AU flags
by SAVIOUS KWINIKA recently in Durban
DURBAN – EXPERTS are wary of the emergence of exclusion, hatred and fear in global politics as economic powerhouse grows its economic footprint in the African continent.
The United States, a rival to the Asian country, China, is cited as the chief culprit.
The Washington’s restlessness follows Beijing hosting the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, which the Asian country exploited to extend its aid of $60 billion (about R900 billion) to Africa.
China hosted 53 of the 55 African Union (AU) member states in Beijing.
The finance package comes barely three years after Chinese President Xi Jinping released a similar amount ($60 billion) to the continent for grants, credit lines, interest-free loans and concessional loans, development fund while promoting imports from the African continent.
Speaking at the just-ended International Telecommunication Union (ITU) summit in Durban, South Africa, Altron Group Chief Executive Officer, Mteto Nyati, said the subsequent anti-globalisation sentiment driving discrimination should be fought head-on.
“We are being told that if you are different from us, we should be uncomfortable,” he said without mentioning names.
“We all work for powerful companies and need to take a stand on the side of the people, the poor, and those who have no access to information,” Nyathi said.
He urged the influential ICT industry to resist the emerging anti-globalisation sentiment.
Host president, Cyril Ramaphosa, whose country is a member of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) grouping officially opened the ITU summit.
In an interview with CAJ News Africa, a Libyan national based in Durban, Hassan al-Bakkoush, said such summits as ITU, AfricaCom and FOCAC would see Africa’s fulfill its potential.
“Africa is the next economic frontier, full of possibilities with a potential to leapfrog if the geo-political of economy of this world is not driven by predatory greed, fear, discrimination, exclusion and hatred, which the West thrives on,” al-Bakkoush said.
Chinese entrepreneur, Wang Liu, also castigated the prevailing political trends.
“I’m strongly convinced the BRICS nations will champion global fair trade, something that has been missing. However, we become worried when economics of exclusion, hatred and fear are being preached by those that looted resources from developing countries,” Liu also said without pinpointing
‘looters’.
– CAJ News