Philadelphia Inquirer: Africa is the next big thing in world economic development, GSK chief Andrew Witty says – Chief Executive Officer of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, Andrew Witty, points to Africa as the next big thing in international economic growth. The World Bank’s latest report on global economic prospects reported that growth in sub-Saharan Africa remained “robust” at 4.6% in 2012. The report also said that “some of the larger economies with a growing middle-class such as Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Kenya and Ghana are increasingly attracting investment flows to their rapidly expanding consumer sector.” (David Sell)
NYTimes: Opinion: How to Build a Country From Scratch – A new Op-Doc video aims to follow the “state builders” – the South Sudanese government and United Nations officials who are “implementing, step by step, a road map for the world’s newest state.” The new nation faces many challenges: no infrastructure, no public service, and no justice system. Despite this, the video captures “the deep joy of a people free and sovereign at last” in “that murky area between peace and war that holds as much peril as promise.” (Florence Martin-Kessler and Anne Poiret)
Global Post: Can Google Maps make Africa safer? – Equipped with laptops and smartphones, more than 100 young Nigerians “fanned out across Nigeria’s capital last week, helping to Google map” Abuja. Citizen Google mapping was done in Rwanda, and the efforts are typically aimed at boosting the tourism industry. But in Abuja, the mappers are striving to make the city safer and more navigable for emergency services and security forces responding to “sectarian violence and food crises.” (Heather Murdock)
CNN: Microsoft: Africa needs affordable tech – In this interview, Mteto Nyati, the Managing Director at Microsoft South Africa discusses Microsoft’s new Africa initiative which aims to make mobile phones and connectivity more affordable for most Africans so that they can fully enjoy the benefits of technology.
