WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama urged African leaders to create a better environment for business by halting corruption, as he announced $33bn in new US investment for the continent.
Obama said American businesses have lined up $14bn in new investments in various businesses, and another $12bn for Africa’s crucial power sector. This as he pitched American business as a potent rival to China and Europe in the race to be a partner in Africa’s economic emergence.
“The bottom line is that the United States is making a major long-term investment in African progress,” told a summit of African heads of state and business leaders in Washington. “That will support development across Africa and jobs in the United States,” he added.
Speaking to 45 African heads of state and government gathered in the US capital for a historic three-day summit, Obama said the United States wanted to work with Africa for long-term development. But he stressed that African leaders had to do their part, even as foreign investment and trade surges.
“Capital is one thing. Development programmes and projects are one thing. But rule of law, regulatory reform, good governance: those things matter even more,” he said. “Because people should be able to start a business, and ship their goods without having to pay a bribe, or hire somebody’s cousin.”
The second day of the summit focused almost entirely on business, as African leaders and tycoons complained American companies have been slow to wake up to the rise of African economies.
US firms still think “about Africa a decade ago... whereas things have really changed dramatically, said Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man with an estimated $20bn fortune. “Africa now has been growing at about 5.5 percent on average in the last decade.”
“There is a lot of perceived risk. People only talk about risk. But the majority of those who perceive risk don’t know the story. They have not really been there.”
US Commerce Secretary Jacob Lew was candid that the summit was about building closer ties against tougher competitors from China, the new foreign economic power in Africa, and Europe, strong in part from its old colonial links.
AFP
