AFP/Kuwait

Arab and African leaders meeting in Kuwait yesterday wound up their first summit since the region’s uprisings in 2011 by calling for closer economic and security co-operation.
The leaders issued the Kuwait Declaration which underlined the need to accelerate economic integration in the Arab world and investment-thirsty African states.
They called for the creation of a joint “Africa-Arab Financing Mechanism” to fund programmes and projects, under a plan adopted at the last Arab-African summit in Libya three years ago.
The leaders at the two-day summit in Kuwait also called on the African Union and Arab League to co-ordinate with financial institutions and funds in the two regions to form a “working team” to finance the implementation of projects.
But there was no mention of any moves for an Africa-Arab common market, as recommended by businessmen.
The Kuwait Declaration strongly condemned terrorism.
It urged member states to “enhance co-operation and co-ordination... to combat terrorism in all its forms”, and to criminalise the payment of ransoms to terrorists.
The summit was the third of its kind, and the first since 2010, when leaders met in Libya prior to the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled long-standing dictatorships there and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East.
On Tuesday, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah pledged $1bn in low-interest loans and the same amount in investments to African states in co-operation with the World Bank.
Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah said that Kuwait would co-ordinate with the World Bank to enter joint investments in infrastructure projects in accordance with a plan to be announced soon.
“We are aware we have huge challenges ahead but we have the desire... to achieve a real partnership with Africa,” the minister told a news conference after the summit.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said the “outcome of the summit will achieve a qualitative transformation in the African-Arab economic ties”.
Thirty-four heads of state, seven vice presidents and three heads of government attended the gathering, which brought together 71 countries and organisations.
Africa has huge resources of raw materials, agriculture and energy but lacks investments.
According to the World Bank, the continent needs about $30bn a year just to develop its energy sector.
The International Monetary Fund says African economic growth was a solid 5% in 2012 despite the global economic crisis. Growth is forecast to ease slightly to 4.8% this year and rebound to 5.1% in 2014.
Africa has 12% of global oil reserves and 42% of its gold deposits. The discovery of large quantities of natural gas off its east coast has added to the continent’s economic potential.
On the other hand, states of the Gulf Co-operation Council have accumulated surpluses of $2tn thanks to persistently high oil prices. A majority of the assets are invested in the United States and Europe.
The leaders called for the need to boost co-operation in the agricultural field to achieve food security. They also decided to hold the next summit in 2016 in Africa, without naming a country.