THE LAST WORD

ROBERT B. ZOELLICK

HELPING AFRICA GROW

Since the financial crisis hit, the World Bank has provided a record $89 billion to support development
initiatives around the world. Much of this funding has gone to Africa, a special focus of President
Robert B. Zoellick, a U.S. trade representative under George W. Bush. Zoellick recently sat down with
NEWSWEEK's Jerry Guo in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to talk about the continent's prospects for growth.
Excerpts:

THE CHINESE ARE SMART AND Which model —China's, India's, or its own— is Africa
RECOGNIZE THEY´RE GOING TO FACE following in terms of development?
BACKLASHES. BUT THEY UNDERSTAND
AND ARE WILLING TO WORK WITH US. I think it is going to follow its own model, but it can learn
lessons from others. China has been extremely successful,
first at creating added value through the agriculture sector and
then export-led growth. In India, you've seen a fantastic development of the service sector. A third
[model] is the European Union. One of the challenges for sub-Saharan Africa is that markets are of
modest size. This makes regional integration important.

Which African economies would you single out for doing particularly well?

At slightly higher income levels, Botswana and Mauritius are good growth stories. A little bit lower are
Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

How quickly will a critical mass of middle-class consumers develop here?

You really have to get to [per capita income levels of] $10 a day to get to some people's definition of a
middle class. What I'd focus on in Africa is getting to $2 a day. At a slightly higher income level, you
start to have local manufacturers who can target the local market. The other interesting possibility
coming out of the crisis is that some Chinese operations may move basic manufacturing to Africa. A
Chinese provincial party secretary said maybe they should move out of the "shoes and Christmas toy"
markets, start moving up the value-added chain, and move basic manufacturing to sub-Saharan Africa.
We're working with the Chinese in Ethiopia on an industrial zone.
But the Chinese are often looked on suspiciously by the West for their commodities push into
Africa, particularly for the unfavorable terms they impose.

Europeans and Americans have their own sorry history when it comes to resource development. If China
can develop resources in a constructive way, that can help create jobs. The Chinese are smart and
recognize they're going to face backlashes. I'm sure there are Chinese companies that are not following
proper safeguards. But when I present these issues to them, they understand the point and are willing to
work with us. Now when I meet donors in developing countries, I often try to invite the Chinese
ambassador.

Some of Africa's poorest states are landlocked with few natural resources—Malawi and Burundi
come to mind. Where's the hope for them?

These are small markets that are going to have to link to larger markets —subregional integration.
Rwanda is a landlocked country, but it hasn't stopped developing. They built a high-end tourism industry
around the mountain gorillas. A country like Malawi could still increase income considerably with the
right agricultural gains.

In the aftermath of the global recession, many are now calling this the age of emerging markets.
Which ones do you see as having the greatest potential for growth?

Clearly people are focusing on China and India. I think Africa is a potential pole for growth. To get out
of the crisis, it is important to provide financing to these countries to create the basis for demand. But it
is also important to invest productively, because this will create additional productivity and growth for
the future.

OBJETIVOS DE LECTO-COMPRENSIÓN:

 Grado comparativo y superlativo de adjetivos.

 Present Perfect; Present Continuous; Future Simple; going to future; Conditional (would).
 This: referencia anafórica y catafórica.
 Infinitivo de propósito.
 Verbos modales: can; could; may.
 ACTIVIDADES DE LECTO-COMPRENSIÓN:

Responder las siguientes preguntas:

01).- ¿Qué situación conecta al Banco Mundial con África en el primer párrafo?

02).- ¿Qué datos aporta el texto sobre Robert B. Zoellick?

03).- ¿En dónde se realizó la entrevista a Zoellick?

04).- En la oración “I think it is going to follow its own model, but it can learn lessons from others”, ¿a
qué refieren cada uno de los pronombres “it”?

05).- ¿Por qué se menciona la importancia de la integración regional en la respuesta a la primera

pregunta? HACER HASTA LA 5

06).- En la segunda pregunta se nombran varios países africanos. ¿Cuáles son? ¿Se los cita por un
motivo positivo o negativo? ¿Cuál?

07).- ¿Qué objetivo pretende Zoellick que África alcance respecto del desarrollo de la clase media?
¿Podría afirmarse que es un objetivo modesto o ambicioso?

08).- ¿Cuál es la opinión que tienen los europeos y los estadounidenses sobre China? ¿Comparte
Zoellick esta visión?

09).- ¿Cuál es la particularidad de países como Malawi o Burundi? ¿Es Zoellick optimista o pesimista al
respecto?

10).- ¿Qué propone Zoellick para salir de la crisis en África?