21 November 2003

Houston Looking to Expand a "Natural" Relationship with Africa

Mayor Lee P. Brown reviews Houston-Africa trade ties

Houston, Texas -- As the energy capital of the United States, Houston has a "natural relationship" with energy-rich Africa, but that relationship is now expanding into a broad range of other diverse economic sectors, says the city's mayor, Lee P. Brown.

In a November 20 interview in the midst of the Corporate Council on Africa oil and gas forum in Houston, Mayor Brown told the Washington File that even though his city's relationship with Africa was built on a foundation of oil and gas, it is now expanding to include areas as diverse as schools, health care facilities, security infrastructure and technology.

In September, Mayor Brown led a 25-member trade delegation to Angola and Namibia, to explore new areas for trade and investment. Houston established a sister city relationship with Luanda, he said, and several businesses are looking to expand into the fields of energy infrastructure, telecommunications, agribusiness, industrial machinery, health care and medical equipment in Africa. Houston, he said, is a "city that excels in those industries," so it is natural to establish connections and invest in these sectors.

Namibia was the second stop on that trade mission, and Brown noted that the Namibian prime minister is expected to visit Houston in early December as a follow-up.

Mayor Brown explained that since first being elected to office six years ago, he has worked hard to develop a closer working relationship between Africa and his city. To jump-start those ties, Brown said, he led his first trade mission to Africa in 1999, visiting Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and South Africa. Now about 1100 Houston enterprises are now doing business in West Africa, Brown said, and some 60 of those companies are currently operating subsidiaries there.

Relative to his trade mission to Angola, Brown pointed to how Houston-based ChevronTexaco has designed a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Angola, which is already serving as an ever-expanding link between his city and the continent. "So much is going on there," in Angola and elsewhere in Africa, he said, "that we would be derelict if we overlooked it."

With the end of the civil war in Angola, the country's great needs have become even more apparent to the international community and "our business people, in addition to energy," he said, are working on ways to help the Angolans meet their more urgent physical and social needs.

Brown claimed excellent progress in developing the Houston-Africa tie in the last six years. "What I have been able to do is to lay a very strong foundation for an ongoing relationship between Houston and Africa. It is a natural relationship in terms of the energy business, but ... when you are involved in energy, there are many other spin-offs."

Some of the oil drilling equipment used on the continent already makes up a major part of Houston's trade with Africa, he noted. Additionally, the energy exploration now under way in Chad, Sudan, Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar will further expand Houston's relationship with the continent.

Besides trade and energy, Brown pointed out another link between Houston and Africa: the city's population, which includes probably the largest population of Nigerian expatriates -- some 80,000 -- now living outside Nigeria.

Many in Houston's Nigerian community, Brown explained, came here as students and decided to stay after going to school and getting an education. "They are contributing significantly to our economy, whether they are professionals or businessmen," he said.

"Just a few weeks ago the president of Nigeria paid a very productive visit to Houston," meeting with many of the Nigerian expatriate groups as well as with the Houston business community and scholars at Rice University.

For Brown, Houston is the logical place for Africans to do business because it has so much to offer. It is now America's fourth largest city, he said, an energy capital, a major seaport -- number one in foreign tonnage and second in overall tonnage, a large international air hub and a high-tech city that hosts more than 2,000 technology companies and NASA's Johnson Space Center, from which the U.S. space program is monitored.

Asked if he would like to see a relationship between Houston and West Africa that mirrors the one between Miami and Latin and Central America, Brown resolutely answered, "That has been my goal! I want to make sure that when the countries of Africa think about doing business in the U.S., I want them to think about Houston.

"We have our arms open to everyone. The business people and professionals here are ready to cooperate and work together with the cities and countries in Africa."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)