Assistance to Africa is low, Morocco deplores

Public assistance to development devoted to Africa represent only 18 percent of all external resources, Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohamed Benaissa, said Tuesday.

Sub-Saharan African nations need more than any other countries more external financing, Benaissa told the High-Level Segment of the 2001 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which this year focuses on African development.

Given the weakness of their revenues, sub-Saharan countries find it hard to mobilize internal resources necessary for investment and for growth, he said, adding these countries remain dependent on external financing, especially public assistance.

Benaissa called, in this connection, for pondeering means to reverse this trend, increasing public assistance to Africa to help it mobilize resources and promoting productive firms in the continent.

Once this objective achieved, Africa can aspire to lasting development and sustained growth, he said.

He also called on rich nations to open their markets to African products through lowering customs barriers. He laid a special emphasis on the need to alleviate the foreign debt burden through special measures and not at the expense of assistance to development.