By Ed Cropley
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa's growing wealth needs to be spread beyond the confines of powerful elites and goverments must come clean about opaque mining and oil deals, a leading think-tank said on Tuesday.
In its annual report, the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, identified poor governance and creaking transport and power infrastructure as the main impediments to the continent of a billion people.
"Only leadership and governance can close the gap between a rich continent and a poor people," Annan told a news conference in South Africa's commercial capital.
The report highlighted Africa's increasing ties with emerging giants such as China, which has overtaken the United States as the region's top trading partner, saying they were having a "significant impact" on the continent.
However, it criticised governments and external investors for striking deals, especially in the minerals sector, that too seldom benefited the people from under whose feet the precious metals and ores are being dug.
"Africa is rich and its stock is rising. The value of its land and stocks of minerals is going up," Annan said. Link
