European NGOs have “trapped Africa in continued poverty” by opposing free trade, says Lord Mandelson, a former EU Commissioner for Trade.
The former Cabinet minister’s remarks at the CEO Africa summit organised by The Times were part of a panel discussion on African resource nationalism.
Lord Mandelson said that one of the biggest barriers he faced in renegotiating Europe’s trade treaties with Africa while Trade Commissioner was the persistence of some European NGOs in silencing him.
It was the biggest discovery of my life, Lord Mandelson said. He argued that the “crowding” that he experienced should not be allowed to weigh down businesses.
“Business needs to find a responsible voice and let that voice be heard.”
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Earlier Tony Blair said that African nations must improve their governance to take advantage of a mass of “footloose capital” from private investors
Mr Blair outlined seven factors key for Africa to harness rapid economic growth, including infrastructure, foreign investment, education and tourism.
He expressed optimism about a new attitude from African leaders who have an “impatience” about looking back to colonial legacies and an “urgent desire” to focus on the future.
But in a reference to his own period in office, he said that there was an irony of being a government leader: “You begin at your most popular and least capable, and end at your least popular and most capable.”
Outlining the potential of Africa, Mr Blair said that the number of Africans with an annual income of over $3,000 is set to rise from 60 million to 100 million within three years. He cited McKinsey research forecasting that consumer spending will double this decade to $1.4 trillion.
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Mr Blair urged both African and Western nations to treat China as a partner rather than a threat, through its involvement in billions of pounds’ worth of investment in the continent: “We should be development partners, not rivals.”
He added that African leaders were tempted to turn to China for commercial investment for infrastructure projects over aid from the West.
He argued that turning to Western donors to help to build a road meant reams of bureaucracy and ensuring that the work met the requirements of the government in question. “If I say to the Chinese I want a road from A to B, the next day a man is there with a shovel.”
Mr Blair insisted that foreign aid must work side by side with private sector investment: “I’m not a subscriber to the ‘dead aid’ thesis at all.”
Although not all the money pledged by donor nations at the 2005 Gleneagles summit has been delivered, he offered a roll call of achievements from foreign aid: a dramatic fall in the number of deaths from HIV/Aids, a halving from measles and an anti-malaria campaign under way with fatalities down by a fifth over ten years.
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Trade barriers within Africa still need to be lowered, the former Prime Minister said, and education in many African nations in need of improvement to avoid putting a “ceiling” on growth and development.
But Mr Blair sounded an upbeat note, saying he believed that the continent had a bright future: “I feel instantly uplifted when I visit, despite all the poverty and the problems.”
He added: “I don’t underestimate or hide from the immense challenges that remain. But I do say that the rising stars of the 21st century will indeed be African. It has taken a long time. Too long. But go to Africa and see it happening. It’s worth it, for Africa and for us.”