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Karen Bass
LOS ANGELES, CA – United States Congresswoman Karen Bass, now in her second term representing California’s 37th Congressional District, will continue her steadfast support for innovative job creation and economic development in both the U.S. and Africa, when she delivers a keynote address to a historic assemblage of African business leaders, bankers, entrepreneurs, investors, high-level government leaders and regulatory officials, along with their American counterparts, at the African Global Economic and Development Summit (AGED Summit), which will be hosted by Global Green Development Group (GGDG) at the University of Southern California (USC) from August 7 through August 9, 2014.
Experts agree that Africa is on the brink of an expansive economic growth period. In recognition of this, the AGED Summit returns for its 2nd year at USC by welcoming Rep. Bass to participate in a unique three-day gathering among a diverse and synergistic group of stakeholders in African economic development, which is profoundly impacting the prospects for job creation and entrepreneurial opportunities in California and elsewhere in the U.S. As Rep. Bass notes, “Africa is currently home to 6 out of the 7 fastest growing economies in the world and is viewed by investors from Europe, Malaysia, China, India, Turkey and Brazil as a priority region for investment.” She went on to say that investment in Africa helps Americans as well. As the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Rep. Bass recognizes that U.S. trade agreements with Africa, such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), are “critically important for many reasons. First it supports jobs across the continent. There are some 300,000 jobs attached to AGOA and many of those are jobs that go to African women. If you count the jobs that are indirectly linked to AGOA that number rapidly approaches one million or more jobs.” Regarding the impact of AGOA in the U.S., Rep. Bass pointed out that, “AGOA can only serve to facilitate greater trade and investment with the United States. It can be a win-win for both African nations and the U.S. if we truly recognize and seize the opportunity.”
Unique among forums on Africa, the AGED Summit presents an enabling environment, which demystifies the process of doing business in Africa by bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, financiers, investment guarantors and other necessary linkages in order to actually position transactions to be structured and completed in a manner that maximizes safety without compromising profitability. “Whether you’re a multinational corporation or a small entrepreneur, everything required to put together a business deal with Africa will be available through the AGED Summit”, says Mary Flowers, CEO of GGDG. This year’s theme is “Walking the Talk”.
Among other outstanding agenda items, the AGED Summit will highlight ways for attendees to tap into the U.S. Government’s “Power Africa Initiative” that has committed over $7 billion to add more than 10,000 megawatts of clean, efficient electricity generation capacity to sub-Saharan African countries. The need is tremendous since the installed power capacity of all of sub-Saharan Africa is less than that of Delaware. Regarding Power Africa, which she has championed since its announcement last year, Rep. Bass says, “Power Africa and Trade Africa, ultimately are aimed at strengthening the capacity of Africa to trade locally, regionally and internationally.”
