Businesses across Africa have come out in strong support for the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), Eskom Chairman Reuel Khoza announced at the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Africa Economic Summit.
Endorsements for Nepad had been coming in from the continent's business community during the summit, he revealed, with 67 companies and 120 individuals so far signing a special declaration which pledges their commitment to Nepad and to the actions necessary to ensure that it succeeds.
According to Khoza, the declaration states that its signatories will commit to implementing best-practice standards of corporate governance, sound accounting practices, and eliminating corrupt practices.
Other pledges include the continued transfer of skills and technology to build human capital, assisting governments in capacity-building across many areas, developing effective public-private partnerships and exploring the creation of a private, non-profit body to raise and promote finance to fund the attainment of Nepad's goals.
Committed business could enhance Nepad's case for the G-8 countries as well, by demonstrating the strength of support for the plan across the continent, Khoza added.
Representing the private sector's point of view, Leon Vermaak, head of financial services group Sanlam, told the forum that business people present at the WEF Summit's meetings during the past two days had "come out in very strong support" of Nepad and its goals.
"Business sees opportunities in Nepad since it builds a sound platform for long-term economic growth. Our most important contribution lies in the way we run our businesses-to adhere to and promote sound principles of corporate governance, create jobs, develop human capital, and identify business opportunities, among many other contributions."
He added that business leaders believed new structures for working with governments had to be created and existing ones strengthened, with a strong coalition of business people supporting Nepad, as evidenced by the declaration.
Also necessary was a political risk insurance pool or sovereign guarantees to help alleviate political risk from the projects that needed to be undertaken, Vermaak said.
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