Two Laud Business Summit

The African Union (AU) has welcomed the first- ever All-Africa Business Summit to be held in Accra and described it as worthwhile.

In a statement, the Director of Economic Affairs at the AU Commission, Dr Renee Kouassi, said there were numerous hurdles which impacted negatively on business activities on the continent and stressed the need to bring together private sector actors and policy makers to work together to address such bottlenecks.

It said the AU would be pleased to take part in the summit and provide other forms of technical support, if required, to make the summit a success.

The union was hopeful that there would be a successful summit and pledged its support and closer collaboration to improve the business climate in Africa.

In a related development, Virgin Nigeria Airlines has also declared its support for the summit.

In discussions with officials of Kingworld Media, the organisers of the summit, the Country Director of Virgin Nigeria, Ms Jilly Holley, said the vision of improving the level of continental business was one that was shared by Virgin Nigeria and it would, therefore, contribute its quota to ensure the success of the event.

The All-Africa Business Summit is scheduled to take place in Accra from September 6 - 8, 2007.

It is expected to bring together private sector entrepreneurs from all parts of the African continent, in addition to policy makers, to chart a new direction for pan-African trade and investment.