Four African Heads of State to Visit Campus

Four African Heads of State to Visit Campus

RICE NEWS
April 22, 1999

Heads of state and senior government representatives of four African nations
will participate in a panel discussion "U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa:
Which Way Forward" on Tuesday, April 27, at Rice University’s James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

The program will start at 9:30 a.m. in Baker Hall. The panelists will be Botswana
President Festus Mogae, Nambia President Sam Nujoma, Gabon President Omar Bongo,
Nigeria’s Vice-President-elect Atiku Abubakar and Susan E. Rice, the U.S. assistant
secretary of state for African affairs.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian.
It is open to Rice students, faculty and staff as well as to the public.

"This forum at the Baker Institute featuring the heads of governments
and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice is a unique opportunity to
discuss what the strategic goals and long-term vision of the relations between
the countries of the Africas and the United States should be," Djerejian
said. "Africa faces major challenges in terms of economic and social development,
investment and trade, conflict resolution and the prospects for regional integration.
We hope this discussion will provide insights on how Africa and the United States
can move forward together in this framework."

The Baker Institute program is part of the "Attracting Capital to Africa"
Summit scheduled for April 24-28 in Houston. That event is being hosted by Washington,
D.C.-based Corporate Council on Africa.

The council selected Houston for its bi-annual summit because of the city’s
large volume of trade with Africa as well as its major petrochemical industries.
More than 550 Houston companies currently trade with nations on the African
continent.

"This summit provides a great opportunity to meet the many distinguished
African officials and to begin positive dialogue that will lead to more trade
with the rich and vast continent," said Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown. "Houston
prospers when business men and women know that their economic opportunities
are limitless."

The program will be broadcast live on campus cable and on the Internet at:
http://riceinfo.rice.edu/rtv/index.html.