Welcoming participants in the first Africa Forum on Business and Security, Dr Harold Elletson, Chairman of The New Security Foundation, said:

” Twenty-five years ago, we lived in a world that was very different. Security was still defined by the Cold War and by the competing interests and ideologies of nation states.

The revolution in information and communications technology, which has transformed modern societies and their politics, had not happened. Economic globalisation was still in its infancy. Privatisation was only beginning to spread around the world.

Twenty-five years ago, Africa was seen by the rest of the world in a very different light. If they thought about it at all, outsiders still saw this great continent as a place of suffering and misery. It was the object of pity in some, guilt in others. It was a place to be shunned or avoided; for businesses, all too often, it was a focus of exploitation, rather than an opportunity for investment.

Now things are very different.

Many African economies are enjoying unprecedented economic growth. Whilst European and North American economies continue to battle recession, their African counterparts are seeing growth rates of 6 or 7 per cent. Some estimates show that, over the next 5 years, the average African economy will grow faster than the average Asian economy.

At long last, there is a real chance that the people of Africa will be able to enjoy a significant and sustained improvement in their standard of living. That will not only be good news for Africans, but for the rest of us too.

Economic growth, however, is closely linked to security. And it is a failure to deal with today’s security challenges that could hold back prosperity tomorrow.

Some of these challenges are peculiarly African, others are the same ones that face all of us. Some are connected to persistent problems, others are the result of frightening new threats that have emerged in our age of constant technological innovation and with the development of a wholly new global security environment.

The purpose of this forum is to create a platform for dialogue about these new challenges and an opportunity for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience.

The nature of security has changed fundamentally and businesses are increasingly a part of the modern security equation. There are new vulnerabilities and new opportunities.

We have brought together political leaders, investors, managers, security experts, and academics from many different countries and a variety of different backgrounds to discuss the new security challenges facing Africa and what they mean for business.

I hope that the Africa Forum on Business and Security, which will be an annual event, will make a contribution, however small, to security and prosperity in Africa.”