Tibor P. Na gy Jr.
THE US government
recently engaged African ministers on the best ways to dramatically increase
trade and investment within the continent.
The high-level
bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the just-ended UN General Assembly
(UNGA) was hosted by US Deputy Secretary, John Sullivan.
Speaking with
journalists in a telephone briefing on recent events at UNGA, Assistant
Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor P. Nagy Jr., said participants
at the meeting talked about
the new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the doubling of
funding and also how to prosper Africa.
“But what I was really excited about was to hear
directly from the African ministers as to what they are doing in their
environments to improve attraction for U.S. business people,” he said.
The Assistant Secretary of State expressed the strong
conviction that Africa needed U.S. businesses to bring the jobs that Africa’s
young people wanted currently and in future, citing General Electric as a
classic example.
He said the projected growth in Africa’s population
which was expected to double by 2050 represented a
tremendous opportunity for economic growth, prosperity and dynamism.
“What we need,
basically, is to get out of the way of those young people, which means better
governance, better rules, better environments for business so that all those
businesses around the world that want to invest in Africa will come in and
invest in Africa and create jobs for all of those millions of young people,” Nagy
Jr. said.
The telephone
briefing also touched on issues of international importance in Mali, the Sahel
and Sudan.
However, Nagy Jr.
noted that unfortunately the Sahel was one of the more problematic areas on the
continent with serious deterioration last year. “So the international community
is very engaged on trying to figure out a way on how to address that,” he added.
He noted that the
entire international community was extremely excited about the positive
developments in Sudan, especially how it could support Sudan to come out
successfully.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
