Kuwait city – Kuwait will provide $1b in low-interest loans to African countries over a five-year period, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, announced yesterday at the Arab-Africa leaders’ summit in Kuwait City.Arab and African leaders gathered for the two-day summit in Kuwait City are to review steps to promote economic ties between wealthy Gulf states and investment-thirsty Africa.“I ordered officials of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to provide soft loans worth $1b to Africa over the next five years,” Sheikh Sabah said at the opening of the third Africa-Arab summit.The summit, which brings together 71 countries and organizations, is being attended by 34 Heads of State, seven vice-presidents and three Heads of Government.The meeting is the first of its kind since 2010, when leaders met in Libya prior to the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled longstanding dictatorships in North Africa and the Middle East.The leaders are expected to approve measures and resolutions adopted by foreign ministers on Sunday aimed at fostering economic co-operation between the two regions.Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said the “Partners in Development and Investment’ summit will discuss a proposal by the Africa-Arab Economic Forum to create an Arab-African common market for a combined population of around 1.2 billion people.The leaders will also focus on how to accelerate investment flows into Africa, which has huge potentials but is facing an acute investment gap.According to the World Bank, Africa needs around $30b a year just to develop its energy sector.The continent has 12 per cent of global oil reserves and 42 per cent of its gold deposits. The discovery of large quantities of natural gas off Africa’s east coast has added to the continent’s economic potential. On the other hand, the energy-rich Gulf Co-operation Council states have accumulated surpluses to the tune of $2 trillion, thanks to persistently high oil prices. The summit held in Libya three years ago adopted an Africa-Arab Partnership Strategy and a 2011-2016 Joint Action Plan to increase investment, trade and other economic projects. But implementation has been slow, in part because of the turmoil unleashed by the 2011 Arab Spring.The leaders are expected to approve a resolution to set up an Africa-Arab joint financial mechanism to provide the means for implementing projects and encouraging investment.They will also discuss establishing an Africa-Arab technical and co-ordination committee on migration to help protect migrant workers.
