The three-day African summit of the World Economic Forum closed in Cape Town Friday with a rather heated debate as to what is the next biggest challenge facing Africa, where unprecedented achievements have been made over the past 30 years.

Looking for new ways to accelerate this growth, the continent's political and business leaders convened to choose priorities from a bulk of issues including creating jobs, reducing corruption, improving infrastructures, increasing primary enrollments, extending healthcare access, and investing in agriculture or manufacture.

The continent's needs are immense. Poverty is endemic, with nearly half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than US$1 a day. Life expectancy is less than 50 years due in large part to armed conflicts, the AIDS epidemic, inadequate health care and social services.

Encouragingly, important gains have been made across Africa in recent years. In 2005, the continent achieved a record growth rate of 5.5 percent and an even higher speed is expected in the year 2006, according to statistics released by the African Development Bank.

Given that the cash-strapped continent has limited resources such as financial support and skilled labor force, leaders have to work out a feasible strategy highlighting the priorities of the grand mission expected to improve 700 million Africans' living conditions.

Job creation is among the most urgent issues, said Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili, minister of solid minerals of Nigeria, who added that if economic growth and macroeconomic stability does not translate into job creation and benefits for citizens, the "bad guys" could again take charge and seize the political initiative.

Vice President of World Bank for Africa Gobind Nankani said the challenge lay in infrastructure, adding that the factory-floor cost of making a shirt in Kenya, Uganda or Mozambique is no different from that in China. The problem comes when the shirt leaves the factory, with costs of inefficient infrastructure and other costs of doing business looming in the skyline.

He pointed out that telecommunications costs may be falling, but more remains to be done to improve infrastructure and cut the costs of doing business.

Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance of South Africa, said that the task in the future was to "build strong governments" that create an enabling environment for private enterprise to flourish.

Steve Booysen, Group Chief Executive for Absa Group of South Africa, told participants that a crucial factor in maintaining growth is enabling Africans to build personal capital, property and savings. He added that entrepreneurs need to have confidence in the economic and judicial systems, and sustained growth demands a partnership between business and government.

In a word, it seems that every issue put forward by representatives during the sessions is worth to be given priority.

Africa needs sustained growth of at least 7 percent per year, and it needs job-creating growth, particularly in rural areas. This, in turn, calls for a lot to be done, such as better roads and other basic infrastructures, improvements in financial intermediation, wider access to financial services, promotion of regional integration to enlarge markets and expand interregional trade, and better access to education, health and financial services.

Unfortunately, nothing can be neglected, said South African President Thabo Mbeki. "We can't say healthcare facilities are more important than infrastructure construction. How can an ambulance reach rural areas if there are no roads?"

Nevertheless, the criteria for choosing the development priority for Africa, experts say, should be in line with the benefits of the poor and be good to the continent's sustainable development.

Building competition capacity for Africa, experts suggested, would be the only choice the poor continent could make to tackle all these tough challenges.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2006)