Houston — Mayor Brown, Congresswoman Jackson-Lee, Percy Wilson, Maurice Tempelsman, distinguished Presidents and Prime Ministers, business leaders, your excellencies and honored guests: it is a privilege for me to address the Corporate Council on Africa's Attracting Capital to Africa Summit. On behalf of the Administration, let me thank the city of Houston for its Texas-size welcome and hospitality.
I want to applaud CCA, Ambassador David Miller, David H. Miller and Kevin Callwood, for doing the almost impossible--organizing an even bigger and more impressive summit than the Westfields Conference of 1997. This event is testimony to how far we all have come together in building stronger public-private sector ties and a true partnership between the U.S. and the nations of Africa.
Some 5 years ago, in 1994, at the White House Conference on Africa, President Clinton challenged us all to get to work, "to develop a policy toward Africa that would unleash the potential of the African people in ways that would lead to a safer and more prosperous world, a better life for them and a better life for us." The long-term success of this policy depends on the collaborative efforts of the United States, the African people and their governments, and both of our private sectors. To coin a phrase used only in Texas, "you can't get lard unless you boil the hog." We all have to come through. We all--government and private sector, African and American--have to deliver.
And I am proud to say the United States Government is starting to deliver. The late Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown had already traveled twice to Africa when in Dakar in 1995 he radically recast our commercial policy toward Africa. His now famous words were: "The United States no longer concedes Africa's markets to its traditional European suppliers." That same year, Vice President Gore inaugurated the U.S.-South Africa Binational Commission to broaden our bilateral cooperation on a range of economic, social and political issues.
Soon thereafter, a bipartisan group of visionaries in the United States Congress introduced landmark legislation, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, to create a new paradigm for U.S.-Africa trade relations. Congress has also backed the Administration with funds for new presidential initiatives to promote democracy, security and prosperity in Africa.
In June of 1997, on the eve of the Denver summit of the G-8, the President launched his Partnership for Economic Growth and Opportunity to help accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy. Under this comprehensive initiative, we have taken important steps to encourage greater two-way trade and private sector investment in Africa through more than $750 million in OPIC financing and insurance. We now have an Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, and an advisory body and senior advisor on Africa at the Export-Import Bank. We are supporting Africans' own strides to fight corruption through the achievement of a binding anti-corruption convention. Since 1994, the U.S. has relieved hundreds of millions of dollars of Africa's debt--debt that threatens to retard progress in Africa's fastest-reforming economies. And last month, the President proposed a sweeping new initiative to forgive up to $70 billion in global debt. The prime beneficiaries will be African nations.
Some 5 years ago, Secretary Brown was one of few high-level U.S. visitors to the continent. Today, the President, Vice President, First Lady and almost every member of President Clinton's cabinet has taken his or her unique energy and talents to Africa.
Finally, the U.S. has sought to improve dramatically the caliber of our dialogue with our African partners. Almost 2 weeks ago, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Stu Eizenstat led a 100-person U.S. public and private sector delegation to Gaborone where President Mogae so graciously hosted the first-ever U.S.-SADC forum--initiating a long-term relationship with one of Africa's most critical economic blocks. Last month, we hosted an historic U.S.-Africa Ministerial conference in Washington. There we had candid and productive exchanges on a range of common concerns, from trade to HIV/AIDS, from democracy to agribusiness. In the end, we adopted a seminal 13-page "Blueprint for a U.S.-Africa Partnership for the 21st Century," committing ourselves to specific follow-up action.
And, just as the United States Government is trying to do its part, I am proud to say the U.S. private sector is also delivering. While worldwide exports were down last year, our exports to Africa increased by 8%, and the U.S. moved up from fifth place to become Africa's second-largest industrial supplier. In 1998, we exported 45% more to Africa than to all the states of the former Soviet Union.
U.S. companies have beat out the competition to complete major deals in Africa. Nearly 66% of Africa's aircraft fleet is Boeing-built, representing $18 billion in U.S. high-technology exports. A consortium comprised of Enron and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa signed a $2 billion agreement to construct a steel plant in Maputo, Mozambique. Southwestern Bell, in partnership with Telkom Malaysia, participated in the largest privatization project in sub-Saharan Africa, buying a 30% stake in Telkom South Africa in 1997--at $1.3 billion. The Corporate Council on Africa has expanded from a pioneering group of five companies in the early 1990s to over 200 today. You and your members have become a driving force in elevating Africa to the forefront of the U.S. foreign policy agenda.
Finally, most importantly, in the past 5 years, many of our Africans partners have also been delivering. Two-thirds of African nations are pursuing economic reform. Democratic institutions--however fragile and imperfect--now form the basis for governance in the vast majority of African nations. In June, South Africa will hand-over power from one democratically elected government to another. Nigeria is implementing a bold transition to civilian, democratic rule. Mozambique, once embroiled in a bitter civil war, is recording the continent's most impressive growth rates. And African regional and sub-regional organizations such as ECOWAS and the OAU have played important roles in restoring peace and stability from Guinea-Bissau to Liberia to the Central African Republic.
Yet despite important progress, we all remain painfully aware of the profound challenges facing the African continent and its people. The bombings of our embassies last August were a sobering reminder of the real threat we all face from global terrorism. New conflicts have erupted in West, East and Central Africa and fighting has returned to Southern Africa. Humanitarian crises persist in Sierra Leone, Sudan and Somalia. HIV/AIDS is robbing many African nations of their most precious commodity--their people. Life expectancy remains low, infant mortality high, and millions of Africans still go to bed hungry.
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Indeed, one important way we can all contribute to Africa's future is to invest in developing the continent's vast human capital. Through President Clinton's Education for Development and Democracy Initiative and the newly endowed Ron Brown Institute, we are helping educate and train the African leaders and entrepreneurs who will make the continent more competitive in the next century.
And many U.S. companies are doing well by doing good, as Secretary Brown used to say. Coca-Cola has given more that $30 million for community and development programs in Africa. Pfizer and Dupont are working to eradicate guinea worm disease and trachoma. And the oil community here continues to reinvest its profits in a range of needed projects in Africa--everything from building clinics and schools to helping to boost agricultural production.
Finally, as one of our great Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "the test before us as a people is not whether our commitments match our will and our courage, but whether we have the will and the courage to match our commitments." Although we have all come far in recent years, much remains to be done to promote our mutual security and prosperity. Our efforts--African and American, public and private--must be long-term, sustained and determined.
Together, we can and we must not merely reaffirm but, in fact, fulfill our commitments to bettering the lives and futures of all our peoples.
Thank you.
