Each year, on May 25th, African Nations Celebrate in commemoration of the establishment of the first continental organization of African States, its principal role was to embody the aspirations of all African Nations in order to achieve their legitimate ambitions to gain their independence and to combat discrimination in all its forms, and also to achieve the desired development. We would like to express our gratitude on this celebrated day, to the founding fathers of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), that were able to plant the seeds of African unity, and who paved the way for Africa to be peaceful, thriving and united for future African generations.
The African Continent celebrates in the year 2013, the golden jubilee of the birth of the Organization of African Unity, which was declared during the African Summit held in the city of Sert, Libya on 9/9/1999, to be transformed into the African Union (AU). The AU was officially established during the African Leaders Summit held in the city of Durban, South Africa in 4/7/2002, and since that date the AU has been the continuance of the OAU, albeit possessing more capability to confront internal and external challenges that face the African Continent in the 21st Century.
Since its inception, the AU has been a driving force to develop several of Africa’s structures and institutions like the Pan-African Parliament, the Peace and Security Council, the NEPAD, in addition to several financial and economic institutions, which reflect Africa’s motivation to confirm its values that respect lasting peace, human rights, good governance and sustainable development.
Celebrating Africa Day each year, gives us an opportunity, once again, to reflect on the significance of this day, which is considered an occasion to contemplate on our mutual identity as Africans, and to explore the strong bond that unites us, regardless of cultural and ethnic diversity. This celebration also provides an opportunity to consider the developments attained by the African Continent, and to evaluate the problems it faces, and reflect on the vast unexploited potentials it possesses. In spite of the abundance of natural resources in Africa, most of its economies do not occupy a well-defined position in the World Economy, and many African countries remains to suffer from increased poverty rates and illiteracy in comparison to other parts of the globe.
It is imperative to remember on this day, the vast challenges that confront the AU, most importantly the challenges to accomplish the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, which aims to reduce poverty levels, guarantee proper health-care and education, achieve gender equality, protect the environment and promote international cooperation in order to advance development and achieve debt reduction.
On this day we optimistically emphasize on the achievements that were accomplished, most importantly, that Africa and its markets, have taken tangible steps to integrate in the global economy, and the African markets have become a target for world goods, which were able to gain access to the African market through several African economic conglomerations, in consistence with the global notion that gives utmost importance to regional integration, in order to collectively confront the challenges, and better integrate in the world economy. Some of the regional groupings referred to are the Common Market for East and South Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADEC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Community of Sahal-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGADD). We still aspire for more African involvement in world trade and foreign direct investments, in order to increase the continent’s share in the Gross World Product (GWP).
We, as representatives of the African Nations, and in our capacity as official representatives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, affirm the special and historic ties between the African States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi. These ties have strongly developed due to the continuous cooperation between the two sides, and the regular meetings between the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and the Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defence, with the Leaders of African States, as well as the contributions of the Kingdom to support developmental projects in Africa, stemming from the keenness of the kingdom to advance the developmental process and to contribute in fulfilling the interests of the African Nations.
Additionally, African States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia cooperate in different international institutions and organizations, most importantly, the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and also in regional organizations like the League of Arab States, the Gulf Cooperation Council and through Gulf developmental institutions and funds.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also hosted the Gulf-African investment Conference in December 2010, among its objectives was to shed light on the investment opportunities in the Agricultural, Minerals, Natural Resources, Energy, Communications, Infra-structure, Tourism and trade sectors. Moreover, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia participates in AU Summits, and on this occasion, we wish to express our best wishes to the success of the Arab-African Summit to be hosted by the State of Kuwait in November 2013, in order to advance joint Arab-African cooperation, into concrete achievements.
We would like also, on this cherished occasion , to renew our commitment, that we would make every effort in order to realize our vision to become an Africa that is blessed with peace, prosperity and democracy.