a two year-year period, from 9.8 billion dollars in 1998 against 9.3 billion in 1998.

Africa's external debt in 2000 declined marginally by about three billion dollars from 1999, when it stood at 337 billion dollars.

Countries most crippled by debt include Burundi, whose debt service amounts to 95 percent of its export earnings, and Rwanda and Sierra Leone, whose debt payments eat up 41 percent of export revenue, according to the World Bank.