20100528
africa good news

The annual meeting of the African Development Bank started Thursday in Ivory Coast, with plans on the table for a 200 percent rise in the bank's current capital of 33 billion dollars (26.9 billion euros).

Bank chairman Donald Kaberuka of Rwanda hosted presidents Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, Yayi Boni of Benin and Faure Gnassingbe of Togo at the opening session.

Participants in the 45th annual meeting of the pan-African bank, held at a hotel in Abidjan, are expected to prolong Kaberuka's term in office and to vote on the capital increase.

African Union commission president Jean Ping opened the proceedings with a warning that Africa should "remain vigilant" in the face of the financial crisis in Europe, to avoid fall-out for African recovery plans.

Ping expressed his "concern caused by the worrying development of the situation in Europe, following the financial imbalance in Greece and the fragility of other European countries.

"We must remain vigilant to watch that these jolts in the industrialised economies do not gravely affect our countries once again, and do not compromise the recovery we hope will take shape this year."

A joint report by the AfDB and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Monday forecast that Africa's growth should turn around in 2010, to a rate of 4.5 percent, after being wiped out in 2009 by the global financial crisis.

Ping added that Africans should "imagine solutions adapted to our needs" and he issued a plea to strengthen the integration of African economies.

"The world economy is showing signs of recovery but progress remains uncertain," said the AfDB's Kaberuka, who warned of the impact of "record deficits (and) the public debt crisis."

Kaberuka noted that "most African countries avoided a long and deep recession" and attributed this to "their capacity of resistance".

He said that the 200 percent increase in the AfDB's capital would be "an historic measure" and "a mark of confidence in an African renaissance."

The AfDB has 77 member states: 53 African ones and 24 non-regional ones. The bank has been based temporarily in Tunis since leaving Abidjan when Ivory Coast plunged into civil war in 2002.

Hosting the two-day meeting is a major event for the Ivorian authorities, who hope eventually to see the AfDB return to Ivory Coast as its permanent headquarters.

Gbagbo survived a September 2002 coup bid, but the west African country was divided in two between loyalists and rebel forces. Once gripped by war, Ivory Coast ceased to be the economic powerhouse of west Africa.

A long-awaited presidential election is due this year in Ivory Coast and with the help of international mediators, the rival Ivorian sides have agreed on measures to reunite the country.