White House Announces New USTDA Commitments to Support Increased Trade & Investment with Africa
July 27, 2015
(USTDA)
DDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – This week, during
President Obama’s visits to Kenya and Ethiopia,
the White House announced a number of new
initiatives to strengthen trade and investment
ties between the United States and Africa. They
included the U.S. Trade and Development
Agency’s efforts to increase engagement between
U.S. and African firms, in order to build the
business connections necessary to support
long-term sustainable economic development and
to achieve the goals of the Africa Growth and
Opportunity Act.
USTDA announced that the Agency will host four
reverse trade missions to connect African
government and business leaders to U.S.
manufacturers and services providers. These
missions – which will highlight U.S.
agricultural, transportation and healthcare
products and services that can help Africans
achieve their development goals – present
excellent opportunities for U.S. businesses to
establish or enhance relationships with
prospective overseas customers. USTDA will also
provide a U.S.-based training for delegates
from 16 African countries on using modernized
meteorological technologies to increase weather
service capabilities and fast track the
implementation of early warning systems,
climate information and meteorological data
platforms.
The White House also highlighted USTDA’s
support of the Power Africa initiative: The
Agency has provided over $17 million towards 29
projects that are expected to add over 660 MW
to the continent’s power supply. This early
project planning assistance is designed to
leverage an anticipated $3.8 billion in private
and public financing, or over $200 for every $1
spent. USTDA plans to commit an additional $10
million in project planning assistance to help
early-stage clean energy projects achieve
financial close and implementation.
As part of this funding, USTDA will provide
technical assistance to two South African
development finance institutions to enhance
their ability to provide financing for clean
energy projects. USTDA will provide the
Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) with
an assessment of existing and developing energy
storage technologies and their market
potential. The assessment would support the
Government of South Africa’s adoption of
policies and regulations to facilitate the use
of – as well as IDC’s capacity to finance –
energy storage technologies, which are critical
to the expansion of renewable energy.
USTDA will also provide a technical advisor to
the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
to facilitate the identification of clean
energy projects in the region that are
appropriate for DBSA financing. The clean
energy advisor would also provide training to
DBSA staff related to project evaluation and
facilitate communication between key project
stakeholders to accelerate project development
and financing.
Welcome to the Exporting Source
Your one-stop resource for finding help to export to new customers, to learn about government export programs, to join export-promoting trade missions, to sign up for trade conferences and training, and to link to other exporting services. Whether you're an old hand at exporting or just getting started, the Exporting Source provides a place to locate foreign customers, export financing and foreign investment assistance.