allAfrica.com: Africa: Tempelsman: 'Deals and Dialogue' Make Philadelphia Summit a Success (Page 1 of 3)

At the third US-Africa Business Summit in Philadelphia last week -- the largest gathering of African leaders on American soil (outside the United Nations), hundreds of business executives and political big guns from both sides of the Atlantic met to listen to each other and cut deals. Featured African guests included President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who received an award for his contribution to the Partnership for African Development (the New African Initiative -- a plan for continental economic and social recovery that he masterminded along with Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade).

"Assistance doesn't mean charity, it means investment" was the mantra of many of the participants in the meeting, which was hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), a private-sector group, established in 1992 to strengthen trade and investment ties between the United States and Africa.

As the Summit concluded, allAfrica's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton and Reed Kramer spoke to CCA's chairman, Maurice Tempelsman, a businessman who has a long association with Africa. Mr. Tempelsman is chairman of the board of Lazare Kaplan International, a leading diamond house, and senior partner in the firm of Leon Tempelsman & Son, a company active in mining, investments and minerals trading throughout the world. Excerpts from the interview:

Mr Tempelsman, how would you sum up the US-Africa Business Summit here in Philadelphia?

It's a further step in an on-going process that brings together the private sectors of the United States and the private sectors in Africa.

The Corporate Council has a membership of 197 US firms, from the very largest to small and medium-sized ones. And we are making an effort to increase the number of small and medium firms, all with interests in Africa. About 85 percent of US investment in Africa is represented collectively by the Council.

This summit came about in close proximity to the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) ministerial meeting in Washington, at which President Bush and Secretary Powell and the Secretary of the Treasury and the US Trade Representative were able to have a dialogue with the ministers from the AGOA participating countries. This is, in a sense, a further step to provide momentum in that direction - private trade.

This has been a meeting place, a marketplace in many ways in Philadelphia, but concretely what comes out of these business summits?

What comes out of it, bottom line, is business deals and transactions. It gives people an opportunity to meet other people with similar interests, to listen to policy makers, to be informed about new opportunities and new areas.

It's the way private business is done. Each entrepreneur, whether you are the leader of a large or small corporation, pursuing in an enlightened way his own self interest, and using his own initiative, his mind, his own energy -- or hers - in order to advance their businesses.

President Bouteflika of Algeria was talking, in his keynote speech at the US-Africa Business Summit, about the Partnership for African Development and AGOA, and he mentioned that he would like to see the Maghreb countries brought into the AGOA process. Do you see any prospect of that happening?

Well, it was a new thought. I think it would be early for me to form a judgement on it. It took quite an effort to get the AGOA legislation through the Congress, with all the compromises that needed to be made. My own view is we certainly ought to consider it, but I think it's principally a question of what Congress would wish to do.

Following up on that point, President Bouteflika kept stressing to the United States and the rest of the world, that they should stop viewing Africa as separate entities, and see it as a continent.as one. And, in a way, the fact that the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act does not include Maghreb countries is marginalizing part of the continent while, on the other hand, the United States is saying to Africa, you must be unified.

I would say both realities are true. But, in a sense, it's a matter of timing. I think whether we like it or not, the African continent is not yet one large country. It may be in decades. And he did also ask for patience and perseverance.

At the present time, in terms of the private sector, it is probably more important to look at Africa as individual countries: because some of those countries are doing better than others and some are taking the right kinds of measures to encourage investors while others are not.

And without being disrespectful to President Bouteflika's inspiring dream - I agree with it, in time - I think the important thing, at this point, is to make sure that we encourage the private sector to look at individual situations. Because, one of the complaints that many Africans have, and many Americans have, is that if there is something wrong anywhere in Africa, the whole continent gets blamed.

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