安东尼·布林肯国务卿在美国–非洲商务论坛午餐会上的讲话
 
安东尼·布林肯国务卿
华盛顿特区
沃尔特·E·华盛顿会议中心
2022/12/14
 
布林肯国务卿：大家下午好。 很高兴看到这个大厅里坐满了朋友和同事。 我从后面进来时，注意到这个区域经常停满了汽车，因为这里是车展举办地。 但今天，与我们在一起的是一个极具活力的社区。
对今天在座的国家元首，我要感谢你们与我们一起参加峰会。能与你们面对面交流让我们心存感激。
对我的朋友斯科特·内森（Scott Nathan），我不仅感谢你的溢美之词，而且特别感谢你每天发挥的领导作用，让美国政府拥有一个极为重要的工具，那就是国际开发金融公司（Development Finance Corporation）。在斯科特的领导下，这家公司现在正开足马力运营。
非常感谢我的朋友、合作伙伴、同事吉娜·雷蒙多（Gina Raimondo）部长，感谢她在商务部的整个团队，感谢他们每天为在我们国家之间建立更牢固的关系所做的工作；感谢非洲繁荣组织（Prosper Africa）、非洲企业委员会（Corporate Council on Africa）和美国商会的人员组织今天的活动。 我想我在观众席上看到了麦伦（Myron）；很高兴今天能和你们在一起。 感谢你们所做的一切。
对今天在座的所有首席执行官和商界领袖，我要感谢你们为加强非洲国家和美国之间的贸易和投资关系所做的工作，你们的工作使人民更易于交流思想、交换商品、交换服务。
大家都知道这一点：我们已有的关系是牢固的。去年，非洲国家和美国之间的双向商品和服务贸易总额超过800亿美元，为我们各国提供了数十万个就业岗位。
我们的贸易和投资关系也帮助我们在共同的优先要务上取得进展，应对从粮食不安全到全球卫生的种种全球性挑战。
我举几个在座许多人都知道的例子， 如一家名为约翰迪尔（John Deere）的美国小公司正在尼日利亚北部所进行的工作，该公司生产一些农用设备。
但除了设备生产，在过去几年中，约翰迪尔还为小农户提供农业培训和青少年教育，使他们能够应用新的、更有效的农业技术。 我们正看到这种伙伴关系产生的成果：在某些地区，农业产量提高了20%。
另一家美国优秀企业辉瑞公司（Pfizer）与德国生物技术公司BioNTech同意通过南非生物制药公司Biovac Institute生产新冠疫苗。Biovac很快将有能力在其位于开普敦的工厂每年生产超过1亿支新冠疫苗。
这就涉及到对我们来说至关重要的一项工作，那就是确保我们正在进行的投资的一部分用于发展当地能力，可持续的生产能力，以使非洲公司和非洲国家能够生产自己和世界所需的产品。
但我们都知道——你们都知道——我们能够而且应该做的事情还很多。
作为商务领袖，我们理解你们所面临的挑战的艰巨性。在很多方面，这是我们这个时代的重大拐点之一。 无论从你们大家正在经历的难以置信的波动、商品成本的变化、由新冠疫情引发的供应链问题，还是以越来越快的速度整合的新技术，我们大家知道这些都会使生活变得更为复杂。
当然，还有一些挑战在某种程度上是这一地区所特有的：非洲各国不同的税收结构，建立适合每个国家的消费者及其需求的商品和服务所需的平衡，以及吸引年轻劳动人口所需的变革。
但在这些挑战中也蕴藏着巨大的机遇。 以年轻劳动人口为例，他们要求数量更多、质量更高的工作，也总在不断寻找提高自己技能的方法。 如果能提供满足他们需求的机会，我们就有机会建立世界上最有才华的劳动队伍之一、最忠实的消费群体之一。
我们也在努力倾听——倾听我们合作伙伴的声音，倾听他们的需求。归根结底，我们正在做的事情必须以此来驱动，而不是由遥隔半个世界之外的人为事物来驱动。
例如，我们一直在倾听、而且已经听到了关于更好地利用《非洲增长与机会法》（AGOA）的响亮而明确的想法。 我们期待与你们合作，确保我们未来最大限度地发挥这一法案的全部潜力。
而我们面对的大格局是：美国和非洲国家分别作为世界上最大的经济体和世界上增长最快的经济区域之一，有潜力建立起21世纪最成功的经济伙伴关系之一。
如果我们设法将进出口份额仅增加1%，我们就将为非洲增加340亿美元的收入，为美国增加250亿美元的收入——并因此创造超过250000个优薪工作岗位。
今年早些时候，我访问了南非。我有机会阐明本届政府针对撒哈拉以南非洲地区的新战略。这项战略的核心着重于一个词语，那就是“伙伴关系”。我们的方针植根于这样一种认识，即为了切实应对我们共同的挑战，我们需要领导力，我们需要非洲国家和机构的创新，作为平等的合作伙伴，与美国的机构、我们的政府和我们的私营部门并肩工作。而且我们也致力于在与非洲企业的合作中采用这种协作方式。
让我非常简短地——这样我可以让你们继续享用午餐——提出一些为加深我们在六个关键领域的伙伴关系的工作方式。
首先，国务院以及我们的同事，商务部和其他机构——我们将组织更多的商务外交访问，届时美国政府和私营部门的领导人可以共同努力，更好地确定非洲合作伙伴并共同寻找商务机会。
其次，我们将加大经济外交力度。我们正在与国际谅解商务委员会（Business Council for International Understanding）合作，以提高我们的大使馆确定合适的当地合作伙伴并评估实地投资条件的能力。
对我们来说，在世界各地和非洲几乎每个地方都有这种外交存在也是一种至关重要、独一无二的资产，以便寻求加强我们各国之间的贸易和投资关系的方式，真正帮助美国企业发现机会，并从而帮助非洲发现机会。
第三，我们将扩展我们在投资管道的各个部分的工作——从培育投资机会到推进可行的交易协议，再到帮助完成这些交易协议。
举个例子：我们将增加对非洲新涌现的创新者的投资。正如哈里斯副总统昨天所宣布的，我们将重新启动非洲妇女创业项目（African Women Entrepreneurship Program），该项目将发放赠款以帮助非洲女企业家发展业务。经验告诉我们，这可能是一个非常强大的增长之源，一个非常强大的机会之源。
我们还出资新设了一个非洲大陆自由贸易区秘书处（Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area）的投资顾问，其主要职责是将美国公司与非洲国家的商业机会联系起来。
第四，我们将继续与非洲伙伴合作，巩固一个强大的商业环境的基石。我们从我们自己的公司企业那里听到并了解到他们最期待什么，他们最需要什么来推进投资：清晰一致的税收制度、保护知识产权和高效的海关流程。我们知道可预测性和透明度——这些都是更容易吸引资本的因素。这对非洲的公司企业有利；这对非洲的劳动者有利。
第五，当投资者在进入新市场和新产业的过程中寻找管理风险的方式时，我们将帮助他们借鉴已经取得很大成功的美国投资者及公司企业的最佳实践——包括今天在座的许多人在内。
最后，我们将帮助引导更多的美国私营部门投资进入非洲各国增长巨大的产业，其中包括清洁能源、医疗保健和数字部门。
我们正在通过电力非洲（Power Africa）等项目这样做，该项目已经为撒哈拉以南非洲地区超过1.65亿人提供了更清洁、更可靠的电力。
我们也在通过新的举措这样做，其中包括全球基础设施和投资伙伴关系（Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment），我们正在该伙伴关系中与七国集团（G7）合作伙伴以及非洲东道国政府合作，推动对将引领21世纪经济的各领域的投资：从数字经济到卫生和能源安全，再到交通运输基础设施。
今天，我自豪地启动另一项新举措：可融资基础设施技术援助（Technical Assistance for Bankable Infrastructure）项目，以促进私营部门对非洲各增长部门的投资。
该项目将为美国私营部门提供便利，向非洲政府合作伙伴提供技术援助，以便使非洲官员能够更好地确定商业上可行的基础设施项目。它将为双方设立一个共同展开这些项目的进程。
因此，对于我们可以共同努力深化贸易和投资的方式我们不乏创意、不乏倡议，也不乏热情。我们进行这些投资是着眼于现在，也是着眼于未来——不仅是下一个财政年度，甚至不是未来几年，而是下一个十年甚至更长的时间。
我今天提到的这些计划、这些倡议的核心，有一个非常简明、基本的目标：更紧密地合作，以便能为我们的人民解决他们日常生活中的确关系最重大的问题。而最终，这对政府也极为重要，因为我们所有人都面临的根本挑战是——我们能否有效地满足人民的需求和愿望？
显然，我们正在建立的联系、我们正在从事的工作，你们在通过商业、贸易、商务和投资将美国和非洲国家联通方面所表现出的领导力——是我们可以切实做到这一点的最重要的方式之一。
创造优薪工作机会，减少我们社会中的不平等，应对气候危机，加强我们的卫生安全。私营部门正在以这些以及诸多方式推动未来、推动机遇、推动政府必须应对我们的人民所面临的挑战。
因此，我们正在有意采取一种商务外交方针，而且我们是本着伙伴合作精神这样做的。我坚信，这将惠及非洲人民，惠及美国人民，并最终惠及全世界人民。
非常感谢你们所展现的交往参与，感谢你们日复一日所从事的工作。本周能够在华盛顿会面真是太好了。我认为这是进一步激励所有这些努力的一种方式，但最终将会产生影响的是在这以后每天所发生的事情。我希望你们各位在峰会闭幕离开时都更有动力，去建设这些伙伴合作、建设这些关系，并共同建设这一未来。
非常感谢大家。 （掌声）
 
欲查看原稿内容: https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-the-u-s-africa-business-forum-lunch/
 
本译文仅供参考，只有英文原稿才可以被视为权威资料来源。

REMARKS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
WALTER E. WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER
WASHINGTON, D.C.
DECEMBER 14, 2022
SECRETARY BLINKEN:   Good afternoon, everyone.  It is wonderful to see this room so full, so full of friends, colleagues.  As I came in from the back, I note that this area is often filled with automobiles because this is where the car show takes place.  But today, we have an incredibly vibrant community with us.
To the heads of state that are joining us today, thank you for being with us for the summit.  We’re so grateful to have this time with you in person, face to face.
To my friend Scott Nathan, thank you not only for the incredibly generous words but especially for your leadership every single day of what is an incredibly important tool that we have in the U.S. Government, and that is the Development Finance Corporation, one that is now firing on all cylinders under Scott’s leadership.
And a big thanks to my friend, to my partner, to my colleague, Secretary Gina Raimondo, to her entire team at the Department of Commerce, for the work that’s being done every single day to build stronger ties between our countries; the folks at Prosper Africa, the Corporate Council on Africa, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for organizing today’s event.  I think I saw Myron in the audience there somewhere; great to be with you today.  Thank you for everything that you’re doing.
To all the CEOs, to the business leaders who are here today, thank you for the work that you’re doing to strengthen the trade and investment ties between the African countries and the United States, for making it easier for our people to exchange their ideas, to exchange their goods, to exchange their services.
You all know this:  The ties that we already have are robust.  Last year, two-way trade in goods and services between African nations and the United States totaled more than $80 billion, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs in our countries.
Our trade and investment ties have also helped to make progress on our shared priorities, on global challenges, from food insecurity to global health.
A couple of examples, well-known to many of you.  The work being done in Northern Nigeria by a small U.S. company by the name of John Deere, which produces a little bit of farming equipment.
But besides the equipment, for the past few years, John Deere has provided agricultural training and youth education to smallhold farmers so that they’re able to apply new, more effective farming techniques.  And we’re seeing the fruit of that kind of partnership; in some areas, farm yields have gone up by 20 percent.
Pfizer, another great U.S. company, which alongside German biotech company BioNTech agreed to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine through The Biovac Institute, a South African biopharmaceutical company.  Biovac will soon have the capacity to produce more than 100 million COVID-19 vaccines annually in its facility in Cape Town.
And this gets at something that’s vitally important for us, which is to make sure that part of what we’re doing is investing in local capacity, sustainable production capacity, so that African companies and African countries can produce what’s needed for themselves as well as for the world.
But we all know – you all know – that there is so much more that we can and we should do.
As business leaders, we appreciate the difficulty of the challenges you face.  In so many ways this is one of the great inflection points of our time.  And whether it’s the incredible volatility that you’re all experiencing, the changing costs of commodities, supply chain issues caused by COVID, integrating new technologies that are evolving at an ever-faster pace, we know that this complicates life in profound ways.
And of course there are challenges that are, to some extent, unique to the region: differing tax structures across African nations, the balance required to create goods and services that are customized to each country’s consumers and their demands, changes required to engage a young workforce.
But there’s tremendous opportunity in those challenges, as well.  Take the younger workforce, for example, demanding more, higher-quality jobs, constantly looking for ways to upskill.  If we provide them with the chance to do that, we have a chance to build one of the most talented workforces, one of the most dedicated consumer bases, in the world.
We’re also trying to listen – listen to our partners, listen to their needs.  Ultimately, what we’re doing has to be driven by that, not by something invented half a world away.
For example, we’ve been listening, and we’ve been hearing loud and clear ideas for better utilizing AGOA.  And we look forward to working with you to ensure that we maximize its full potential going forward.
But the big picture is this: together, as the world’s largest economy and one of the world’s fastest-growing economic regions, respectively, the United States and African nations have the potential to build one of the 21st century’s most successful economic partnerships.
If we manage to increase our share of imports and exports by just 1 percent, we would generate an additional $34 billion in revenue for Africa, $25 billion in revenue for the United States – and create more than 250,000 good-paying jobs as a result.
Earlier this year I was in South Africa.  I had an opportunity to set out the administration’s new strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa.  And at its heart, it’s a strategy that’s focused on one word, and that’s “partnership.”  Our approach is rooted in the recognition that to meaningfully address our shared challenges, we need the leadership, we need the innovation of African nations and institutions working side by side, as equal partners, with American institutions, with our government, with our private sector.  And we’re committed to this collaborative approach in our work with African businesses, too.
Let me just very quickly – so that I can allow you to get on with enjoying your lunch – suggest a few ways that we’re working to deepen our partnership in six key areas.
First, the State Department and our colleagues, the Commerce Department, other agencies – we’re going to be organizing more commercial diplomacy trips, where leaders from across the U.S. Government and our private sector can work together to better identify African partners and source business opportunities together.
Second, we will step up our economic diplomacy efforts.  We’re working with the Business Council for International Understanding to enhance the abilities of our embassies to identify suitable local partners and to assess investment conditions on the ground.
For us, having this diplomatic presence around the world and in virtually every part of Africa is also a critical and unique asset for finding ways to strengthen the trade and investment relationships between our countries, to actually help identify opportunities for American business and, as a result, opportunities for Africa.
Third, we’ll expand our work in all parts of the investment pipeline – from fostering investment opportunities, to promoting viable deals, to helping to close those deals.
One example:  We’ll be investing more in rising African innovators.  As Vice President Harris announced yesterday, we’re relaunching the African Women Entrepreneurship Program, which will distribute grants to help African women entrepreneurs grow their businesses.  We know from experience that this can be a very powerful source of growth, a very powerful source of opportunity.
We’re also funding a new Investment Advisor to the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area, whose primary responsibility is to connect American companies with business opportunities in African nations.
Fourth, we’ll continue our work with African partners to bolster the building blocks of a strong business environment.  We hear, we know from our own companies, what they’re most looking for, what they most need to move forward with investment: clear and consistent tax regimes, protecting intellectual property rights, efficient customs processes.  We know that predictability, transparency – these are the things that make it easier to attract capital.  That’s good for African companies; it’s good for African workers.
Fifth, as investors look for ways to manage risk while moving into new markets and new industries, we will help them draw on the best practices of U.S. investors and firms that have already done so successfully – including many of you who are here in this room today.
Finally, we will help channel more U.S. private sector investment to the vast growth industries across African nations, including in clean energy, in health care, in the digital sectors.
We’re doing that through programs like Power Africa, which has already connected more than 165 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with cleaner, more reliable electricity.
We’re doing it through new initiatives as well, including the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, where we’re teaming up with our partners in the G7 as well as with African host governments to drive investment in areas that will lead the 21st century economy: from the digital economy, to health and energy security, to transportation infrastructure.
I’m proud to launch another new initiative today: the Technical Assistance for Bankable Infrastructure program to boost private sector investment in Africa’s growth sectors.
This program will make it easier for the U.S. private sector to provide technical assistance to partner African governments so that African officials can better identify commercially viable infrastructure projects.  It will create a process for both parties to pursue these projects together.
So there’s no shortage of ideas, there’s no shortage of initiatives, there’s no shortage of enthusiasm for the ways that we can work together to deepen trade and investment.  And we’re making these investments with an eye, yes, to the present, but also to the future – not just the next fiscal year, not even the next few years, but with the next decade and longer in mind as well.
At the heart of these programs, these initiatives that I’ve touched on today, there is one very simple and fundamental goal: working more closely together so we can deliver for our people on the issues that actually matter most to them in their daily lives.  And ultimately, that’s profoundly important for governments as well because the fundamental challenge that we all face is that – can we effectively deliver on the needs, on the aspirations of our people?
Clearly, the connections that we’re making, the work that we’re doing, the leadership that you’re showing in connecting the United States and African nations through business, through trade, through commerce, through investment – it’s one of the most significant ways that we can actually do that.
Creating good-paying jobs, reducing inequity in our societies, dealing with the climate crisis, strengthening our health security.  In these and so many ways, the private sector is driving the future, driving opportunity, driving the need of governments to address the challenges that our people face.
So we’re taking an intentional approach to commercial diplomacy, and we’re doing that in the spirit of partnership.  I’m convinced that will lead to the benefit of the African people, to the benefit of the American people, and ultimately to the benefit of people around the world.
Thank you so much for the engagement that you’re showing, the work that you’re doing every single day.  It’s wonderful to be able to meet this week in Washington.  I think it’s a way of further energizing all of these efforts, but ultimately it’s what’s happening every day beyond here that’s going to make a difference.  And I hope that each of you leaves the summit when it’s over further energized to build these partnerships, to build these relationships, to build this future together.
Thank you so much.  (Applause.)