Guest
blog post by Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca
Blank
During the last week I’ve been in South and East Africa to
advance key elements of President Obama’s “Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa,”
focusing on the promotion of economic
growth, trade and investment in the continent.
On Wednesday in Johannesburg, we
launched the “Doing Business in
Africa” campaign at an event hosted by Business Unity South Africa and the
Corporate Council on Africa. Among other
things, I announced our commitments to train more of our business counselors
and to organize Africa Global Business Summits in order to increase the
visibility of opportunities in Africa for American entrepreneurs and business
owners
Then, on Thursday and
Friday, I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to
meet with heads of state and senior trade ministers
from the East African Community (EAC), a regional organization that
includes Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. We signed an agreement to launch the Commercial
Dialogue between the EAC and the U.S., the first of
its kind in Africa. Our goal is to create an environment
where American businesses can both invest in the region and sell their products and services to meet the increasing demand from the
growing middle class in East Africa.
Overall, the mutual
economic growth of the U.S. and Africa is
dependent on strong and growing person-to-person
relationships. That’s why I highlighted
the fact that Under Secretary for International Trade Francisco Sánchez
was simultaneously leading a delegation of 14 U.S. businesses on a trade
mission to South Africa and Zambia. (Read more here about how this is
already expanding markets for some American businesses). Also, I was
pleased to hear that–next week–the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence
McCulley, will lead a Nigerian business delegation to a number of U.S. cities
to see some of our biggest trade shows.
The Obama administration will
continue to build bridges with Sub-Saharan Africa as we look to the
future. Clearly, people both here in the U.S. and in Sub-Saharan Africa
will continue to work with each other, learn from each other, and build on each
other’s growing prosperity.