Hosting the 10th German World Bank Forum in Berlin, Germany has announced it will double financial aid to Africa and encourage business to invest in the poor continent.
German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (udviklingsminister), Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul announced that Germanys financial aid to Africa will double from 2 billion euro to 4 billion euro from now on to 2010.
Wieczorek-Zeul said during the German World Bank Forum that “Africa received only two percent of worldwide direct investment at present. That is not enough”.
– Germany and the G8 are supporting reform-minded Africa countries through a partnership for development aimed at creating the basis for an increase in sustainable investment: good governance, an adequate infrastructure and combating corruption, noted she.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said on Tuesday in Berlin, that he hopes to export the micro-credit system he pioneered in Asia to more African countries to help the continent overcome poverty.
Yunus said all of the developed world needed to strive to help Africa in order to live up to the UN MDGs (2015 Målene). Yunus held talks with African officials in Berlin just weeks ahead of the G8 summit. Wieczorek-Zeul said Tuesday the G8 summit would look at how to give ordinary Africans access to financial institutions.
Yunus and his Grameen Bank won recognition from the Swedish Nobel Foundation in 2006 for lending small sums of cash to poor traders and entrepreneurs. Some 50 million people have benefited from the system, around 80 percent of whom are women.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
