NYTimes: U.S., Too, Wants to Bolster Investment in a Continent’s Economic Promise – Secretary of State Clinton’s trip to Africa “reflects the shifting image of the continent and the deepening political, economic and security stakes at play” there. While past trips to Africa by senior US officials focused primarily on humanitarian aid, these days the continent is “widely seen as the next frontier for economic growth.” Clinton highlighted that the US does not “simply want to export the continent’s bountiful raw materials and pocket the proceeds back home; it seeks a partnership that will bring broad benefits to all Africans.” (Lydia Polgreen)
Reuters: Africa’s growth may rise to 7 percent a year by 2015 – Driven by a “rush of investors attracted by its drive to improve its infrastructure,” Africa’s growth could rise to 7 percent by 2015. Even though the country has had economic growth rates of 5 percent in recent years, they are still not sufficient to pull its expanding population out of poverty. An Economic Report on Africa launched in June by Zambia said that “Africa’s potential required even more investment in human capital and technology, physical infrastructure, agriculture and regional economic integration.” (Joseph Akwiri)
Forbes: Africa: The Last Investment Frontier – As many East Asian and Latin American emerging markets have developed into middle-income nations, “investors and entrepreneurs are shifting their attention to the next big growth market – Africa.” The World Bank estimates that 47 percent of sub-Saharan Africans still live on less than $1.25 a day, yet “before you write Africa off as being too poor to be worthy of consideration, consider that India – which has been a favorite emerging market destination for investors for years – has nearly comparable levels of poverty.” (Charles Sizemore)
VOA: New Dysentery Threat Emerges – Dysentery is primarily associated with developing countries where it kills more than one million people a year, most of them young children. As nations improve sanitation and provide clean drinking water, the germ that generally causes dysentery, Shigella flexneri, affects fewer people. Yet there is another bacterium that causes dysentery, Shigella sonnei, which is spreading despite improvements in water and sanitation. Researchers attribute this shift to improvements in water quality, where harmless bacteria that provide a natural immunity to the dysentery bacterium are eliminated. (Joe DeCapua)
