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The Corporate Council on Africa was proud to co-chair the Fourth Annual AGOA Private Sector Forum in Dakar, Senegal, July 18-19, 2005. CCA was joined by its private sector co-chairs, the African Business Roundtable and APIX, Senegal. The Whitaker Group, of Washington, DC, served as Private Sector Forum Secretariat as well as co-chair for the forum. In line with tradition, the Private Sector Forum was held in conjunction with the Ministerial Forum, headed by the United States and Senegalese governments. The 2005 Forum was the first AGOA Forum to provide Private Sector and Ministerial participants the opportunity to interact directly in the respective workshop settings.
At the June 21-24, 2005 CCA U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Baltimore, Maryland roughly 15 Summit workshops touched specifically on AGOA-related successes, innovations, and recommendations for next steps. CCA presented a report on the findings of these workshops to all private sector participants in Dakar in an effort to bridge the events and ensure continuity of action. The business community present at the Summit iterated that moving forward on AGOA mandates strengthened commitment from African governments, their private sectors, and Africa’s U.S. and other international trading partners. U.S. government and business participants all agreed on the importance of continuing global trade policy reform, identifying and implementing public-private partnerships, and investing in value-added industries in Africa. Mandates for Africa spanned recruiting investment and promoting trade through good governance, increasing focus on public-private partnerships as a means to promote economic growth, and developing more value-added industries and their supply chains..
The Fourth Annual AGOA Forum gets underway at Le Meridian Presidenté, Dakar
In Dakar, AGOA Private Sector Forum participants were able to build and expand on these key findings. Forum recommendations included: 1) using regional market incentives to attract capital and investment, 2) heightening focus on exports diversification, 3) capitalizing on comparative advantage benefits, 4) exploring market niche opportunities in the U.S., 5) developing and implementing successful marketing and branding strategies, and 6) employing public-private partnerships to help address public health challenges in Africa. In the closing session of the Ministerial arm of the Forum, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced two important U.S. government initiatives to enhance trade-related technical assistance to Africa. The African Global Competitive Initiative earmarks US$200 million over a five year period to expand trade capacity-building and establish a fourth USAID Global Competitiveness Trade Hub in Dakar, Senegal. The AGOA Diversification Fund will assist U.S. agencies to support African governments through the export diversification process.
Private sector companies and members of CCA also provided positive updates of their work on the continent. Robert Lindsay, Vice President, of The Coca-Cola Company Africa offered an example of a backward integration of supply-chain through Coca-Cola’s purchase of a 13,000 hectare farm to produce pineapple, mango, and citrus for fruit juice processing in Nigeria. Merck, Inc. discussed the effectiveness of its African Comprehensive HIV/Aids Partnership (ACHAP) with the government of Botswana. There were a number of other impressive examples of how private sector actors are rising to the challenge of making this Africa’s century.
The Forum concluded with the recognition that while there has been marked success in the growth of U.S.-Africa trade under AGOA, much remains to be done to fully realize the potential of the trade relationship. The private sector remains integral to the future of AGOA. Participants and organizers hope that this year’s Forum recommendations will contribute to both increasing U.S.-Africa trade ties and the long-term growth and competitiveness of the African private sector.
Find below the CCA Summit Report to the AGOA Private Sector Forum and the CCA Report and Recommendations on the AGOA Private Sector Forum.
CCA Summit Report to the AGOA Forum Document
AGOA Private Sector Forum Report and Recommendations Document
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