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JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 19 (AP) — As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen begins a 10-day visit, the Biden administration is making a big push for more engagement with Africa, aimed at boosting the relationship between the U.S. and the world’s second-largest continent. all economic possibilities in between.
Yellen is the first administration official to visit the continent since President Joe Biden announced at the summit of U.S.-African leaders in December that he plans to visit the region this year, with Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden and some cabinet secretaries.
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Yellen’s trip will take her from an entrepreneurial business incubator in Senegal to an agricultural base in Zambia to a safari park and a Ford assembly plant in South Africa, with each stop designed to highlight areas of U.S.-Africa cooperation. Along the way, she will also network with a number of senior African officials.
Yellen arrived in Dakar, Senegal, late Wednesday to start her public schedule on Friday.
Speaking at a business incubator on Friday, Yellen planned to emphasize that Africa and its growing middle class “will shape the trajectory of the world economy over the next century,” offering significant opportunities for the United States.
“This is a win-win for our economy,” Yellen plans to say, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks released Thursday.
By 2050, the African continent will account for a quarter of the world’s population and is rich in natural resources.
China’s growing economic power in Africa has also prompted the United States to deepen ties.
Before arriving in Africa, Yellen met Chinese President Liu He in Switzerland on Wednesday as part of an effort to ease tensions with the Asian superpower.
Her job on the more than 13,000-mile (20,000-kilometer) circuit from Washington, D.C. to Zurich, Dakar, Lusaka, Pretoria and home was to engage African leaders and present investment opportunities for U.S. companies.
“The rising share of the working-age population presents opportunities for the continent,” Yellen intends to say.
“More workers drive growth, generate more resources to increase investment, and make it easier to educate young people and support the disadvantaged.”
Africa’s growing middle class also presents opportunities for the U.S., she plans to point out, “which means a bigger market for products. For U.S. companies that are already creating jobs on the continent, it means more investment opportunities.” ,” she plans to say.
The White House’s strategy for sub-Saharan Africa raised concerns about China’s involvement in the region, noting that Beijing “sees the region as challenging the rules-based international order, advancing its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermining transparency and openness, and undermining America’s relationship with the people and governments of Africa.”
Yellen’s visit to Zambia will highlight its huge debt to top creditor China. Zambia is renegotiating nearly $6 billion in debt, and Yellen has been critical of China for failing to make progress in the talks. She said in December that a solution to Zambia’s debt problems must be found “as soon as possible”.
Yellen discussed Zambia’s debt with Liu on Wednesday and tried to assess the reasons for China’s hesitation to reschedule the debt, a senior Treasury official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting told reporters.
Joseph Siegel, director of the research program at the Center for Strategic Studies in Africa, said the scope of Yellen’s visit is far wider than China’s influence.
“From an emerging markets standpoint, there’s a lot going on there — its resources and its growth and its large African diaspora in the U.S. The U.S., arguably, isn’t paying enough attention to Africa with the rigor it deserves,” he said .
“I think the point of this trip is to try to correct the lack of high-level U.S. engagement in Africa.”
He added that African countries do not want to be put in a situation where they have to choose between China and the US, but want to “maximize” their options and build long-term partnerships.
Africa is home to 30 percent of the critical minerals that power the modern world, including 40 percent of the world’s gold, up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum, and the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
Ramayade, senior director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, wrote this week that people may believe the Biden administration when it says it does not seek to turn Africa into an arena of great power competition.
“Africa will not have to choose between potential partners,” Yade said.
“If it recovers lost ground and builds on the momentum it started at the December summit, America and Africa will prosper.” (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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