Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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40. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has considered the UN report Making the most of Africa's Commodities; his views on the future economic development of Africa and Irish Aid's role in supporting it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23179/13]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The recent report compiled by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union, ‘Making the most of Africa’s Commodities: Industrialization for Growth, Jobs and Economic Transformation’, places a spotlight on Africa’s gradual emergence as a global economic power. The report highlights how the continent should take advantage of this opportunity through a commodity-based industrialization strategy, leveraging Africa’s abundant resources, high commodity prices, large youth populations and the changing global production process.

These opportunities, and how Ireland can support them, are very much to the fore in the Government’s recently launched Policy for International Development: One World, One Future. The Policy recognises the emergence of renewed confidence in developing countries, as they generate more of their own revenues, and open up further to the world. This is particularly true in Africa, which is and will remain the focus of the Government’s official aid programme. Our aim, and the aim of our Key Partner Countries, is to reduce the dependency on aid and to empower governments and communities to address poverty and drive their own development.

One of the three major goals in the Policy for International Development, therefore, is Sustainable Development and Inclusive Economic Growth. With this, we intend to increase our focus on trade and development and, in line with the Government’s Africa Strategy, to better link development cooperation with the political and trade dimensions of our engagement in Africa. In doing so, we seek to contribute to increased trade and investment, private sector development, increased employment and enhanced human well-being.

The Government very much welcomes the UN and African Union report. The implementation of industrial and other development policies to promote value addition and economic transformation and to reduce dependence on producing and exporting unprocessed commodities; the implementation of appropriate development planning frameworks and effective industrial policies; the removal of bottlenecks, the boosting of skills and capacity; and the promotion of regional and global integration, are all important recommendations from the report. If implemented, these recommendations will go a long way towards ensuring that Africa will no longer be a bystander to its own destiny addressing youth unemployment, poverty and gender disparities, and the other challenges faced by that continent.

In our aid programme’s engagement on economic growth, we too have a particular focus on those who are being left behind ensuring that development efforts target those most excluded, deliberately addressing the inequalities people face. Because if economic growth and industrialisation is to be sustained, it needs to be inclusive and it needs to tackle the root causes of poverty and vulnerability, thereby enabling developing countries to fully exploit their true potential and ensure development for all.

We are also very conscious of the fact that efficient and fair tax systems in developing countries are essential for sustainable growth, poverty reduction and the provision of basic services. Tax avoidance and evasion present a major issue for developing countries seeking to drive their own development. Ireland is playing a strong role in global efforts to increase revenue generation and tackle tax avoidance and evasion in developing countries. The brokering by Ireland of an agreement in the EU for the revision of the EU transparency and accounting directives, which when passed into legislation will improve transparency among EU multinational companies involved in extractive and logging industries in developing countries, is one recent example of this.

Over the coming years, as we implement Ireland’s new Policy for International Development, we look forward to partnering with African Government’s to deliver on the economic and trade opportunities identified in the very timely report by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union.