The 8th annual Leon H. Sullivan Summit kicked off in Arusha this morning one hour late because of difficulties in seating the many attendees.

Andrew Young, Olusegun Obasango, and P. J. Patterson at the Plenary.

There are about 6,000 people attending the conference.About a half of them are African Americans from the United States, a quarter are Tanzanians and the rest are from other African countries.

The Summit started with a Plenary session dubbed “Africa in the global economy”.

The panel, which was moderated by Dr. BenardAnderson of Wharton School of Business, Philadelphia was composed of such dignitaries as Rev. Jesse Jackson from USA, Olusegun Obasanjo (former President, Nigeria), P. J. Patterson (former Prime Minister, Jamaica), Ambassador Andrew Young (former mayor of Atlanta), Dr. Donald Kaberuka of African Developmnt Bank, and Ambassador Harold Doley Jr. of Doley Securities.

Dr. Obasanjo kicked off the discussion by reiterating his belief that Africa has a place in the World economy but the developed nations must stop looking at it as one nation, and treat each country distinctly. “There are 54 countries in different stages of development in Africa”, he said.

Rev. Jackson said Africa has vast natural resources but lack capital to harness those resources. A Marshall Plan is needed to capitalize on Africa’s resources and also to address Africa’s many problems.

Ambassador Young on his contribution gave his own home city of Atlanta as an example of how Africa could tackle its problems through tourism. Atlanta was a decaying, drug infested city in the eighties. The city decided to clean up its image by investing in tourism. Today, even with the real estate and banking industry meltdown in the US, Atlanta remains a vibrant city with a stable middle class and a vibrant tourism industry.

The Plenary was followed by AGOA forum that looked at opportunities available in the US to Africans selling non-oil products tax-free. This forum was moderated by Gregory Simpkins of Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. Panelists were Flori Liser of Office of U. S. Trade Representative, J. L. Ekra of African Export-Import Bank, Ronald Langston of Minority Business Development Agency, and Cornelia Wilson Hunter of Safe Skies for Africa Program.

Langston emphasized to the attendees that “This is your time Africa” to take advantage of different assistance available from the US government, such as business to business linkages between a US based business and a business in Africa.

After lunch the US government had a special forum dubbed “US government role in enhancing business, trade & investment in Africa”. The panel had John Simon of OPIC, Flori Liser of US Trade Representative, Matthew K. McLean of Millennium Challenge Corporation, Lloyd Pierson of US Africa Development Foundation, Franklin Moore of USAID, and Douglas Shuster of US Trade and Development Agency. The panelists mainly explained their different roles in within the US government.

The Sullivan Summit will end on Friday June 6, 2008.

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Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008
From: Frank Sidigu
Subject: 3,000 African Americans in Arusha for the 8th Sullivan Summit