Partnership may help free Asia, Africa from poverty: RI

Partnership may help free Asia, Africa from poverty: RI

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda expressed
optimism that a strategic partnership between Asian and African
countries could help free both continents from the grip of
poverty.

Hassan said that the proposed partnership, which will be
promoted during the Asian-African Summit next month, would be
based on the principles of common ownership, shared conviction
and mutual respect and benefit.

"Individually, most of our countries are poor but
together we have the resources and the skills to solve many of
the problems of development that we are facing. Moreover, by
working in concert, we can make a difference in today's
globalized world and contribute significantly to the conquest of
poverty in our time," he said.

Hassan's speech marked the formal opening of the Senior
Officials' Meeting (SOM), which will end on Thursday, and
precedes the Asian-African Summit and the Commemoration of the
Golden Jubilee of the Asia-Africa Conference next month.

The Summit will be held from April 22 to April 23 in Jakarta,
while the Commemoration will take place in the West Java capital
of Bandung, which hosted the 1955 Conference. The outcome of the
1955 Summit, called the Ten Principles of Bandung, is touted by
Indonesia as having served as a "code of conduct" governing the
two continents' relations.

Hassan said that the new partnership would focus on security
and politics, economics and the sociocultural field.

"We will have to explore and arrive at innovative ways and
modalities for the launching and strengthening of our cooperation
in the politico-security, economic and sociocultural fields,
which will form the three pillars of our overall cooperation,"
Hassan said in Tuesday's speech.

"Encompassing an area that is almost half of the world, Asia
and Africa are home to 4.6 billion people or 73 percent of the
world's population. The combined Gross Domestic Product of the
two continents amounts to US$9.3 trillion. These statistics point
to one clear fact: our potential for development is enormous."

"We cannot realize our collective potential, however, unless
we are able to establish a formal and strategic partnership that
ties our two regions in a vigorous, pragmatic and forward-looking
way -- a partnership that will give form and flesh to the Bandung
spirit."

He said that Indonesia and South Africa had jointly sponsored
the ministerial-level Asian-African Sub-Regional Organization
Conferences (AASROC) in Bandung in July 2003 and in Durban, South
Africa, in August 2004 to pave the way for these initiatives.

Host Indonesia has invited 106 countries to participate in the
Asian-African Summit.

Hassan also emphasized that the initiative would have to
involve all components of society.

"Apart from the public sector, we must enlist the private
business sector, academia, the media and all of civil society
into sharing ownership of our interregional and strategic
partnership."

The initial Asia-Africa Conference was held in Bandung from April
18 to April 24, 1955, upon the invitation of the Prime Ministers
of Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Indonesia
and Pakistan. Twenty-four countries, including five current
members of ASEAN, took part back then.

The Conference inspired a global peace effort through the
loose grouping known as the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as the
Group of 77.