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I am happy to be
back in Cameroon for my third visit. It was, in
fact, in this room more than four years ago that we
addressed the potential of the African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA) for US-Africa trade. I
remember the hundreds that were here in this room,
and who represented to me the enormous level of
hope for business opportunity. It may be
surprising to many of you, as it was to me then,
that the United States was then and still is
Cameroon's largest trading partner. Then, nearly
all the trade was in oil, and four years later,
although it is still largely in oil and oil
services, trade between the United States and
Cameroon is significantly broadening into other
sectors. There, of course, remains much more
opportunity. Perhaps not
coincidentally, four years ago when I was here,
Cameroon was rated by Transparency International as
having the most corrupt business environment in the
world. I am often troubled by such rankings as I
believe them very arbitrary and shallow. They can
also be unnecessarily damaging to a country such as
Cameroon. Nevertheless, the rankings, at least on
the extremes, are indicative of major problems or
major opportunities. Yet, as I was reading the new
rankings out last week, I note that Cameroon is no
longer on the list of the top ten most corrupt
nations in the world. Conversely and sadly for me,
I noted that the United States is no longer on the
list among the top ten least corrupt nations. It
seems that we might be headed in opposite
directions. Clearly there is room for improvement
among all of us. In Cameroon
there is reason for hope, and in my own country, as
the results of the elections are showing, there is
growing concern not only regarding our
international relations, but also about corruption.
CNN exit polls cited corruption, even more than the
Iraq War, as the single most concern among voters
polled. It is clear the American populace is
holding its government and its representatives
accountable for its actions. This can only serve
the best interests of all people. We can argue
that the degrees of corruption may be significantly
different between and among countries, but no one
can argue that improvement is needed by all of
us. Some may also
argue that trends are only indicators of the
present based on the past, but we cannot dismiss
them as indicators of the future as well. Certainly
there is reason for hope in Cameroon and in many
other nations of Africa. Progress is being made and
I think that such programs as our own Millennium
Challenge Act and AGOA are helping to improve the
climate for investment and trade. Yet it remains to
be seen whether other relatively new trading
relationships being rapidly developed throughout
Africa will be such that greater economic
opportunity for all through improving investment
climates will continue to develop, or whether some
nations will return to the old way of doing
business, which included a very uneven playing
field. We should encourage and be happy by new
business investment in Africa by all nations of the
world, but we should also remain committed to
economic trade and change that bring greater
opportunity for all citizens of Africa, and that
does not maintain the status quo of inequality and
poverty. Let us look at
those countries that are showing the greatest area
of economic growth. Tanzania is booming. Mozambique
is showing exceptional growth, as is Madagascar. So
too are Benin and countries like Mali and Burkina
Faso. Change for the better is not limited to only
one region but is spreading throughout the
continent. Change is not limited to any one region
or culture but is becoming possible for all. What
are the factors that these very different nations,
with different cultures and histories have in
common? First, let me
say that I am not one to automatically encourage an
American-style democracy for anyone. Our form of
democracy is a product of our own history and a
combination of our own mixed cultures. By and
large, it has worked for us, admittedly as an
imperfect and evolving system, and it has its own
challenges and disadvantages. Again, I would not
necessarily wish our own system on anyone. It is
for each country's citizens to choose their own
directions and ways of being. However, what is
clear is that governments and their economies and
businesses work best when they are held accountable
to those they serve---the citizen and the consumer.
Without accountability we cannot assure the quality
of products available to us. Without accountability
we cannot assure that those in charge of
governments are providing us as citizen-consumers
the best service-product available. Governments and
businesses must be accountable to the
consumer-citizen, and to all
consumer-citizens. For businesses,
if they do not provide a product desired by the
consumer, the business ultimately fails. That, too,
is a form of accountability. The company that
provides the best product gets the sale, just as in
a democracy, the leader that provides the best
sales pitch wins the election. Generally, true and
open competition creates a better environment for
economic and political success. Of course, this
is a bit simplistic, for strong democracies do not
suddenly happen, nor do businesses suddenly happen
or appear at your doorstep and become successful.
Our own democracy, with all of its successes and
faults, has been evolving now for 230 years, and
our own constitution for 217 years. Developing and
writing an idea is one thing. Making the idea work
is another. For businesses
to work --- for my business and your business to
work --- there must be a proper climate in which
that business has the opportunity to survive and do
well. We have seen that governments cannot work
well in hurricanes. Neither can businesses work
well in seas of instability. If business laws are
inconsistent, like bouncing waves on a stormy sea,
businessmen cannot feel secure sailing through
trade waters. If the terms of doing business change
daily, or seemingly daily, how can anyone plan for
the future? How can anyone feel secure enough to
take the risk of setting sail? Businesses must
know the laws under which they operate. Indeed, it
is the responsibility of businesses to know and
obey the laws of a country. But they must also have
a reasonable idea of all the costs of doing
business or they simply cannot survive and prosper.
They cannot provide jobs for others if they have no
idea of true costs. They must be able to count on
some consistency and certainty in the legal
environment so that they will know the true costs
of doing business. No wise
fisherman would set sail without a weather
prediction report. Why, then, do some governments
expect a business to invest in a country in which
he cannot at least reasonably predict the costs of
doing business? Businesses will not invest in such
uncertain conditions. The fisherman knows he has no
guarantee of catching fish, even under the fairest
of skies, but he must have a reasonable assurance
that he has, at the very least, good opportunities
under fair skies. The potential business investor
must know he at least has a chance to make a
profit, so that he and others may feed, under fair
business conditions, and it is the role of
government to create those
conditions. It is also the
role of governments to enforce these laws that are
designed to create fair conditions. One certainly
must read and understand the laws of government,
but he must also have the assurance that the laws
are not simply symbols on a page. He must know that
he is reading a true recitation of the law and not
a creative work of fiction, just as the fisherman
must not simply rely on the weather report, but
must also be able to see the atmosphere for
himself, to best judge whether to set sail on an
ocean of opportunity or return to the port. Good
businesses read the laws, and they also judge the
climates in which these laws
operate. A nation must
consistently operate under its own rules of law. It
cannot change the Constitution every time there is
a new administration and still expect the people to
truly believe in it. The people of a nation must
believe and know that the law is designed to
improve their life of opportunities, whether at sea
or on land. They must have a stake in the system in
which they are expected to believe. There must be a
strong judiciary system committed to upholding the
law equally and consistently for all. Every system,
every investor, must know that the law will be
upheld. No person can be outside the law. No person
can be above the law, and just as importantly, no
person can be below the law. The law must be the
ocean upon which we all sail. The enforcement of
the law is then the weather system that determines
whether we set sail or whether we invest or
not. It is true that
there will always be the adventurer, and sometimes
the pirate, who will ignore the weather and ignore
the laws, taking far greater risks---and sometimes
those risks will pay off. But for many more, those
risks will prove the risks of fools, and their
boats will sink to the bottom, below the waves of
the sea of opportunity. A nation has far
more to gain by assuring an equal opportunity for
all and by creating the conditions for those
opportunities to net their products and goal, for
investors, and by creating opportunities for its
citizens to participate in the economy. The great
many, including the great many investors and
businesspeople, do not necessarily have the
resources, nor the temperament for such extreme
risk-taking. They realize that true human and
economic development occurs when the many and not
the few benefit. Collectively, the resources of the
many are far greater than the resources of the few.
A nation has far more wealth to gain through
reaching out to the many and not only the
few. It is the rule
of law and the faith of the people in that law that
must provide the stability and consistency for
economic development and opportunity for all.
Cameroon has a great opportunity ahead of it. May
its people sail will on the seas of opportunity
upon which they now so closely and nearly touch. We
in the United States look forward to sharing this
growth and hope with you Speech
presented by Stephen Hayes to the Cameroon
Investment Forum of The Commonwealth Business
Council
Attention
Investors in Africa |
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On
Corruption