Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair speaks exclusively to CNN atThe Times CEO Africa Summit
HIGHLIGHTS
- “You can still point to situations in Africa, where there’s an urgent need for change, but you know even when I look at Zimbabwe, I’m actually optimistic about its future.”
- “I think Sub-Saharan Africa, in a curious way, has been ahead of North Africa”
Video: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/business/2012/03/19/tony-blair-africa-arab-spring-zimbabwe.cnn
***PLEASE CREDIT CNN***
TRANSCRIPT
Q: What does the Arab Spring mean to the continent of Africa?
TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think Sub-Saharan Africa, in a curious way, has been ahead of North Africa. In other words, Sub-Saharan Africa has been experiencing a big uplift in number of democracies and proper democratic elections, and so this is one situation in which, although North Africa has always been thought of as far wealthier than Sub-Saharan Africa, actually, I think North Africa could learn something from the democratic experiments in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Q: What can be done to improve infrastructure projects in Africa?
BLAIR: Foreign direct investment is now bigger than aid in Africa, and it’s risen six-fold in the last ten years. But, you’re absolutely right: you still need a huge amount to be done on infrastructure and on governments. On governments what you need is predictable rules, for the investment. And on infrastructure, I would focus on power, electricity and roads.
And I think it is possible to put together the right package of outside and inside investment in order to get this done. And you know, you see infrastructure happening across Africa today in a way it really wasn’t ten years ago. But we need to – again, to move it far faster.
Q: Do you think China is plundering Africa?
BLAIR: I think it’s fascinating to think how the Chinese relationship with Africa and with the West in respect with Africa can progress and develop. And I think it is possible to do it. The Chinese, after all, they’ve got enormous capital to deploy, they tend to get things like infrastructure done far faster and quicker than the Western countries.
On the other hand, it’s important that they’re also seeing this as part of the development of those African countries and not just another transfer of resources. So, you know, this is a big issue to be debated and worked out. But I think if we do it in the right way, it’s possible to look upon the Chinese relationship as one of partnership, not rivalry.
Q: What can be done for the millions of Africans living on less than $1 a day?
BLAIR: The biggest thing that will improve the plight of the millions who still live in poverty is for the countries to grow and develop, and that needs both better governance, better infrastructure and an inflow of quality private sector investment. The work we do in my own foundation is about Africa governance, we see the opportunities and we see the development happening, it just needs to happen faster, but it’s there and that middle class change that is going to happen in Africa in the next decade is going to be an enormous opportunity as well for the outside world.
Q: How can democratically –elected governments make infrastructure changes within their limited time as leaders?
Blair: We have had a situation now where governments have been changing hands, and where infrastructure projects have been carrying on through the change of government, so it’s not impossible to see this now, in a different way than before, and whereas, you know in the two decades up to the early 1990s there has only been one actual change of government democratically, now there’s been over thirty.
Q: What does the future hold for Zimbabwe?
Blair: You can still point to situations in Africa, where there’s an urgent need for change, but you know, even when I look at Zimbabwe, I’m actually optimistic about its future. I think that it’ll have to undergo a political change of course, but I think the country’s probably ready for that, and it will happen in time. So, when I look at Africa as a whole yes, you’re still very much different situations and different countries, but Africa as a whole, it’s on the move, it’s an exciting prospect for Africans and an exciting opportunity for us I think.
ENDS