David Cameron cuts Africa trip short over phone-hacking crisis

Prime minister cancels plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan but will use visit in South Africa to speak about debt and free trade David Cameron begins a two-day visit to Africa which has been curtailed to allow the prime minister to fly home early to finalise the terms and membership of Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into the media. In his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as prime minister, Cameron will fly into South Africa with a message that an African free trade area could increase GDP across the continent by more than it currently receives in aid. He will praise his generation for marching against African debt and for holding concerts to raise funds for aid to the continent. But in article in the South African Business Day he will call for a change of approach. “They have never once had a march or a concert to call for what will in the long term save far more lives and do far more good – an African free trade area,” he writes. But Cameron’s free trade message is likely to be overshadowed by events back home following the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, who entertained the prime minister at her Oxfordshire home over the Christmas period. Downing Street aides, who had at one point considered cancelling the trip altogether at the height of the phone-hacking crisis last week, instead decided to cut it back from four days to two. Cameron will now just visit South Africa and Nigeriaon Tuesday. Plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan have been scrapped. Time has been found in the diary to allow No 10 aides – and possibly the prime minister – to watch the appearance by Rupert and James Murdoch. The prime minister will fly home late on Tuesday to allow him to finalise the arrangements for Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry in four areas The first area will look at the terms of reference for the two elements of the inquiry – the first one focusing on media regulation and the second, presided over by Leveson, that will examine the alleged wrong doing and relations between the police and the media. The second part will not begin its work until after the criminal investigation. The remaining three areas are the membership of the panel, which will examine media regulation over the next 12 months; the start date for Lord Leveson, and the size and location of the secretariat that will assist Leveson. One No 10 aide said: “Of course events have intervened to curtail the trip to Africa. We really need to get the arrangements for the inquiry done and dusted by the end of this week because civil servants head off on their holidays by the end of July. But there were other good reasons to visit Africa for slightly less time. Just look at the state of the eurozone.” Cameron will try to use his visit to the two largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa to highlight the importance of creating a free trade area in Africa. Accompanied by a 25-strong business delegation including the Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, he will say that such an area could boost GDP by $62bn (£38.4bn) a year – $20bn more than the world gives sub-Saharan Africa in aid every year. In an article in the South Africa Business Day, the prime minister writes: “In the past, there were marches in the west to drop the debt. There were concerts to increase aid. And it was right that the world responded. “But they have never once had a march or a concert to call for what will in the long term save far more lives and do far more good — an African free trade area. The key to Africa’s progress is not just aid. It is time for some fresh thinking. “Consider these facts. An African free trade area could increase GDP across the continent by an estimated $62bn a year. That’s $20bn more than the world gives sub-Saharan Africa in aid. Backed by investment in people and infrastructure, sound government and effective tax systems, imagine what this would mean: businesses growing, new jobs on offer, families on the up, living standards transformed.” Britain supported the decision last month at the tripartite summit in South Africa to launch negotiations on a free trade area covering 26 member states. This came 20 years after the signing of the Abuja treaty which agreed to establish the African Economic Community by 2028. Britain is providing assistance through the Africa Free Trade Initiative in three ways: helping to reduce tariff barriers, reducing bureaucracy, and advising on infrastructure bottlenecks. Britain is also investing more than £160m between now and 2015 to help ease trade by halving delays at 10 key border crossings. One factor which persuaded the prime minister to press ahead with visiting Africa’s two economic powerhouses is the challenge of keeping up with China which dominates trade across the continent. Cameron will meet Nigeria’s newly elected president Goodluck Jonathan who has taken personal charge of improving power supplies in Africa’s largest oil producing country which has little refining capacity. Nigeria, with a population of 155 million, is the world’s seventh largest country and seventh biggest oil exporter. But it has the same amount of grid power as Bradford, according to the Economist. PM’s African delegation Major blue chips 1. Aggreko (Rupert Soames, CEO) 2. Barclays (Bob Diamond, CEO) 3. Coal Authority (Philip Lawrence, CEO) 4. De La Rue (Tim Cobbold, CEO) 5. Diageo (Nick Blazquez, president, Africa) 6. G4S (David Taylor-Smith, CEO, UK, Ireland and Africa) 7. International Hospitals Group (Hertford King, CEO) 8. Mott MacDonald (Keith Howells, chairman) 9. PWC (Ian Powell, chairman and senior partner) 10. Royal Mint (Adam Lawrence, CEO) 11. Turner and Townsend (Vincent Clancy, CEO) 12. Vodafone (Vittorio Colao) 13. Waitrose (Mark Price, MD) Private equity firms 14. Aureos Capital (Sev Vettivetpillai, CEO/CIO) 15. Omidyar (Stephen King) 16. CDC (Rod Evison, acting CEO, managing director, Africa) SMEs and others 17. All Amber (Matthew Dawes, MD) 18. Frontline SMS (Ken Banks, founder) 19. Monitise plc (Alastair Lukies, CEO, co-founder) 20. Osannimu (Alaka Ayodeji, managing partner) 21. Wired Magazine (David Rowan, editor) 22. English Premier League (Bill Bush, director of comms/public policy) 23. Supersport (Imtiaz Patel and Tex Texeira) 24. Perimeter Institute (Neil Turok, founder) 25. School for StartUps (Doug Richard, founder) David Cameron Phone hacking Africa Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 17, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.