Africa should build its own brands to market itself and tell the world the continent can make quality production locally, business executives said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum Africa summit in Cape Town.

Thomas Bata, chairman of the Bata Shoe Foundation, which runs chain stores across Africa, said that now many African countries make good quality productions. Kenya, for example, has big brands of tea, coffee and flowers.

"But people in other parts of the world don't know they were made in Africa and African goods can be as good as those made in the developed countries," he said.

In the past, Africans consumed what they did not produce and produced what they did not consume. Now more and more strong African brands are emerging, with some establishing themselves internationally, said Simon Anholt, a British independent consultant on branding .

To boost their competitive advantages, African companies should make productions in African ways and styles which local consumers like and can afford, he said.

Business executives from African countries and the world's leading multinationals are gathering here to discuss how to boost sustainable development in the world's poorest continent.

Patricia Pindeni, the chairperson and CEO of the Phekani House, an advertising firm of Malawi, said African firms are facing big challenges to market themselves as news from the continent are always negative. No one believes African companies can make good products even though great changes have taken place in recent years.

Since it is not easy work to change the bad perceptions of Africa, the businessmen told the meeting that great efforts should be done to deal with the challenge.

The three-day Africa summit, entitled "Going for Growth", groups more than 700 economists and business and political leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza.

Source: Xinhua