Left to right: Mamadou Camara, Inza Camara, Moussa Kone. Photo courtesy of Moussa Kone.

A top U.S. representative from a political party in Cote d’Ivoire attended a minority business awards ceremony in Atlanta to promote business ties with Georgia and enlist support for his party’s candidate in the West African nation’s presidential elections in October.

Inza Camara, the delegate general for the Reassemblement Des Republicains party, or RDR, addressed an audience that included Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin at the 11th Georgia Minority Business Awards, an annual event organized by the Atlanta Business Journal.  

Mr. Camara said that the RDR’s presidential candidate, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, has the experience necessary to lead Cote d’Ivoire into a new era as the country tries to maintain a fragile stability rarely seen since political turmoil erupted there in the late 1990s.

Although the RDR has been involved in many of the disputes that have plagued the nation over the last decade, if elected later this year, Mr. Ouattara could help restore peace and freedom, Mr. Camara said.

With United Nations and African Union monitoring the political process, he added that the elections could lead to an economic recovery in which Georgia could benefit.

“We are asking you to take into consideration the upcoming business growth potential between the new Ivory Coast and the state of Georgia,” Mr. Camara said.

He cited possible logistical ties between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport in the city of Abidjan as well as cooperation between the port there and the Port of Savannah.

Moussa Kone, the RDR’s secretary general for Georgia, told GlobalAtlanta at the event that economic ties between Cote d’Ivoire and Georgia are nonexistent right now, but existing links to Atlanta make it a good place for interaction to begin.

Creed Pannell, publisher of the business journal and organizer of the awards banquet, attended the RDR’s political conference in Cote d’Ivoire three weeks before the Atlanta banquet, and Mr. Camara’s visit was in part a reciprocal gesture.

Also, Mr. Camara and Mr. Kone are working closely with Mamadou Camara, a salesman at the Lexus of South Atlanta car dealership who also runs the U.S. operation for Global African Business Consultant Group, which looks to forge business relationships between the U.S. and Cote d’Ivoire.

The country relies heavily on agriculture, with 68 percent of people somehow engaged in farming activities.  Coffee and cocoa beans are some of its most notable export products, according to Mr. Inza Camara.

But Cote d’Ivoire, with an estimated gross domestic product of more than $32 billion in 2007, also has considerable infrastructure and natural resources as well as human capital, attributes Mr. Mamadou Camara, as head of the consultant group in the U.S., is promoting to investors.

He admitted that political strife has slowed economic growth to a near standstill in recent years, but the foundations for an economic boom are readily available if stability prevails and capital emerges.

“It’s going to be a long trail from where we started,” he said. "We're looking for a lot of American companies to invest for the future." 

He added that his business consultant group could provide on-the-ground knowledge for parties looking to learn more about Cote d'Ivoire.