Obama: Why Africa is Important to US

United States President, Mr. Barack Obama, who will from tomorrow in Washington host African leaders to a summit, has described the continent as very important for economic reasons.

“The importance of this for America needs to be understood. Africa is one of the fastest-growing continents in the world. You've got six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in Africa. You have all sorts of other countries like China and Brazil and India deeply interested in working with Africa — not to extract natural resources alone, which traditionally has been the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world — but now because Africa is growing and you've got thriving markets and you've got entrepreneurs and extraordinary talent among the people there”, said Obama.

Africa, according to Obama, “also happens to be one of the continents where America is most popular and people feel a real affinity for our way of life. And we've made enormous progress over the last several years in not just providing traditional aid to Africa, helping countries that are suffering from malnutrition or helping countries that are suffering from AIDS, but rather partnering and thinking about how can we trade more and how can we do business together. And that's the kind of relationship that Africa is looking for”.

The US president said he has been having “conversations over the last several months with US businesses — some of the biggest US businesses in the world — and they say, Africa, that's one of our top priorities; we want to do business with those folks, and we think that we can create US jobs and send US exports to Africa.

“But we've got to be engaged, and so this gives us a chance to do that. It also gives us a chance to talk to Africa about security issues — because, as we've seen, terrorist networks try to find places where governance is weak and security structures are weak. And if we want to keep ourselves safe over the long term, then one of the things that we can do is make sure that we are partnering with some countries that really have pretty effective security forces and have been deploying themselves in peacekeeping and conflict resolution efforts in Africa. And that, ultimately, can save us and our troops and our military a lot of money if we've got strong partners who are able to deal with conflicts in these regions.”

On the outbreak of Ebola in some African countries, Obama said: “Now, the last thing I'm going to say about this, because I know that it's been on people's minds, is the issue of Ebola. This is something that we take very seriously. As soon as there's an outbreak anywhere in the world of any disease that could have significant effects, the CDC is in communication with the World Health Organization and other multilateral agencies to try to make sure that we've got an appropriate response.

“This has been a more aggressive Ebola outbreak than we've seen in the past. But keep in mind that it is still affecting parts of three countries, and we've got some 50 countries represented at this summit. We are doing two things with respect to the summit itself. We're taking the appropriate precautions. Folks who are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we're making sure we're doing screening on that end – as they leave the country. We'll do additional screening when they're here. We feel confident that the procedures that we've put in place are appropriate.

“More broadly, the CDC and our various health agencies are going to be working very intently with the World Health Organization and some of our partner countries to make sure that we can surge some resources down there and organization to these countries that are pretty poor and don't have a strong public health infrastructure so that we can start containing the problem.”

Obama was, however, of the view that most of the hysteria about Ebola do not seem justified: “Keep in mind that Ebola is not something that is easily transmitted. That's why, generally, outbreaks dissipate. But the key is identifying, quarantining, isolating those who contract it and making sure that practices are in place to avoid transmission. And it can be done, but it's got to be done in an organized, systematic way, and that means that we're going to have to help these countries accomplish that.”