President J. A. Kufuor on Tuesday made a case for Africa's development at the United Nations (UN) and asked advanced countries to deliver on their promises to provide huge development assistance for African countries to achieve the targets set under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Taking his turn as the third speaker of the UN's annual General Debate which began in New York, the President also asked the European Union (EU) to be flexible in some of the demands and terms of the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) intended to be signed between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in 2008. Presenting the case for Africa with diplomatic finesse, President Kufuor, who is also the Chairman of the Africa Union (AU), said despite the general improvement in the relationship between developed and developing nations, as reflected in various initiatives, "we still find that there is a serious gap in official assistance that there is a serious gap in official assistance that must be bridged quickly to enable struggling African countries to attain the MDGs". The MDGs, which include reducing extreme poverty by half, preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by 2015, constitute a development blueprint agreed to by all countries and leading development institutions at the United Nations in 2000. President Kufuor extolled various initiatives like the US Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) , and the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), Tokyo's International Conference on Africa's Development (TICAD), the Forum for China and Africa Co-operation and the Indo-Africa Forum for Co-operation but indicated that there were still inadequacies in what Africa required to attain the MDGs. On the proposed EPA between Europe and Africa, President Kufuor asked the EU to relax the time lines set for the agreement and also accept to review the terms on barriers and procurement on the genuine grounds that the economies of many ACP countries might not be able to withstand the shocks of the implementation of the process in the short to medium terms without such changes. The EPA is a free trade agreement being negotiated between the EU and 79 ACP countries intended to give market access to ACP countries on condition that the access is reciprocal. The agreement has been touted by the EU as a significant opportunity for developing countries to access Europe's huge economy, but some ACP countries have expressed concerns about it, since it is likely to undermine their development and engender the collapse of their manufacturing sectors as a result of unfair competition from cheap European imports which are often subsidised. President Kufuor painted brighter prospects of Africa's development and said the continent's current growth rate of six percent was expected to be sustained or even exceeded in the coming years. "Africa is making progress. With improvement in the macro management of many African economies, average GDP has increased steadily from 5.2 percent in 2005 to 5.7 percent in 2006 to the current level of six percent, which is expected to be sustained or even exceeded in the coming years. "Africa is, therefore, more than ready for good business and this is evidenced by the increasing interest by both local and foreign investors," he stated. In the meantime, he said, the AU's NEPAD agency was seriously engaged in studying viable projects that should prove strategic to opening up the continent and its economy for accelerated development. President Kufuor drew the attention of the UN to the amorphous threat to global peace, despite all the efforts at securing global security, especially as a result of the proliferation and use of small arms and light weapons. He underscored the need for his colleagues to task the UN to study that threat to global peace and design ways to contain and eradicate it. He asked world leaders to support the UN Secretary General's proposal to establish an Office for Disarmament Affairs to be part of the decision-making process in the secretariat and also co-operate in the enforcement of appropriate recommendations. President Kufuor welcomed the restructuring of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the establishment of a Department of Field Service, since such efforts would not only reduce the work of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations but also help to promote accountability and transparency. On regional conflicts in Africa, the President said there was the need for the prevailing crises in Somalia and the Darfur region of the Sudan, as well as the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict, to be resolved. President Kufuor urged the UN to consider the AU's request for financial, logistical and technical support towards the full and effective deployment of the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to enable member states such as Ghana which had pledged to contribute troops to do so. Source: Daily Graphic