|
|
Page
Two
Press
briefing on "The 7th AGOA Forum in
Washington, DC on July 14-16, 2008”
The Washington Foreign Press
Center, Washington, DC
July
1, 2008
MODERATOR: We have a question from New York. Would
you please let us know your name and news
organization in New York, and who you are addressing
your question to?
QUESTION: Sure. My name is James Reinl. I’m
journalist for a newspaper called The National from
Abu Dhabi. I was – the question is open to anyone
who wants to answer it, but it’s following on from
something Mr. – is it Mr. Moss, or Mr. Mass, was
saying?
MODERATOR: Moss.
QUESTION: Moss? I was interested in what he was
saying about private investment and trying to
encourage more private investment in infrastructure
projects in Africa. And I was wondering if any
members of the panel could give some examples of
private investment infrastructure development
projects that have gone into Africa, have turned a
profit, and have benefited African countries.
MR. MOSS: I could give one. Well, let me quickly
give you one before I turn over the floor to others.
If you look at one piece of emerging trade coming
out of Africa – this is non-oil – let’s talk about
flowers. If you look at flowers, you’ll find that
East Africa has captured not so much the United
States, but they have captured 40 percent of the
rose trade in Europe. That has been primarily Kenya
and Ethiopia, but an emerging flower grower is
Tanzania. And Tanzania is becoming increasingly
competitive because they now have an international
airport in the flower-growing region in the
northwest, in Kilimanjaro.
One of the pieces that is necessary for them to
become increasingly competitive is cold storage at
that airport. There is a small Tanzanian company
that is looking at the cold storage and looking at
improvements to the cold storage. With improvements
in cold storage, they will probably be able to ship
directly out of northwestern Tanzania – this is just
outside of Arusha – rather than having to truck
their flowers to Nairobi, as they currently are
doing. In that way, that piece of investment and
infrastructure is piggybacking on the fact that
there is now an airport that is bringing tourists
in, and has the potential to make them far more
competitive. There’s one example of such
infrastructure.
MODERATOR: Is anybody else going to answer that? Do
we have other questions? Up here in the front,
please?
QUESTION: Thank you. My name is Nomar Addison, AMIP
News Service. My question is this: Has every country
taken advantage of the facility? I recently learned,
and correct me if I’m wrong, that Benin is an
eligible country, but has not exported anything to
the United States. Thank you.
MR. MOSS: I don’t have any specific trade numbers on
Benin, but I’d be surprised if there – if the number
was zero.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. MOSS: You know, even the smallest country, we
have some – there is some trade, even if it starts
from a very small base. But the point is not
necessarily the overall numbers, but rather, the
trends. And we want to try to encourage that trend
so that it grows, and that we keep our eye on the
long-term goal, which is to get as many African
countries to middle income status as quickly as
possible, keeping in mind that this is going to take
– it takes many years to grow from – from a small
GDP to a large GDP, so --
MODERATOR: We have another question from Mr. Butty.
QUESTION: Thank you. The – it says here that U.S.
total imports from sub-Saharan Africa are more than
triple during this period to $67.4 billion. That is
a large amount. What is the distributive volume?
Because here, if petroleum – petroleum accounted for
the largest portion of AGOA imports, is $3.4 billion
– that mean – perhaps it’s – this is – correct me if
I’m wrong. This – a lot of countries now are
benefitting. What’s the distributive for volume for
this $67.4 billion? In other words, what – what is –
what are – where are the products coming from?
MR. MOSS: Yeah. We can get you the exact information
on the country-by-country breakdown. I don’t have
that with me here, but I would say that given –
given the U.S. oil imports and rising oil prices,
it’s not surprising that oil comprises a significant
portion of this. But I would highlight that the
non-oil AGOA trade has been growing extremely
quickly. We’ve got – that portion has nearly tripled
in the last six years, which is an important trend,
and includes a wide range of countries that are not
involved in the oil market. So – let me just also
add on the data point, we can – if you’re interested
in a specific number for Benin, we can certainly get
that for you.
QUESTION: Okay. It would be good if somebody can
call us, call me at Voice of America, because I’d
like to get audio response. If we get answers to
some of these questions that have been postponed, if
you can call me later this afternoon. I can leave my
number so I can get something on record for my show.
Thank you.
MODERATOR: Okay. Another question from Media 24,
South Africa.
QUESTION: Just to get some more success stories. It
was a perfect example, the one from Tanzania. Can
you give some more success stories where ports for
boat or airports that led to, you know, opening up a
whole new world for some of these African countries,
please?
MR. MOSS: Okay. We have a regional – as part of AGOA,
there are regional trade hubs in Africa. There is a
southern African trade hub that can give you some
examples of specific companies that have benefited.
I’m just looking through my list now. And rather
than just pick one at random, I’d rather just have
that information shared with you. But they do keep a
list of trade missions and then they track, you
know, which companies are having successful deals
and try to see whether that trend is increasing or
not.
MODERATOR: Do we have any other questions? Anybody
in New York? Okay. Well, then we thank you for
coming and joining us today to talk about the forum.
And thank you all for joining us. We will conclude
here.
# # #
Jennifer Archibeque
Media Relations Officer for the Western Hemisphere
Washington Foreign Press Center
U.S. Department of State
202-504-6319
....Back
|
