President Obama believes that sub-Saharan Africa is poised to be the world’s next major economic success story. In June 2012, he issued the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa , committing the United States to elevate our efforts to spur economic growth, trade, and investment in the Region.
The Doing Business in Africa (DBIA) Campaign , launched in November 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to help U.S. businesses take advantage of the many export and investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Why Africa? Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest growing Regions on the globe and is home to seven of the ten fastest growing markets in the world. The International Monetary Fund has estimated economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will be 5.6 percent in 2013 and 6.1 percent in 2014.
U.S. trade to and from Africa has tripled over the past decade and the U.S. exported $22.6 billion in goods and services to the region last year.
What is the DBIA Campaign? This initiative reflects an unprecedented, whole-of-government approach to increase the level of U.S. trade promotion to the region, to address market barriers and to expand the availability of trade financing. The campaign, spearheaded by the Department of Commerce, entails broad collaboration across government with the U.S. Department of State, Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), as well as other interagency parties.
There are three core components to this effort: The DBIA Campaign is a holistic approach to trade promotion and policy. Under the guidance of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), the campaign aims to attract significantly more American companies to explore sub-Saharan Africa’s trade and investment opportunities. This will be accomplished through a number of new trade promotion, financing and communication efforts.
Trade Promotion: Financing trade with and investment in sub-Saharan Africa can be a challenge. This is why our financing agencies, including the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the U.S Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) have all dramatically increased their support in investment and activities in Africa in recent years.
Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank: http://www.exim.gov/ One of the biggest challenges to be addressed in the DBIA Campaign is the perception of U.S. companies on the business climate in Africa.
The DBIA Campaign is working to address issues such as trade facilitation, infrastructure, corruption and poor communication that are influencing U.S. business perceptions about sub-Saharan Africa.
Most importantly, working with companies – leveraging their experiences and their voices to promote trade and investment domestically and abroad – is a key component of the campaign. Hearing directly from businesses is not only about learning what can be done to make trade and investment in the region a better experience but also about sharing their stories and lessons-learned with other businesses looking for success and guidance in the African market.
Making Connections: The DBIA Campaign coordinates closely with other initiatives outlined in the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, including Trade Africa and Power Africa.
The Bigger Picture: The DBIA campaign, as part of the larger National Export Initiative, is not only about increasing exports and creating and sustaining jobs. At its core, the DBIA Campaign is about shifting the narrative and creating a long-term, sustainable approach to increasing economic engagement in the region.
American products, technology and best practices are essential to sub-Saharan Africa progress. And that is something we are committed to.
For more information about the Department of Commerce’s Doing Business in Africa Campaign, visit www.export.gov/africa.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
