Accra (Greater Accra), 21st May 99 ?

Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa on Thursday said the new millennium must be Africa's new dawn of peace, freedom, dignity unity and prosperity.

This, he said, calls for co-operation and partnership between everyone with roots in the continent.

"The indignity of poverty of someone in Africa should equally be the indignity of every human being, especially every black man and woman," the Tanzanian leader said.

He was addressing the presidential plenary of the one-week fifth African-African American summit in Accra.

President Mkapa spoke against what he termed misconceptions about Africa which, without reason, continue to impede the development of the continent.

He said the misconceptions have their roots in an unfavourable extra-continental press, "a press that thinks nothing good can come out of

Africa, that Africa is all about civil wars, a continent of dictatorships..."

He said stability, new leadership and new vision have emerged to create friendly policies for investment in Africa and urged world businesses to seize the opportunity.

"The majority of African countries are now democracies, and they continue to improve the institutional and procedural aspects of democracy."

He spoke about the economic policies being prescribed by the international financial institutions saying it is sometimes frustrating to see African governments taking painful and often unpopular measures in implementing these policies while the outside world pays little attention.

President Mpaka called for the nurturing of strong USA-Africa partnership for sustainable development to be spearheaded by Africans and African-Americans.

However, it must be a partnership that must, as soon as possible, pull Africa out of the morass of poverty and deprivation and on to sustainable development.

Besides, it must be a partnership led by the private sector that is both productive and for mutual benefit. It must "not be a partnership borne out of dependence or clientism;" it must be a partnership that will not make Africa an object of charity, but that which will make Africa a dignified and equal partner in the evolving world trade regime.

"We must also develop a partnership that will help Africa remain Africa, minus poverty," President Mkapa stated.

President Mkapa was of the view that this cannot happen if major markets such as the USA find it so difficult to give Africa a break.

President Mkapa thanked the Rev Jesse Jackson for the initiative he took in January to introduce the African Human Rights, Opportunity, Partnership and Empowerment (HOPE) Act, which seeks to reduce the continent's debt burden while increasing foreign assistance.

Another important area where African-Americans can help Africa is in capacity building, especially in terms of human resources, skills and science and technology.

He also commended that American President Bill Clinton's new policy should give economic relief to Africa, saying "without debt relief, all we are producing will end up servicing our debt rather than building the capacity to fight poverty."

The Tanzanian leader urged the summit to come out with a resounding call to the G8 (Group of eight industrialised) countries when they meet in Cologne next month, to cancel the debts of all highly indebted poor countries.

He added, "there could not be a better time to give these countries a clean slate with which to begin the new century and millennium."

The time to act is now, he said adding, "the time is right to do what is right."