G20: Does Africa even need Trump?
Jeffery Sachs is one of the world's leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty.
Image: jeffsachs.org
Amid a diplomatic spat between South Africa and the US over the latter’s about-face around sending a representative to the G20 after all, one world-renowned economist questioned whether South Africa even needed US President Donald Trump.
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University as well as president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said earlier today that we should all “send a big message of thanks to Trump for not being here”.
Sachs’ comments, during The European House Ambrosetti’s 12th annual CEO Dialogue on Southern Africa, come as there is a standoff between President Cyril Ramaphosa and the US, with this country’s president saying that he won’t hand over the Presidency of the G20 to a low-ranking official.
Washington had planned to send a low-level delegation to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg – a chargé d’affaires, which is practically the lowest-ranking head of mission, usually appointed only when a country has no ambassador in place.
Sachs argued, however, that Trump absence would improve “quality of this meeting tremendously”.
The Dialogue, held on the sidelines of the G20, attracted more than 150 CEOs, policymakers and thought leaders as attendees.
“We can focus on real things, not on Trump… I think what's important for this G20 is Africa. This is Africa's time. That's where I think the focus and the breakthroughs need to be. And the United States is doing its own thing, as they say,” said Sachs.
Sachs also noted that the G20's focus should not only be on growth, but rapid growth.
“The key for Africa is to be achieving eight to 10% per year of economic growth, because this is the real potential of the continent,” he said.
Sachs added that “Africa should be following in the line of China and India on a very rapid growth trajectory, and I think that that should be the main focus of this G20”.
A professor, Sachs is one of the world's leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty.
His work has taken him to more than 130 countries, and he has advised dozens of world leaders in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East on economic strategy.
Growth, however, depended on the business sector working together in true union. “So, that is the challenge here, to my mind, to make the Africa continental free trade area real, really continental.”
In addition, Sachs said that Africa needed a population that was fully educated and skilled, with almost every child finishing secondary school as opposed to the current rate of a third.
“I just really want to emphasise: education and infrastructure, and a continental-scale economy, and then believe me, you'll achieve growth eight to 10% per year. That is the key. It's not so complicated, but it's a lot of concentrated effort to achieve it,” said Sachs.
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