Meeting of the minds

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Meles Zenawi, prime minister of Ethiopia (left) and Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa (right)

Two days before the 18th African Union Summit comes to a close, Meles Zenawi, prime minister of Ethiopia (left) and Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa (right) made a joint appearance at the New Partnership for African Development Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee meeting (NEPAD/HSGOC), held in the late morning of January 28, 2011. The committee chaired by Meles Zenawi is comprised of 20 member states from five regions of the continent.

The meeting had to take place at the old African Union (AU) Conference Hall, as inauguration of the new 100 metre-tall AU Headquarters took place later in the afternoon. The rest of the events at the summit, which commenced on January 23 under the theme “boosting Intra-African Trade,” will be held at the new building.

“Africa is now proclaimed as the most profitable region,” the South African president said at the meeting, as he presented a report on the impelementation of the Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative.

The initiative champions regional and cross-border infrastructure projects that help regional economic integration. One planned project is the Dakar-Ndjamina-Djibouti Road and Rail Project, which is an east coast to west coast corridor that passes through Ethiopia.