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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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