PARIS, Jan 9: Speaking before 13 African heads of state in Paris for a major summit on ways to “relaunch” the African economy, French President Jacques Chirac, who is hosting the summit held at the Elysee Palace, has suggested that the industrialized nations accord 0.7 percent of their gross domestic products (GDP) to providing financial assistance to Africa.

The continent’s needs are presently estimated at $64 billion per annum, in any case that is the total outside assistance that organizers of the summit say that Africa needs at the moment to be able to stave off further the poverty and suffering that could eventually turn the continent into another hotbed of terrorism.

The summit — technically referred to as NEPAD: the New Economic Partnership for African Development — is being held at the behest of Mr Chirac, as well as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, both of whom persuaded their principal partners at last July’s G8 conference of the major industrial powers in Genoa to sponsor the summit and the idea of a “new African initiative” (NAI), which hopefully, in President Chirac’s eyes, will “help establish a new partnership to deal with the questions essential to the development of Africa.”

Chirac pointed out that for the moment only five of the 15 member countries of the European Union — Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Luxemburg and the Netherlands — had not reduced their assistance in recent years and had regularly given Africa at least 0.7 percent of their GDPs. He noted, quite sadly, that France’s aide to Africa had fallen from 0.56 percent of GDP in 1994 to 0.34 percent last year, less than half the figure that Chirac is putting forth as an objective not only for France, but also all of the G8 countries who are sponsoring the summit.