African Promises, Italian Pizzazz and British Playing Fields

Commissioner for Africa, Tidjane Thiam says: “The decisions made at the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles are a major achievement for Africa. It is to the credit of the G-8 leaders, and notably the chairman of the G-8, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that they were not diverted from their task to combat poverty and improve lives by the pointless terrorist atrocities that struck London.

“We argued for investment to build up Africa’s capacity to trade and its ability to meet the costs of adapting to a more liberalised international trading system.

These are things we need to demand from governments negotiating on our behalf at the WTO.”

As far as those great trade facilitators – ports – are concerned, we can see some real progress in Africa now

We can also still see rampant corruption and cronyism. An awful lot remains to be sorted out.