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Hadiza Wada, DBA
October 3, 2009
The Corporate Council on Africa hosted its Biennial business summit between Africa and the United States at the Washington Convention Center of the capital of the United States, beginning September 29 and concluding on October 1, 2009. Many dignitaries graced the occasion.
In her speech representing the Obama Administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised many issues, among them “We are eager to move beyond stereotypes that paint Africa as a land of poverty, disease, conflict, and not much else. And we will continue to lay a strong foundation for a new kind of engagement with Africa, one that is built on shared responsibility and shared opportunity, and on partnerships that produce measurable, lasting results.”
Secretary Clinton mentioned many challenges that need to be addressed before realizing the goal of actualizing the dream of Africans in making the desired impact in global interchange, business and development. There after she said “But we have to acknowledge that none of this can happen without responsible African leadership.”
On Nigeria in particular she called for the realization of electoral reform and effective management of resources, saying “Now, we encourage Nigeria, Angola, and other energy-producing countries to manage their resources and escape the natural resource curse that has plagued much of the continent.”
Another important event at the business summit was a roundtable on regional development which saw the participation of four African presidents from Rwanda, Ghana, Sao Tome and Congo.
Rwandan President says the priority for his government as would be for any African country serious on issues of development and commerce is developing Infrastructure. The Rwandan President says “infrastructure is very important, for example, in facilitating businesses. You cannot talk about increased volume of trade when there are no roads, there are no rails, there are problems of air transport. At the same time you cannot talk about increased investments unless you can show that you will be able to supply electricity to industries.”
On behalf of his country and ECOWAS, John Atta Mills of Ghana emphasized service to his people and improving their standard of living is supreme, because that is why every leader gets elected, to perform. On the regional level, he says ECOWAS realizes the importance of binding some important aspects of development. “For example, if we strengthen cooperation among us we can have common services, common infrastructure, and common energy programs. We think therefore that in West Africa the need for us to integrate is now more important than ever.”
All four leaders believe the key to facilitating development and commerce on regional and continental level is through the creation of sound infrastructure and improving existing ones.
On its part Sao Tome also adds that regional trade organizations are extremely important, “We believe we cannot develop a country without regional integration. We belong to a sub-region and we must understand each other.” President Fradique de Menezes says his island nation is working towards becoming the container hub for the region, helping decongest the already chocked ports of the mainland, and facilitates sea faring.
Earlier in August, a publication Africa Business Source reported that Africa is becoming increasingly important in terms of commercial relationship with the United States. This follows the trip the same month by some congressional staff including representative from the state of Illinois Bobby Rush, who is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce. Countries visited included Angola, Ghana, Liberia and South Africa.
The publication disclosed that one of the reasons for the marathon visitations is to emphasize the importance of the continent, especially now that countries like China and Middle East are making serious investments in the continent. It could be recalled that The U S President Barack Obama was in Africa early July, and his Secretary of State was on a seven nation tour the following month (August).
On September 28, 2009, the eve of the biennial summit CCA hosted Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete. In a press release issued same day CCA noted that Kikwete became the first African President to be hosted by the White House in May, four months after the Obama Administration moved into the White House.
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