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The ninth Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Heads of State Summit opened here yesterday with the leaders calling on the regional bloc and Africa to strive to export finished goods and demand equal access to world markets. Speaking at the opening of the summit and at other functions on the sidelines of the meeting, the leaders noted that Africa had for long been an exporter of raw materials and time had come for the continent to export finished goods to realise maximum benefit from its resources. President Mugabe, who is among the leaders attending the summit, said it was pleasing to note that some countries were implementing projects to ensure they became exporters of finished goods. He was speaking at the official launch of Uganda�s Apparels Tri-Star Garment Factory in Kampala. Cde Mugabe, together with his Kenyan counterpart Mr Mwai Kibaki, witnessed the launching of the factory by host President Yoweri Museveni. "This project, it would seem, is a positive pointer to and augury of the direction Africa should take if she is to gain maximum value from her own resources, gain maximum respect as a competitive continent in global trade," Cde Mugabe said. He said although the project was a result of the United States� Africa Growth and Opportunities Act under which Washington seeks to open its markets to Africa in the hope of fair trade, the US should do more as "we deserve more than AGOA". "Apart from the fact that America is at long last beginning to address the long outstanding issue of dismantling its battery of trade barriers that have inhibited access to its markets, I find it most pleasing that this project is in a Comesa country, and is based on the principle of beneficiation of those raw materials which we produce but about which we have always lacked capacity to process for greater employment of our people and better rewards for our exports," Cde Mugabe said. He said the factory, which employs 2 500 people and makes clothes for local and export markets, should be the start of transforming Africa from an exporter of raw materials to an exporter of processed goods. President Mugabe said like Uganda, Zimbabwe was a noted world producer of cotton yet smallholder farmers of the crop in the two countries ranked among the poorest. "A development such as we are gathered here to launch opens new vistas for these wretched of our African earth, allowing those of us who govern to begin to attack rural poverty at its very core. With a project like this, the peasant who produces cotton begins to see fair rewards for his or her labour . . . "And, yes, his or her country begins to grow and industrialise, alongside other countries of the world. "That is our dream which, from what we have here, is at long last beginning to be a real, lived experience," he said. Cde Mugabe said there were opportunities for interaction between the garment factory and Zimbabwe, suggesting that since Zimbabwe was a known world producer of cotton, it could supply Uganda with raw cotton should its processing capacity outstrip supply. "At least we will be happy that our cotton is going towards creating jobs for fellow Africans, towards growing an African economy. We can do it. We are doing it and, yes, as Tri-Star demonstrates, we have done it." He said the aspirations of Zimbabweans was to work for themselves and for the continent to ensure Africa took charge of its destiny, and in trying to do that Zimbabwe had been labelled a pariah state. "Yes, we have earned ourselves endless nicknames and epithets in the pursuit of that vision. Yes, we have come under retributive sanctions and other restrictions for adopting that position. Yes, we have been denied support from institutions to which we are members, institutions that claim to be world institutions, and thus institutions that should and must serve us all as a matter of duty and conscientiousness, not as a matter of favour or of whim." The President said the land reform programme in Zimbabwe, which Britain and the West viciously opposed, was nearing completion and had put indigenous Zimbabweans at the centre of the economy. "Our land, all along occupied by foreigners, has finally come back to its real owners, who have started working it for their own development and the development of their country. "That economy continues to look for friends and partners, putting Africa and the Third World first. That economy is beginning to show a new model of development, one which is predicated on national resources, national effort and national goals." President Museveni, who said Africa should move away from the tendency of asking for donor support but ask for equal access to markets, lambasted the West for giving aid with conditions. "They give you aid for elections --- can you imagine? We don�t need aid for elections. What we need is what we do not have --- access to markets --- because elections we can hold on our own." He said at the Commonwealth summit in Abuja, Nigeria, last year, Africa stood firm in support of Zimbabwe, which some Western powers wanted condemned. "If we had kept quiet some people wanted to create problems for Zimbabwe," said President Museveni. President Kibaki hailed President Mugabe for his resolute leadership and principled stand, saying he should continue to present the Zimbabwe issue to African countries where there are people to "cheer you". "Please be able to live longer and to do much more. We pray for you to do much more," said President Kibaki. Opening the Comesa summit earlier, Mr Museveni said this year�s gathering was historic in three ways as it marked the 10th anniversary of the transformation of the regional group from the Preferential Trade Area to Comesa, and was being held concurrently with the Comesa First Ladies� Roundtable and the first Comesa Business Summit, which groups private sector representatives of the regional bloc to discuss trade and investment. The First Lady, Cde Grace Mugabe, was among the Comesa First Ladies attending the roundtable, which focused on Aids and HIV and how they impacted on trade and investment. The Heads of State and First Ladies are expected to issue separate communiqu�s at the end of the meetings today. The leaders� summit was focusing on trade, investment, security, movement of goods, capital and people and the establishment of a Comesa Customs Union. The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
