African leaders urge reform of global financial system

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (Xinhua): African leaders attending a UN debate here yesterday called for reform of the global financial system, saying that African countries should be guaranteed a greater voice.
Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo said the lesson from the world economic and financial crisis was that no country was immune to it.
The international community should redouble its efforts to increase the oversight of the international financial system and the functioning of financial institutions, he said.
Now was the time to initiate the reform of the international monetary and financial system, Gbagbo said.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore said African countries had suffered the most from the political and economic consequences of the financial crisis because of the fragility and low diversity of their economies.
To boost growth, create full employment and restore confidence, the adoption of strict regulation and control of the international financial system was fundamental, Compaore said.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe called for the reform of international financial institutions with an aim to increase the voice of African countries.
Mugabe said his country fully supported the setting up of a working group by the UN General Assembly to advise on immediate policy actions to help developing countries "who have suffered the most as a result of this global financial meltdown."
Such actions should include the development of a global stimulus plan to respond to the crisis and other issues related to it, Mugabe said.
These measures, however, would not achieve the "desired objectives unless accompanied by a comprehensive reform of the Bretton Woods institutions which, among other things, would include representation of sub-Saharan Africa on the executive boards of these institutions," he stressed.
Denis Sassou-Nguesso, president of the Republic of the Congo, noted that the current economic and financial crisis had resulted in the worst economic downturn the world has known since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was therefore imperative to recast the international financial architecture to make it more inclusive and equitable, he said.
The seven-day general debate, which began on Wednesday, is being held under an overarching theme of "Effective responses to global crises: strengthening multilateralism and dialogue among civilizations for international peace, security and development."