Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Economic TechnologiesÂ’ Chairman & CEO, Jude E. Uba, Urges International Consensus Around British Prime Minister, Tony BlairÂ’s Africa Plan, in his Report

Economic TechnologiesÂ’ Chairman & CEO, Jude E. Uba, Urges International Consensus Around British Prime Minister, Tony BlairÂ’s Africa Plan, in his Report

Economic TechnologiesÂ’ Chairman & CEO, Jude E. Uba, also in his position as the chairman of the Global Leadership Board, today released his preliminary report on Prime Minister Tony BlairÂ’s ambitious plan for a massive global commitment and leadership to address the underlying causes of poverty in Africa.

HOUSTON, TX (PRWEB) May 11, 2005

“Any ambitious plan such as Tony Blair’s is not a panacea, but rather a needed complimentality. Most African leaders, among them presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki, are now vehemently aware, and must be, that countries succeed by voraciously competing for markets, skills and capital inflow, armed with an ironclad commitment to develop, build and retain value-building skills and infrastructures, led by an unbent commitment for the rule of law (good governance) and solidified with aggregated business plans by a nation’s best and brightest minds, designed to bring to the global marketplace a diversified basket of goods and services that consumers want,” Uba said. “Waiting for financial aid, or praying for rich nations to open their markets through the kindness of hearts will never deliver desired results and never had, nor should it be so.”

The Commission for Africa, set up by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, released a series of actions to restrain poverty and spur economic growth in Africa. The CommissionÂ’s recommendations include $375 billion in extra aid flow to Africa over the next ten years, between $300 and $500 billion in 100% debt cancellations for African countries and a commitment by rich nations to dismantle all trade barriers, including agricultural subsidies, tariffs and rules-of-origin guidelines that negatively distort trade flows from the continent.

The Plan includes stringent guidelines for tackling corruption, by demanding transparency in business conducts in and with Africa and it requires foreign banks to disclose past and future suspicious banking relations with leading Africans. “In a world where prosperity is increasing and more people are sharing each year in its growing wealth, it is an obscenity that should haunt our daily thoughts that four million children will die in Africa this year before their fifth birthday,” said British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Uba’s Report, which will be officially presented, in its complete form, at the Houston Conference for Human Development (The Conference on Economics, Health and Law), scheduled for June, 2005, strongly applauds Blair’s attempt to generate result-oriented priorities, conditions and focus relevant to building legitimate expectations for better productivity gains and governance in the continent. “Africa’s nearly $800 billion debt portfolio notwithstanding, the continent’s main problem is a severely destructive productivity deficit. To transform Africa into a broad production center is not the hardest of missions, perhaps far easier than perceived,” Uba stated. According to the report, Blair’s Plan which is in reality a plan for the whole world, including developed countries’ tax payers who will save about $500 billion annually, not counting the obvious benefits of expanding markets, “must move beyond the rhetoric of the past and devoid of strangling undercurrent motivations.”

Although the Report anticipates a watered-down final version, the Plan it states “deserves strong, positive global consensus and embrace in its current strength and reach.” A failure of the Plan will not only “impact negatively on Tony Blair, but on the veracity of the international community’s past and current positions on global poverty reduction,” the report concluded.

“This is a time for extraordinary leadership, if the world is to meet emergent set of complex circumstances. Endowed with huge land area and immense natural resources, in an environment of many internal positive shifts, this is truly a unique opportunity point for Africa. If managed effectively, it should lead the continent to its most sustained and broadest prosperity.”

# # #