1.This Act may be cited as the
African Investment and Diaspora
Act
.
2.Congress makes the
following declarations of policy:
(1)It is in the
interest of the United States to ensure that bilateral economic ties with
Africa are strong, robust, and diverse, in part because African countries
possess—
(A)great pent-up
consumer demand and untapped human and natural resources, and many are now
considered next frontier
economies;
(B)some of the
world’s fastest growing economies, with a collective Gross Domestic Product of
$1,600,000,000,000 that is projected to double in the next 10 years;
(C)combined consumer
spending power of almost $900,000,000,000, with $1,400,000,000,000 in projected
spending power in the next 10 years;
(D)a 60-percent share
of the world’s total amount of uncultivated, arable land; and
(E)a significant
percentage of the world’s strategic minerals and energy resources.
(2)Africa represents
a potentially profitable destination for United States investors. According to
a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development study, return on
investment in African companies has averaged nearly 30 percent annually over
the past several years. Profitability and rates of growth among many African
firms have exceeded global averages, often by large proportions. As a result,
34 private investment funds are now active in Africa in diverse productive
sectors. A recent Global Competitiveness Report showed that several of Africa’s
largest economies receive high grades for innovation and business
sophistication.
(3)Long-term United
States economic security interests will be better secured by ensuring United
States access to Africa’s vast natural and human resources, for which rapidly
rising global demand has created increasing competition between industrialized
countries and emerging market countries, such as Brazil, Russia, India, China,
and others, with respect to their efforts to exert political and economic
influence in and increase their economic cooperation and trade with African
countries. Such ties are growing apace; for example, the estimated value of
Chinese imports from Africa rose by over 693 percent between 2000 and 2009,
while the value of its exports to the region increased by 926 percent during
the same period, in comparison to a rise in United States imports from the
region of just under 200 percent and a rise in United States exports to the
region of 21 percent during the same period.
(4)The United States
should continue to support efforts to foster socioeconomic development and
economic growth in Africa, including by—
(A)pursuing efforts
to increase collaboration among United States Government departments and
agencies in order to more closely integrate and coordinate United States
programs and policies aimed at promoting trade and investment with Africa with
those intended to advance socioeconomic development and opportunity in
Africa;
(B)fostering United
States private, public-private partnership, and other investments in Africa, as
well as other bilateral economic, technical, and social and cultural ties and
exchanges, both at the official level and between citizens, private sector
businesses, and civil society organizations;
(C)supporting and
fostering citizen-led efforts to form business, technical, academic, and
sociocultural ties with Africans by working to promote the activities of
citizen groups that seek to advance such goals among other persons or
organizations engaged in socioeconomic development, business, and charitable
activities intended to bolster bonds between the United States and Africa;
and
(D)supporting the
efforts of United States persons and groups with interests and ties to Africa
to foster and advance such ties and, in particular, the interests and efforts,
with respect to such objectives, of members of the African Diaspora in the
United States, in recognition, among other reasons, of—
(i)the
longstanding and deep immigration ties between Africa and the United States,
including with respect to involuntary and other migrations of Africans to the
Americas in the 19th and earlier centuries, and to more recent migrations of
Africans to the United States;
(ii)efforts by the
African Union to foster economic, technical, educational, and social ties
between its member states and the global African Diaspora;
(iii)the status of
the African-American and broader African Diaspora community in the United
States as a large consumer and producer market and a potentially significant
United States counterpart segment for trade and investment related to Africa,
in particular with respect to commerce in Afrocentric goods and services and by
small- and medium-sized enterprises; and
(iv)the
status of recent African immigrants as a growing, often economically well-off
professional and educational human resource and a community with diverse ties
to both American and African societies that is well placed to foster closer,
mutually beneficial economic, intellectual, and cultural ties between the
United States and African countries, including with respect to helping to
reverse the so-called brain drain
or emigration of skilled,
educated persons from Africa, particularly in the science and technology,
education, and health sectors—a phenomenon that threatens to imperil African
productivity, economic growth, and global competitiveness necessary to improve
development and human welfare in Africa and undermine United States interests
in having robust and growing African countries with which to foster enduring
economic and political partnerships.
3.The purposes of this Act are to—
(1)advance the mutual
interests of the United States and Africa with respect to the promotion of
trade and investment and the advancement of socioeconomic development and
opportunity, and to integrate and create interagency, whole-of-government
synergies within United States efforts to achieve these goals;
(2)foster United
States trade with and investment in Africa that is more sectorally diverse, of
increased economic value, and grounded in free market principles;
(3)foster United
States private, public-private partnership, and other investments in Africa
that hold the potential to both generate positive economic effects and result
in improvements in public infrastructure, health, education, and economic
competitiveness, and efforts to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals in
African countries;
(4)deepen United
States-African economic, technical, and social and cultural ties, in particular
with respect to those between the peoples of Africa and the members of the
African Diaspora in the United States, United States and African civil society
groups, and small- and medium-sized business enterprises; and
(5)facilitate the
mutual transfer and exchange of business, technical, and academic expertise
between Africa and the United States, in particular by encouraging and
facilitating the engagement and involvement of members of the African Diaspora
in the United States, among other United States citizens with ties to or
interests in Africa, in the achievement of such goals.
4.Special
representative for United States-Africa trade, development, and diaspora
affairs, and related matters
(a)Special
representative for United States-Africa trade, development, and diaspora
affairsNotwithstanding any other provision of law, the President
shall appoint a Special Representative for United States-Africa Trade,
Development, and Diaspora Affairs within the Department of State (in this Act
referred to as the Special Representative
) not later than 180
days after the date of the enactment of this Act. The Special Representative
should be a person of distinction, culturally sensitive to the underserved
African Diaspora in the United States, with substantial experience in matters
of trade or economic development and in matters relating to African Diaspora
relations with Africa.
(b)Office of United
States-Africa trade, development, and diaspora affairsNot later
than 180 days after the date of the appointment of the Special Representative
pursuant to subsection (a), the Secretary of State shall establish, within the
Department of State, the Office of United States-Africa Trade, Development, and
Diaspora Affairs (in this Act referred to as the Office
). The
Special Representative shall serve as the head of the Office, and shall guide
and direct the work of Office staff.
(c)
(1)Not later than 180 days after the date of the
establishment of the Office pursuant to subsection (b), the Special
Representative shall establish 5 regional United States-Africa Trade,
Development, and Diaspora Affairs public outreach, education, and liaison
centers (in this Act referred to as centers
), in a manner to be
determined by the Secretary of State and in accordance with the requirements
described in paragraph (2).
(2)The
requirements referred to in paragraph (1) are the following:
(A)A center shall be
established in each of the Northeastern, Southern, Plains and Midwestern,
Western, and Northwestern regions of the continental United States in order to
serve the population of each such region.
(B)Each center shall
serve a population that is roughly equal in number to the population served by
each of the other centers.
(C)Each center shall
be located in the city within each region that has the highest number of
members of the African Diaspora in the region.
(D)The territory for
which the Western center has responsibility shall include Hawaii and the
territory for which the Northwestern center has responsibility shall include
Alaska.
(d)Duties,
responsibilities, and functionsThe Special Representative and
the Office shall promote United States-African trade and investment relations
and foster socioeconomic development and economic growth, by—
(1)coordinating and
convening a permanent interagency United States-Africa Trade and Development
Consultative Action Group (in this Act referred to as the
Group
), which shall include representatives from—
(A)the Office of the
United States Trade Representative;
(B)the Trade and
Development Agency;
(C)the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation;
(D)the Export-Import
Bank of the United States;
(E)the United States
Agency for International Development;
(F)the Millennium
Challenge Corporation;
(G)the Department of
Agriculture;
(H)the Department of
Commerce;
(I)the Department of
Energy;
(J)the Small Business
Administration;
(K)the Department of
Defense;
(L)other Federal
departments and agencies, to be determined by the Special Representative, in
consultation with members of the Group described in subparagraphs (A) through
(K), on a temporary, permanent, or project-limited basis, based on the
technical, programmatic, fiscal, legal, or other needs or objectives of the
Group and its activities; and
(M)within the context
of applied projects undertaken by Group ad hoc project committees, as described
in subsection (e), State and local governments, nongovernmental organizations,
public-private partnership entities, private businesses, and private
foundations;
(2)designing and
implementing public outreach, education, and liaison programs and activities
intended to foster United States-African economic, technical, social, and
cultural ties, in particular with respect to—
(A)building and
enhancing relationships between the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora,
United States and African civil society groups, and small- and medium-sized
business enterprises in the United States and Africa; and
(B)increasing the
participation of members of the African Diaspora and other minority groups in
the United States in United States trade, investment, and development
assistance programs relating to Africa;
(3)facilitating and
increasing the number of international learning exchange, professional,
training, and educational programs between Africa and the United States, in
particular programs intended to promote trade, economic growth, or
socioeconomic development, including through coordination with the Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Special Representative for Global
Intergovernmental Affairs of the Department of State;
(4)establishing a
publicly accessible database and information exchange mechanism through which
United States and African business, technical, and academic experts,
associations, and other institutions and organizations can establish and expand
professional ties, network, and undertake mutual exchanges of knowledge and
expertise related to business and economic development and, in particular,
provide means for members of the African Diaspora in the United States to
transfer information, skills, and expertise to their counterparts in Africa or
to help build the technical and professional capacities of African economic and
development institutions; and
(5)liaising and
consulting with African governments, the African Union, African
intergovernmental subregional organizations, public-private partnership
entities, private businesses, nongovernmental organizations, private
foundations, and United Nations agencies with respect to matters of
Africa-related trade, economic development, and African-African Diaspora
relations, in order to determine—
(A)African trade and
economic development priorities;
(B)the nature and
scope of investments being made by African governments, private sector actors,
and other international donors; and
(C)strategies for
effectively channeling and leveraging United States trade promotion,
capacity-building, and development resources and coordinating such resources
with investments from other sources.
(e)Other matters
relating to duties, responsibilities, and functions
(1)
(A)Notwithstanding their individual agency mandates and
activities, members of the Group shall design and propose integrated,
whole-of-government approaches for achieving United States Government trade and
development policy and program objectives as they relate to Africa, and agency
members of the Group shall collaboratively design and implement specific
applied projects and programs to achieve these objectives in practice, on an
interagency basis, wherever fiscally, technically, programmatically, or legally
advantageous, feasible, and permissible.
(B)Ad hoc
project-related group committeesThe Special Representative may coordinate
and convene, as necessary, ad hoc project-related Group committees, made up of
2 or more members of the Group, to define and guide the execution of
interagency projects undertaken by members of an ad hoc project-related Group
committee.
(C)The
Group shall meet in plenary on a quarterly basis, at a minimum, or more
frequently, as necessary, and at the ad hoc project-related Group committee
level, as frequently as necessary.
(D)Members
of the Group shall regularly provide the Special Representative detailed
information, data, reports, and other material pertaining to current or
prospective projects related to their agency or department trade and
development initiatives in Africa, and the Office shall make these reports
available to all members of the Group and to Congress in a centrally,
Internet-accessible digital database repository.
(2)The Office shall
review the information, data, reports, and other material submitted by members
of the Group, and shall propose to members of the Group, where fiscally,
technically, programmatically, or legally advantageous, feasible, and
permissible, ways of integrating, linking, or leveraging Group member agency
investments and projects that incorporate shared or similar objectives and, in
particular, projects that simultaneously foster trade or economic growth, and
socioeconomic development.
(3)Of the special
representativeThe Special Representative may request and shall
receive in a timely manner any documents or data, whether in an electronic,
paper, or other format, from any member of the Group pertaining to any
Africa-related trade or development-related project with which the member is
involved or is funding or facilitating, with the exception of contractually or
proprietorialy protected documents.
(4)The activities of regional centers shall support all
duties, responsibilities, and functions of the Special Representative and of
the Office, but shall principally focus on the objectives set out in paragraphs
(2), (3), and (4) of subsection (d).
(f)
(1)The Special Representative shall, from among individuals
described in paragraph (2), hire staff as appropriate to carry out this
section.
(2)Individuals
described in this paragraph are individuals who—
(A)are United States
citizens;
(B)have a strong
knowledge of Africa;
(C)have a strong
knowledge of United States-African relations; and
(D)are fluent in
English and are proficient or fluent in one of the national nonindigenous
official languages spoken in Africa, including Spanish, French, or Portuguese,
or one or more indigenous official languages.
5.
(a)Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of
this Act and annually thereafter for 4 years, the President shall submit to
Congress a report on the implementation of this Act.
(b)The report required under subsection (a) shall—
(1)describe the
impact of this Act on trade, investment, and job creation in the United States
and Africa and the impact of the role of the African Diaspora in the United
States in improving United States-Africa trade relations and economic
development progress in Africa; and
(2)include
recommendations regarding possible changes to the duties, responsibilities, and
functions of the Special Representative, the Office, and the Group, and other
related recommendations as they pertain to strategies for effectively
implementing whole-of-government and interagency approaches to achieving United
States Government trade and development policy and program objectives as they
relate to Africa.
6.In this Act:
(a)The term African Diaspora means the peoples
of African descent living outside Africa, irrespective of their citizenship and
nationality, who are willing to contribute to the development of Africa.
(b)The
term Africa refers to the entire continent of Africa, including
the countries of Comoros, Madagascar, and Seychelles.
7.From amounts
appropriated or otherwise made available for Diplomatic and Consular
Programs
for fiscal years 2012 through 2016, $5,000,000 for each such
fiscal year is authorized to be made to carry out this Act.