Italy vows to help Africa in crisis

Moves to lower risk for private investment discussed

(ANSA)Italy on Wednesday vowed to help Africa through the global economic downturn and aid its recovery when the worst is over. Speaking after a two-day meeting in Rome on the impact of the global economic crisis on funding for African infrastructure, Foreign Undersecretary Vincenzo Scotti reiterated that Africa is one of the priorities of the Italian presidency of the Group of Eight this year. He said Italy will propose ''financial mechanisms that mitigate risk and foster greater funding from private groups'' at this year's G8 summit on the island of La Maddalena off Sardinia, Scotti said. ''Major infrastructure projects require a large mobilisation of capital,'' he said, stressing that ''it can't all be entrusted to state aid''. ''Private capital is needed and in order to increase these flows we must use instruments that reduce the risk for this kind of investment,'' the undersecretary said. African infrastructure needs some eight million euros in funding to bring it up to the annual 20 million required to pull out of the global economic downturn, the meeting concluded. Italy hosted the summit of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) at the Italian foreign ministry. ICA Coordinator Alex Rugamba said ''the impact of the crisis on investments in African infrastructure should not be underestimated,'' urging countries and agencies to ''lay the groundwork for Africa to benefit from the recovery, when this crisis ends''. The deputy head of the African Development Bank, Mandala Gantsho, thanked Italy for making Africa one of the priorities of its G8 term. He voiced appreciation for Italy's proposal of setting up investment risk-reduction mechanisms. At the meeting, which ended on Wednesday, the Italian foreign aid department framed a debate on ways of mitigating risk to attract private capital. Donors, funding agencies and risk insurance institutes discussed problems such as governance with the African Union, the G8 countries, the European Union and the World Bank. Chinese, Arab and Indian agencies were also represented. The Italian foreign ministry announced a pilot scheme to boost public-private partnerships, with 2.5 million euros of Italian funding channelled through the African Development Bank. Italy has repeatedly stressed Africa is a G8 priority and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi last week invited Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to this year's G8 summit as head of the African Union. The ICA was established in 2005 following the G8 Summit in Britain. This week's meeting was its fifth annual summit. The Consortium aims to meet Africa's urgent need for growth and development by encouraging the public and private sectors to build power, water, and computer networks. photo: Gantsho (left), Scotti and Rugamba