Chambers are vital to African revival

Chairman of the World Chambers Federation Avijit Mazumda r

Durban, 22 June 2005 – Writing in the South African daily newspaper, Business Day, on the occasion of the 4th World Chambers Congress, Chairman of the World Chambers Federation Avijit Mazumdar argues that the chamber of commerce movement worldwide stands ready to play its part in realizing the objectives set out in the report of the Commission for Africa.

The article appeared in Business Day on Monday 20 June, 2005 and is reproduced below with the kind permission of Business Day (www.businessday.co.za).

Chambers are vital to African revival
by Avijit Mazumdar

British Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to put helping Africa through debt cancellation and economic aid high on the agenda at the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, next month. He will push the recommendations of the report produced by his Commission for Africa to give African nations unprecedented levels of support as they struggle to develop vibrant economies and to overcome poverty, defeat corruption and fight disease, especially the AIDS pandemic.

Blair and his commission would certainly agree that business development on a massive scale must drive the emergence of this new, prosperous and successful Africa.

No one can doubt that chambers of commerce will assume a vital role, providing guidance and essential support services to companies as well as links to markets and potential business partners around the world.

These considerations explain the decision of the World Chambers Federation to accept the invitation of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry to hold its Fourth World Chambers Congress this week in Durban. The theme is Leadership, Ubuntu, Prosperity. President Thabo Mbeki has agreed to deliver an address.

The World Chambers Federation is a specialised division of the International Chamber of Commerce, the world business organisation. The federation is dedicated to encouraging the growth and expansion of chambers of commerce and their activities around the world. Our biennial congress is the flagship event at which chambers exchange experiences and best practice and strengthen international contacts, to the ultimate advantage of their members. Our first congress was in Marseilles in 1999. Others followed in Seoul and Quebec.

There can be no doubt that the federation and its world congress can assume a major role in achieving the objectives set down in the Commission for Africa report.

Nobody should think for one moment that the congress can prescribe miracle cures for problems of corruption, inflation, slow growth and stagnation that are crippling so many African economies. What it can and will do is to point the way for successful business development and profitable business support for reform.

Questions to be covered include: what is the role of business institutions in good governance? How can chambers help their members adjust to today’s changeable business climate?

All the sessions will be eminently practical, and will plainly serve the business objectives outlined. An entire plenary session will be devoted to an examination of what chambers can do to foster transparency, accountability and support for reform that will help nations and regions to compete in the global marketplace.

The final plenary will discuss which are the new markets to watch and hazard a guess about coming winners. It will examine how chambers should be preparing their members to take up challenges posed by emerging new markets.

Much of the congress will be occupied with a busy programme of workshops, which will allow participants to deepen their knowledge in areas such as working with governments to shape policy, the role of women in chambers, and forging alliances in a globalised world.

Durban will be hosting an international gathering that could do much to turn the bold proposals of the Commission for Africa into reality. It will demonstrate to the world leaders preparing for Gleneagles that the chamber of commerce movement worldwide shares the objectives set out in the commission’s report and stands ready to play its part in realising them.

Mazumdar is chairman of the World Chambers Federation.