Maravi

Build on founding fathers' legacies, advises Swazi PM

Build on founding fathers' legacies, advises Swazi PM
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sunday August 03, 2008 [12:52]

SWAZILAND Prime Minister Absalom Dlamini has regretted that the strong foundation for Africa's growth that was set by the continent's founding fathers has been taken for granted. Officially opening this year's agriculture show in Lusaka on Friday, Prime Minister Dlamini observed that the legacy left by the continent's founding fathers provided limitless opportunities for the continent's growth through diversity.

"Let us learn and build on the foundation and legacies of our wise leaders, both past and present, who have always desired to see growth being the mainstay of every economy," Prime Minister Dlamini said.

"They always wanted to see all sectors of our economies benefiting from growth. Their focus was on building strong institutions; that is from the family, community, national, sub-regional, regional, and continental and at multilateral levels."

Prime Minister Dlamini said the strong foundations laid by the founding fathers of the continent provided immense opportunities for the growth of industrialisation on the continent.

"The legacy has provided limitless opportunities for growth through diversity. It is a pity that many of us now take these opportunities for granted yet our founding fathers made a lot of sacrifices to create this solid foundation for us, which has opened doors to enable the ordinary entrepreneur to achieve the extraordinary," Prime Minister Dlamini said.

"As a region, we need to build on the wealth of experience that we have accumulated over the years to diversify our economies and add value to the different production structure and processes. In the end we safely talk about growth in diversity."

And the Swaziland Prime Minister expressed optimism that the collapsed World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade negotiations in Geneva would be concluded cordially.

"At multilateral level, we pray that the Doha negotiations are concluded amicably. These and other global activities are opening up for micro, small, medium as well as large-scale enterprises to interact and conduct trade smoothly and more freely with each other. Such regional and international interaction will in turn lead to the growth of the economies of the region," Prime Minister Dlamini added.

However, he called for enhanced regional trade as opposed to placing too much emphasis on accessing foreign markets, adding that the continent's rich natural resources could help to achieve strong regional trade.

"We need to promote trade amongst ourselves as a region. I am aware that many times we have looked for trade opportunities beyond our continent, yet if we work as a region, we can boost our economies as we tap experiences, resources and capacities of each of our countries as well as comparative advantage," said Prime Minister Dlamini.

"There is no doubt that our economies have diverse resource endowment and this demonstrates that growth and diversification are possible. I believe that the African continent is very rich both in natural resources and human capital. The only challenge is to believe in ourselves."

Labels: ABSALOM DLAMINI, DEVELOPMENT, SWAZILAND

posted by MrK @ 8:35 PM