No time for a Kofi break

The former United Nations head continues his hard work, and he sees China as a valuable partner

For 10 years he was one of the world's most powerful men. Eight years later, and having just turned 77, there is no sign that Kofi Annan is ready to settle back into the quiet, genteel life of a retired statesman.

In fact, some of the power Annan used to wield as secretary-general of the United Nations has recently been used to dispense another kind of power, electricity, to his compatriots in Ghana.

Indeed the body under whose auspices that project was built, the China-Africa Business Council, is itself a product of Annan's seemingly tireless drive to do good for the world. It was established at his behest in 2008, a year after he retired as UN head.

The council has since become a bridge between Chinese business and African governments, and by last year its member companies were active in 36 African countries and had invested at total of $4.3 billion in the continent. Apart from the power station in Ghana, another project to the council's credit is the upgrading of railways in Angola, heavily damaged during the country's 1975-2002 civil war.

Annan is effusive in his appreciation and optimism for the role China has played in those projects and is playing in others in Africa.

"I'm glad to hear you have made various investments in different regions of Africa, and the $4 billion investment in Africa is just a start," he told business council members in Beijing when he was in China recently.

"China still has a lot of potential areas to invest in Africa, and we still have a lot of work to do."

China and Africa have many things in common, he says, and he hopes Africa can benefit from China's long-term strategies such as the One Belt, One Road initiative and the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Annan's career with the UN began in 1962 when he was just 24, as a budget officer for the World Health Organization. He would eventually become the seventh UN secretary-general, in 1997 - he is the only African to have been elected to the post - and his UN career eventually spanned more than four decades. In his 10 years in the top post he established a reputation as a reformer, streamlining the UN bureaucracy, creating cleaner lines of responsibility and setting up a new office for financial oversight. One of his finest moments came in 2001 when he and the organization were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world".

Since leaving the UN, Annan has worked to address new threats faced by the poorest and most vulnerable, working in the fields of climate change, food and nutrition shortages, and conflict.

He now chairs the Kofi Annan Foundation, which he set up to promote better global governance and catalyze action for a fairer, more peaceful world through sustainable development, peace and security.

Annan says he is impressed by the successes Chinese investors have notched up in a short time, and he sees that investment-promotion organizations such as the China-Africa Business Council have played a vital role. "I attend many meetings, but not all meetings can generate actions afterwards as the business council does."

Underlining his credentials as a man of action, he says he has been in meetings where everybody seems to be "very serious".

"But after that nothing happens, and I feel as though I have just attended another seminar."

In 2012 he quit as UN and Arab League Envoy to Syria after a little more than six months in the post.

Africa and China have many things in common, he says, and the two can work more closely and learn from one another. "I can't imagine another country like China making such a big achievement in 35 years. You have solved many problems that Africa is still facing and trying to solve." There are two serious obstacles on Africa's development road, he says: a lack of energy and a lack of infrastructure, something China has taken a role in trying to solve.

"If Africa can solve these two major problems, the African economy will take off. Then not only African countries can interact with each other, but African countries can get better involved in the world economy."

Specifically, agriculture can be an important contributor to Africa's economy, he says, so that countries are not only self-sufficient but can also export agricultural products to the rest of the world. Africa, he says, has the world's biggest areas of undeveloped land. "We are trying to help small-scale farmers so they can raise their productivity, produce more, look after their families and send their surplus to the market, to be able to send their children to school and hospitals."

Every year Africa imports $35 billion worth of food, and Annan says his foundation is working to change this, so Chinese investment in this area is most welcome in Africa.

Annan says he hopes the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund can complement pre-existing institutions, help Africa grow. "I see value in the new financial institutions that China has initiated and from which I hope Africa could benefit. They should complement the existing global institutions.

"Inadequate infrastructure and energy are two of the biggest blocks on Africa's economic development, and I urge the new and existing institutions to work with African governments to effectively address these constraints."

Annan says he hopes new banks to support Africa's infrastructure development can be set up.

"Or I hope the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank can expand its work beyond Asia and do some work in Africa."

Nevertheless, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund need to be overhauled because they were set up 70 years ago in the context of reconstruction after World War II, he says.

To critics who say the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will trigger rivalry with existing institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, Annan says he would not worry too much about that "because there are many projects out there". However, change takes time, so the world needs to be patient, he says.

He cites the example of the World Economic Forum being set up in the 1980s with few companies involved, but now there are more than 80,000 company members.

Speaking of the One Belt, One Road initiative, Annan says rejuvenating the trade routes to Africa will benefit Africa in the long run.

"Africa in the future will be very dynamic. It will no longer only excel in sports, in natural resources, but it needs to add value, it needs to start manufacturing, to produce goods, whether it is agricultural goods or other goods that can be sold to the world."

wangchao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/08/2015 page32)