From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#1 (June 1999), Watch page

AFRICA-US
Houston forum promotes trade and investment

"Africa wants US technology and capital and the US wants the African market," said Mr. Hidipo Hamutenya, Namibia's Minister of Trade, summing up the merits of cooperation between the two partners at a high-level forum in Houston, Texas, 25-28 April. The "Attracting Capital to Africa Conference," organized by the Washington-based Corporate Council on Africa, was attended by eight African leaders - the heads of state or government of Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritius and Namibia, and the vice-president-elect of Nigeria - as well as high-level officials from 22 other African countries and more than 750 US business executives.

US exports to Africa grew 8 per cent last year, but overall trade between the US and Africa has lagged considerably behind trade with other regions in the last decade, noted US Secretary of Commerce William Daley, addressing the conference. Mr. Hamutenya described the Houston gathering as the latest in a flurry of initiatives to stimulate corporate America's interest in African markets. Other initiatives included a meeting between 87 African cabinet officials and a dozen of their US counterparts, held in Washington in March and opened by President Bill Clinton. Also, a forum on economic cooperation between the 14-member Southern Africa Development Community and the US was held in Gaborone, Botswana, about a week before the Houston conference.

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