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World Economic Forum on Africa meets to mull over global recession
Jun 10, 2009, 11:00 GMT
Johannesburg - The impact of the global recession on the world's poorest continent is the focus of this year's World Economic Forum on Africa, which opened Wednesday in Cape Town
A handful of African leaders and hundreds of mostly business people, academics, activists and media are attending the 19th edition of the African WEF, being hosted by South Africa President Jacob Zuma.
Rwandan Prime Minister Paul Kagame, Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, are in Cape Town for the three-day think-in.
The theme of the meeting is the implications of the global economic crisis for Africa.
Reduced global demand for Africa's exports, including oil, metals and agricultural commodities, and shrinking aid and remittance payments are putting the skids on growth on the continent.
South Africa, the continent's biggest economy, officially entered its first recession in 17 years in the first quarter of this year.
The International Monetary Fund predicted in March that growth in sub-Saharan Africa would slow to 3.25 per cent this year, half its original prediction.
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