Canada's new Trade Minister delivered a laundry list of management advice for African leaders yesterday as he opened an Ottawa conference on African innovation and prosperity. Against a backdrop of rising talk about Africa's potential as the world emerges from recession, Peter Van Loan, pictured, gave a blunt account of what's needed for the world's most impoverished continent to attract global business and investment. "Africa will require dramatically improved infrastructure, fair regulations, effective and just governance and quality education -- and it will need to deal with violence and instability," Mr. Van Loan said. "Ultimately, solving these problems is up to Africa's leadership" -- but he added that Canada can help. The speech was his first since his switch from serving as public safety minister.

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Black & White Photo: Canwest News Service /

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