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Corporate Councilon Africa CEO Stephan Hayes describes Africa as a "booming businessopportunity." He says the upcomingsummit will allow US companies to see the continent as an "essential assetacross many business sectors."
Think it's thiscountry's best chance to get US business focused on Africa. There's not another program like it. It's where government and private sector cometogether every two years. And becauseit's in Washington, D.C., you've got some key government leaders also providingleadership," he says.
Guest list
President Obama andSecretary of State Hillary Clinton have been invited to speak, as well as theUS trade representative and commerce secretary.
"We're also goingto see a lot of government ministers from Africa. We also have about 10 heads of state that arecoming so far," he says.
In all, about 2,000people are expected to attend the summit, most from the American privatesector.
Technically, theUnited States private sector is the largest investor in Africa, but so much ofthat is in oil. If you take away oil outof the equation, then a lot of other countries are greater investors…. China will also likely pass us up this yearin investment in Africa," he says.
US firms investabout $40 billion a year in Africa. Mostof that is in energy. Agribusiness isalso a major investment target. But Hayessays it's time to diversify.
Building up Africa
"It's the majorneed in Africa right now. In order toget things to the market, in order to haveCorporate Council on Africa CEO says Africa ripe for investment ports that work, there's got to beenormous infrastructure development. China is certainly filling that void to certain extent, but there'sstill such a great need there are opportunities for American business as well,"he says.
Cell phones areanother area of investment.
"Africa hasbasically just skipped over landlines and gone to mobile cell phones, doingbusiness by that. And yet, less than 10percent of the population of Africa is using those cell phones. So there's a tremendous market," he says.
The head of theCorporate Council on Africa says other promising areas include tourism, healthcare and power.
"They can only growas fast as the power is that allows it to grow. You can't have the IT (Internet) technology). You can't have roads unless there's also apower sector that keeps up with that growth. And right now that growth is just about hitting the maximum powercapabilities," he says.
While Hayes toutsAfrica as being ripe for investment, what assurances does he give regardingrisks?
"I can…give you thesame assurances that you can give in the United States. There's always risk with yourinvestment. So you've got to do properdue diligence. But there are manycountries in Africa that are good places to invest and solid places to invest.
The US/AfricaBusiness Summit in Washington runs from September 29th throughOctober 1st.
The CorporateCouncil on Africa is a non-partisan organization representing nearly 200 UScompanies, which represent nearly 85 percent of US private investments inAfrica.
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