International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato Figaredo reiterated on August 6 his organization's commitment to supporting Africa to harness regional economic integration, boost growth and end poverty.

Rato was addressing a one-day IMF regional summit meeting held at Imperial Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe, 40 km south of Kampala under the theme "working with Africa."

The summit was attended by President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi and host President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Burundi and Rwanda were represented by their ministers of finance respectively.

Rato said regional cooperation plays a crucial role in sustaining growth, harmonizing business regulation and promoting cooperation in the development of regional infrastructure.

He reiterated that IMF will fully support the New Partnership for Africa's Development that was formulated by the continent's leaders as well as the Millennium Development Goals for Africa to enable the continent to achieve its objectives.

He praised Uganda and Tanzania for the achievement attained in macro-economic stabilization, saying that this was possible because of sustained sound policies by the two countries which has led to an average economic growth of 5 percent per annum for the past five years.

Museveni said at the summit that the challenge to Africa now isto improve on the transport sector to reduce transport costs and promote export trade.

He said Africa leaders are collectively addressing the bottlenecks of political balkanization through regional integration frameworks like the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community.

He called for allocation of more senior positions to Africans at the IMF and the reduction of constituencies that are managed by one regional director, adding that "20 regions cannot be managed by one director."

Rato will end his two-day visit to Uganda on Friday. This is the last leg of his three-nation African tour which had already taken him to Nigeria and Gabon.

Source: Xinhua