Developed countries ready to finance Asian-African project

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of European countries have expressed their readiness to finance projects that may be agreed upon at the upcoming Asian-African Summit, according to a senior diplomat.

Nana S. Sutresna, the President's special envoy, said that Britain, France and even the European Union looked forward to financing the projects -- if indeed any emerged.

"In principle they have agreed, but they are still waiting for results of the summit," he told a seminar hosted by the Golkar Party on Thursday.

Funding commitments from countries such as Britain and France would strengthen earlier commitments by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had promised to bring the results of the upcoming Asian-African Summit to a meeting of industrialized countries in November.

Koizumi himself had confirmed his participation in the summit.

Leaders from 106 Asian and African countries -- including 58 heads of state/government -- will attend the two-day summit in Jakarta next weekend.

In addition, the government also invited leaders from donor countries such as the United States, Britain, France, and Germany as observers at the summit.

At the summit Asia-Africa leaders are expected to agree on a number of partnership projects to boost future cooperation between the nations of the two continents.

Nana explained that funds from donor countries to finance the partnership projects would be separate from the funding already committed to individual countries.

The new funding, he said, would not reduce existing funding commitments to developing countries in the two continents, and therefore, Japan's funding to eradicate poverty in Africa through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TIDAC) would remain in place.

Meanwhile, analyst Hadi Soesastro from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies suggested that Asian African countries be more independent of developed countries, including from funding.

He suggested that Asian African leaders explore ways to raise funds during the summit.

"Asian and African countries themselves must collect funds from their own budgets to upgrade the partnership. We can't simply rely on third countries,"

"The summit is a big project so it needs efforts to develop its financial systems. We must make our own investments," he said.

He also suggested that a permanent secretariat be established to monitor the progress of projects agreed upon at the summit.