The Corporate Council on Africa

2010 Annual Meeting

February 19, 2010

Willard InterContinental Hotel

Washington, D.C.

Remarks to the Membership by Stephen Hayes, President and CEO

Good Afternoon Excellencies, Assistant Secretary of State Carson, Special Guests and Members of CCA.  It is my honor and duty to present to you the annual “State of CCA” to our members.  I think we are in an exciting stage of development and I want to share those developments with you today, but first I want to briefly look back to the events that have brought us to where we are at this moment.

In my decade of service to and leadership of CCA I have been privileged in many ways.

I have had the good fortune to watch an organization, very close to bankruptcy and embarrassment, rise like a Phoenix from the ashes of destruction to one that is respected, perhaps grudgingly in some sectors, for its commitment to America and Africa, its progressive stance as a major trade organization and for its service to its members.  I have been privileged to watch talented young staff grow while at CCA and have watched nearly all of them go onto better jobs, often because they had served at CCA.  I have watched  dozens and dozens of interns come through here, and  with the support of our staff, nearly every one of them has left CCA knowing far more about Africa and far more about the challenges of building and maintaining an organization than they learn in their four years of college.  In fact, many have told us exactly this.  It is because of a staff committed to the growth and development of others.  And I have had the privilege of having two of the best who have ever served under my presidency at CCA leave the organization and a few years later come back to serve CCA and its members as our current vice-presidents.

I have also had the good fortune of working with hundreds of members who, I have learned, are not simply committed to making a living, but the great majority very much wants Africa to succeed because they have fallen in love with the continent as well.  They, the members of CCA, have become married to Africa and in a marriage they have come to know the strengths and weaknesses of the partner, and have seldom chosen to divorce themselves from that marriage, as tough as marriages can be at times.  They are not like lovers or romantics who see no fault in the other, and wash over all the problems that lie not so far below the bliss of encounter.  They are realistic about the challenges and yet our members endure, year after year, and decade after decade, in Africa.  Ultimately that is the heart of CCA.

I have been fortunate to encounter an African Diplomatic Corps that has, by and large, been supportive of CCA.  There is always the rhetoric of cynicism and political conformity that too many of us accept as part of growing old that says that we are only businesses who want to exploit Africa, but I have also been blessed by a great many in the African diplomatic corps who understand what CCA and its growing membership are trying to do, and understand that we believe that what we are trying to do is in the best interests of Africa.  We are fortunate that Amb. Olhaye, Dean of the Diplomatic Corp, and Ambassador Ali, Ambassador for the African Union, with whom CCA has developed a very close working relationship over the years are both friends of CCA whom we respect very much.  We see many of these other diplomatic friends in the audience today and are grateful for their presence.

I have also been fortunate to be in Washington and watch the machinations of government, and am constantly reminded that Upton Sinclair was much closer to how government actually functions than was any textbook I ever read.  Government is not a rational process, but a battle of emotions, prejudices, temporary alliances and grievances often based on slighted egos, that all come together in that great sausage grinder we call Congress and the Executive Branch.  There are those in Washington who never forgive or move on but spend their lives avenging some imagined or misunderstood offense or defending illusory turf.  Sometimes it is so hard to come together for a common cause in this city.  Nevertheless, I have been fortunate to see the commitment of many career officers in Government to try to make a difference.  This organization has been blessed by its friendships with many in the US Department of State, the Treasury Department, the Department of Commerce, the National Security Council, the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation and Agriculture, the US Trade Representative, USAID, TDA, OPIC, and EX-IM.  Now, granted that some of these friendships are less strained than others, but we have over the years found ways to work with all of these agencies and we are committed to continuing to try to bring the private and public sectors closer together in working relationships.

I would be remiss if I did not note that we have worked with pride with the US Agency for International Development in our SAIBL program.  It is one of the longest standing US development programs in Africa, and has been touted as one of the most successful US development programs on the continent.  It has generated now more than 21,000 jobs in South Africa and has developed transactions and partnerships for primarily black and women run businesses of South Africa worth more than $1.7 billion dollars.  These are not our figures but those of the South African Government.  It is a drop in the bucket of need, but again no bucket is ever filled but with drops at a time.  Our members are often the partners of these companies and we are contributing to the improvement of lives as much as we can.  We do not pretend that it is of great significance but we are trying to do our part to create a better world for all.  Tim Bergstrom leads our SAIBL team.

All of this is to say, that despite the global economy and the gloom, as well as the snow in the air in Washington, CCA has done very well and looks to continue this trend.  There are many reasons why we are confident of the future and why we attempt to serve our members in the best way possible.

We have held our own in membership at a time when membership organizations are facing cutbacks and less support from their members, and we are confident that we will have another record year in membership in 2010 under the leadership of our membership and marketing director, Rashida Petersen.  We doubled the number of sponsors for our CCA summit over any previous summit.  And we have had four consecutive very successful financial years.  We believe we will be able to continue this trend in a very challenging global financial climate, not by playing safe and retreating until the storm passes, but taking steps we hope are well calculated to make the changes in course that need to be made.

We have increased, not decreased our service to members.  In January this year we held 23 different programs for members.  We believe that we will continue this trend and convene at least 150 different meetings this year for our members and others.

We moved into new quarters that have given us a far greater ability to serve our members, and allowed us to present ourselves more professionally as a full service international trade organization.  We have also been able to save considerable costs by hosting meal events in our own quarters, including for two Presidents of African nations, several trade ministers, not to mention seven governors of Nigeria.  We now have the kind of work environment that our members and guests deserve.

And, of course, we convened the major US-Africa meeting in Washington in 2009, the biennial CCA US-Africa Summit, drawing approximately 1600 people from more than 60 nations in the world.  While the summit itself was rich in its program, from Secretary of State Clinton’s address and to the Presidential Forum, what may have been at least equally significant were the programs around the summit.  CCA formed the US-South Africa Business Forum in a meeting with South African business and government leaders.  Next week in South Africa, the steering committee for the Forum will meet in Johannesburg to map out the next two or three years of activity between US and South African business leaders.  We also convened a meeting with Nigerian counterparts, and we expect that to evolve into an equally important program.  Also, for the first time ever, our counterparts from Europe, Canada, Japan and South Africa all met together to explore ways our members can cooperate more directly in business partnerships in Africa.  We will follow up that meeting with another meeting parallel to the G-20 meetings in Toronto in June.

In 2009, we also coordinated the work of more than one hundred of our businesses to create the policy recommendations on Africa to the Obama Administration.  This effort was directed by Bob Perry.

Out of our normal work, we organized the Pan-African Inaugural Ball honoring the inauguration of President Obama.  By working with the Kenyan Embassy and an important part of the Diaspora community in Washington, DC, we generated enough net profit from that event to provide to the Barack Obama High School in Kenya enough money to build a new classroom building.  We were able to present the check directly to the high school and we were honored to receive pictures several months later of the new building and classrooms.   Adina Ellis, who also directed our summit, led the organization in a total staff effort to make this possible.

We also placed two staff persons in Africa.  It is not the first time we have done so, for Tim McCoy once served with COMESA for nearly a year as a CCA staff person.  However, it is the first time we have placed staff strictly as CCA staff not seconded to another organization.  In Ethiopia we underwrote the entire costs of staff in order to start the American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia, as well as to strengthen further the excellent relationship we enjoy with the African Union. We played a key role in establishing the American Chamber of Commerce in Madagascar, which continues today in a very difficult environment.  In Nigeria, we have a staffer working for CCA to strengthen our ties with that nation as well.  We hope to continue to move in this direction in 2010.

In 2010 we will continue to adapt to a changing Africa.  We have for the first time a staff person dedicated to Francophone Africa.  Emmanuel Nouga, at CCA by way of Cameroon, West Point and Harvard is now assigned to work with companies interested in trading and investing with Francophone Africa.

We also are entering into a very close working relationship with the US Government.  While we believe strongly in an independent private sector we recognize that the pace of new US investment in Africa will remain slow unless there is stronger and more significant cooperation between the US Government and its private sector.  It is not just domestically that we need this partnership but internationally as well.  At the same time, some in the US Government responsible for policy, such as Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary Carson recognize that unless there is greater US private investment in Africa, then African nations will turn to those nations that are investing in their countries, and no amount of foreign aid will change that for a continent that we badly need as friend, ally and business partner.  For the good of the United States of America we need to be investing in Africa far more than we are now, even though we remain the single largest investor in the continent today.

Under my administration at CCA we are going to work with the US Administration everywhere they seek to develop stronger relationships in Africa.   The days of an artificial separation are behind us, and it may have been an illusion to ever think we can operate independent of one another.  That simply is not possible in this very complex world, especially if all of us want to succeed.  To succeed in Africa, which also means for Africa to succeed, the public and private sectors must appreciate the other far more than I believe they do, and they must work together as perhaps they have never done before.  This applies not only to the United States, but it applies to Africa as well. Africa needs to free up the private sector as an engine for its own development.

For this reason we are working on the partnerships with businesses in Africa. You will hear more on this from Bob Perry after lunch.  You will also hear from Tim McCoy on the latest trade figures, as Tim presents our annual review of US trade with Africa.  There are some startling statistics in the latest figures, and also some rays of hope for US companies.

To me the challenge remains how do we get more US companies to understand the potential value of what Africa offers to their company, just as we still need others in Government beyond the State Department and the Commerce Department to understand the importance of Africa to the US economy and not see Africa as simply a development project and laboratory.   The quickest way to get people to understand is for the highest official in the land to make the quite valid point that to help the US economy Africa offers one of the best destinations in the world.  Africa and America need each other, and the sooner we all understand that the quicker we will recover economically and politically in this very challenging world.

We need to look at ways that financing becomes more readily available to American companies wishing to invest in Africa.  We cannot rail (no matter how justifiably) at the private banks for their failure to help struggling businesses in America who are seeking to invest in their own communities, while our government institutions reduce their level of commitment to the American private sector wishing to invest in Africa as these same businesses try to rebuild our businesses and economy, to jobs in our own factories.  We need to understand that greater investment and trade with Africa is also investment in American jobs and we need leadership willing to make that case to the American public and business community.  We are heartened by Secretary Clinton’s commitment and care for Africa, and we expect more to be announced about how we are working with, and not simply for, Africa.  We are honored to be working with our government in a more active fashion to make this happen.  You will hear about some of these plans later after lunch from Secretary Carson and our two vice-presidents.

You can expect other new initiatives this year.  For one, we will attempt to be much more engaged with North Africa this year.  You will understand why when you hear Tim McCoy’s presentation on US-Africa trade.  A more complete presentation will be available to all of you as you leave us later this afternoon.  We expect, by the way, a strong North African presence at the Infrastructure Conference in April.  We will also continue our work with Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and many other countries of Africa, and you should expect a series of new ventures by CCA throughout this year.  Everything we are doing is to increase US trade with Africa, as well as Africa trade with the US, and to strengthen the work of the members of CCA.

We also are looking for new ways to encourage businesses to see Africa in a far more accurate light.  We are entering into an exciting venture with CEO Magazine, and also have entered into a working relationship with Fortune Magazine.  You will hear more about this as we draw closer to the Infrastructure Conference.  We have entered into media agreements with several international publications as well.  I think you will hear more and more about CCA over the next few years.

As usual, we will continue to serve as a major convening institution as we hold important conferences on infrastructure (led by Vivienne Sequeira), health (led by Elizabeth Bachini and Emanuel Nouga) and a special venture in conjunction with the G-20 conference in Toronto this year (led by Tim McCoy), and to the extent that the US Government wants our assistance and involvement, we will continue to be supportive of the AGOA process.  However, for AGOA to be far more effective, we need to address the basic issues of infrastructure development, agribusiness, financing and cheaper energy to fuel African development.  Those are the issues we will tackle in 2010 and beyond.

In conclusion, the Board of Directors of CCA needs to be acknowledged.  None of these past ten years would have been possible were the Board not willing to take major risks and support the directions of we have taken.  In 2009 we had our highest percentage ever of board members who financially supported the organization beyond membership.  I believe that we have strengthened the Board every year I have been here, and this would not have happened were it not for a dedicated membership willing to serve and to help select new board members every year.  The course that we now take was laid down in a Board retreat in 2008, and management has been very faithful to the directions set at that retreat.

I am proud to be serving this membership and its Board and I hope that others come to understand that our service is also to this nation and to the improvement of the lives of all that we affect throughout Africa and the United States.  My message is that CCA is continuing to grow, to serve, and, yes, to make mistakes, but is committed to all that come in contact with the organization and its members.