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tv   Key Capitol Hill Hearings  CSPAN  August 5, 2014 10:00am-12:01pm EDT

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vice president biden will address the africa forum. we'll hear from president obama with closing remarks at 2:45 eastern. former alaska governor sarah palin headlined this year's western conservative summit in denver. she called on congress to impeach president obama. here's a look at a portion of her
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>> books on marriage equality, the obamas vs. the clintons and he autobiography of marion barry jr. bob woodward interviews john scandal.he watergate and anthony marx sheds light on
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the library's past, present and future. book tv, television for serious readers. >> political strategist from both sides of the aisle recently discussed the potential impact of the latino vote in the upcoming mid term elections. speakers include head of the hispanic libre initiative. is hour-long event is from the latino elected and appointed officials. >> it's an exciting year politically as well. as you all know, in 131 days, we'll be -- will be election day in terms of the mid term election. what we'd like to do to start off the conference today is to put this in the political context as to how we expect the latino vote and the latino candidates to do in the mid term elections. it's one of the major themes of this conference, the chair discussed some of the other major themes.
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we'll be working on. but certainly the elections are top of mind at the moment. as we talk about 2014, let's make sure we put this in context about 2010, because when we compare elections, it's only fair to compare a mid term to a mid term. so let's not forget what happened back in 2010's mid term elections where the latino vote had a decisive impact. the democrats would only -- in control of the senate today because of the elections of these two senators. senator michael bennet of colorado and senator harry reid of nevada. the latino vote was decided in senator reid's re-election campaign and senator bennet's bid to be elected for the first time. in that election, 6.6 million latinos voted and they comprised just under 7% of the latino vote.
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also important of the 2010 election where the real significant milestones that were achieved by latinos in the republican party. marco rubio was elected to the united states senate. the first latina governor of any state was elected in 2010. this is susanna martinez in new mexico. the latinos in the house of representatives more than doubled from three to seven. although it's not an election we should compare the mid term elections to, let's not forget the decisive impact latinos had in election 2012 where 11.2 million latinos went to the polls. comprising 8.4% of the nation's electorate. 5% increase over 2008. and we know that the latino vote had a major impact in some of the decisive campaigns in
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swing states. so as we look towards 2014, let's look at how the latino vote is continuing to increase. we are making strides. if you look at this chart that follows the trajectory of the latino vote in mid term elections from 1994 to 2010, we see that in every single election cycle there's been a steady increase in the number of latino voters. that's the blue line. and it tracks very closely to the green line, which is the number of latino registered voters. but let's keep our eye on that red line. that line is the number of latinos who are eligible to vote. and the truth is that that population continues to grow faster than the population of latinos who actually vote. so the challenge before us is to make sure that we engage latinos as they enter the electorate. every single year, 50,000 latinos turn 18 years of age.
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these are u.s. citizens. so every single day -- and i forgot the math on this. every single day it's something like 2,000 latinos become eligible to vote in this country so we have our work cut out for us. in terms of how many latinos will show up to the polls this november, the educational fund released its projection earlier this year. we're expecting that 7.8 million latinos will vote in november. now, that's an 18% increase over the 2010 numbers. and we will make up 7.8% of the national share of all voters. so again, we're making strides. lat tino vote is growing. but i'll be honest with you. for naleo, it is not growing fast enough. and later throughout the next three days we'll be talking a little bit more about what we are doing to make sure that we engage the latino electorate,
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grow our numbers and part of the conversation this morning will be about some other initiatives that are being undertaken to also increase the latino electorate. placing the election in context, some will shape the latino vote. whether they're mobilize how they can go out and vote and the choices they make. immigration reform is on the top of everybody's mind in everyone in this room. traditionally and historically, immigration reform has not been the number one issue for latino voters. and in many respects it makes sense. if you are a voter, you're a citizen. you're born here or you're a naturalized citizen. so you don't have a personal immigration issue to resolve. but as the issue has continued to be part of the public discourse since 2000, and as more and more latino citizens
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know personally a latino who is undocumented, the importance of this issue has increased to the point where -- and we'll have one of our panelists address this -- immigration itself has risen to the top of the issues that latino voters care about in elections. so one of the questions will be -- what does it mean that immigration reform has not yet passed both houses of congress? what will it mean for november, 2014? we'll be talking about that in a couple minutes. some other things that will be affecting the latino vote include the situation and the condition of the federal voting rights act. the voting rights act has been a powerful tool since 1965 to make sure that every single american citizen is able to vote free of discrimination. last year, the united states supreme court in shelby vs. holder declared section 4 unconstitutional, meaning that
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section 5, which requires preclearance of any change in election practices by nine states in a number of counties that that formula for determining who was subject to preclearance was unconstitutional. so as the result of the shelby decision, texas, alabama and mississippi have imposed voter i.d. laws that in our view and in view of the evidence have a discriminatory impact on latinos, african-americans and others. and arizona and kansas are two of the states that are trying to strengthen the ability to impose proof of citizenship requirements in voter registration. so the environment itself is becoming more challenging to ensure that latinos are able to vote, motivated to vote and vote free of discrimination. now, a little bit about what is happening in terms of candidates in 2014.
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we expect that two of the latino governors who were elected in 2010 have excellent opportunities to be re-elected in 2014. both governor martinez and governor sandoval are running strong campaigns for re-election. and something that's happening in new england. in the state of rhode island, the mayor of providence, dominican american, is running an extremely competitive campaign for governor of rhode island. that primary will be september 9. we'll see if he makes it through the primary and then in the competition for november. there are also a number of latinos running for number two office in their states. joe garcia, who's the incumbent in colorado, is up for re-election. carlos lopez cantera, who was appointed in january, 2014, is now running on the ticket with governor scott. she will be with us this -- later at this conference if not
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already in the robble, aservelymember for nevada, lucy flores. and john sanchez from new mexico running for re-election. former recipient of the roybal tisha van de putte is running for re-election. other significant statewide contests we'll be keeping an eye on closely in november includes -- >> again, another thing that's
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happening in rhode island. she herself is running for secretary of state there in rhode island and we hope she makes it past the september primary. in terms of attorney general races, shawn reyes, is running for his first term as elected attorney general in utah. a former member of the naleo board of directors, heck tore is running for attorney general in new mexico. interesting and fascinating races we're following closely. other key statewide races, robert in new mexico. . ck for state treasurer and george p. bush running for texas land commissioner in texas. there are of course the entire house of representatives is up for re-election. 435 seats. we expect the vast majority of latinos and la teenas who are running for -- latinas who are
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running for re-election to be re-elected. there are close races in the mix in this election throughout the country. here in california, representative raul ruiz who defeated incumbent mary bono is running for re-election and has a very competitive race against an assembly member. joe garcia, who also ran and was elected in florida. first hispanic democrat to be elected to congress from florida. is running against a competitive field of republicans. that primary is august 26. and we'll see who will be challenging him in what expects -- we expect to be a very competitive race. one other district in texas has changed hands between political parties several times in the past decade. it currently is being held by democrat pete gallego and he will be facing business consultant will hurd in texas'
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23rd district. that's a district that both parties are investing tremendous resources in. then also here in california, in california's 21st district davey entral valley, valadao. a race being watched because of he -- and so part of what we want to continue to see in naleo is the growth of latino officials. these are the numbers that remember publishing here at the naleo annual conference in 2014. this is our record of -- for the record on the number of latinos who serve in elected office as of january 1 of this year. and here's the comparison over the past 10 years. we've gone from no u.s. senators 10 years ago to three. the house number -- members of congress from 22 to 28.
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overall the increase has been 25% in the number of latinos in elected office. some just under 5,000. so just over 6,000 latinos serving in elected office across the country today. so that's a little bit about where we are in terms of the number of latinos who reexpect to turn out for the election. the impact we had in 2010 and 2012. and now to talk about the impact in the political context of 2014, i'm going to invite up my guest and panelists to put all this in context and to explain to us what they're doing to make a difference. so as i introduce you, please come up and join me. rst, let's start with my friend daniel garza who worked for congressman doc hastings. after serving for several years as an official in washington,
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he served in the george w. bush administration as department of interior and associate director as public liaison in the white house where we first had the opportunity of working together. his professional experience crosses over in the private univision.art of d serves director of the libre organization which promotes economic freedom to mpower the u.s. hispanic community which helps people across the united states. then we have dr. victoria who is at the center of politics and governance at the l.b.j. school at the university of texas. she's a senior analyst for latino decisions. she was named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by "diverse" magazine, she
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received her ph.d. from duke university. she works on immigration, race and ethnic politics. contributor to msnbc and a regular political analyst for telemundo. welcome, doctor. [applause] and our third panelist is also a good friend. he's president of the latino victory project, nonpartisan effort to build political power within the latino community by developing leaders for public office while building a permanent base of latino donors to support them. prior to joining the project, he spent five years in philanthropy working for the ford foundation where he invested more than $16 million to increase political participation in communities of color. st recently, cristobal was named as one of d.c.'s most influential leaders under 40 which is quite a feat given he only moved to d.c. about three
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months ago. ok. so please welcome cristobal and all three of our panelists. [applause] with dr. fran francesco he -- soto. >> i'll start off with a question and it's a question i frequently get and i'm sure many of you get which is -- who cares about latinos? and people don't say it that way. it usually comes about in terms of, oh, yeah, latinos are the fastest growing population. below 're punching their waist. they're third behind between african-americans and white. so we see this question being
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posed. and it's a valid question and these are facts we are facing with. but i want to answer this question and i want to answer this question with facts, with data. and i'm going to be really, really blunt. we matter partly because we're having a lot of babies. case in point. right here. [applause] you know, baby max is going to be born the september before the 2032 presidential election. i'm not saying not that i planned it this way but maybe it was a consideration in the back of our mind. right now, age is a liability for our community. the average age of latinos is 10 years below that of angelos and african-americans. so we're talking about 27 as
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opposed to 37. and when you look at new latino destinations, north carolina, arkansas, tennessee, the average age is 15. black, white, latino, young folks just don't vote. they got other stuff going on in their lives. teenagers and 20-somethings and even early 30's are doing other things. but what i want us to keep our mind on -- and arturo showed this in the graph is the brute force of demographic change. so there's that aspect of it. another one i want to highlight polysci 101 tells us that poor folks and folks with less education are also less likely to turn out and vote. and, yes, latinos have historically had lower educational rates and lower income rates. but if we just look at that
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static number, we're losing sight of the dynamic. in the last couple of years -- to this emarks alluded -- we have made huge strides with our educational attainment. the pew institute has done a fabulous job of tracking these educational gains. so just last year, we saw that latino college enrollment surpassed that of white college enrollment. high school dropouts are dropping. so in addition to that demographic force, we also have rising levels of education. at the same time we have increases in economic tainment because we had it beaten out of us in the great recession. our community suffered most. 66% of our wealth we lost, and ironically those who are the
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poorest and have the most to gain from being politically involved usually don't vote. but what we see is with this rising tide of economic attainment that latinos are gaining on, this is also going to push us to the polls. so that's the first part of my answer to, why do latinos matter. the second is because we're swinging. latinos have swing tendencies. compared to african-americans and whites, latinos have the biggest chunk of independent voters. in the last couple of elections, latinos have definitely tended toward the democratic party, but let's not fore bet about the early 2000's and living in texas i see a very vibrant republican latino relationship, even in the midst of some strained immigration issues. so we know that latinos also
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matter because of that middle ground that they inhabit. and geographically speaking, they tend to be in a lot of the big swing states, florida, nevada, new mexico. and then we see these growing populations in ohio and virginia. so latinos matter not just because of that middle they occupy but because political entrepreneurs know it too and they're going after them and they want to pull them in. i have 37 seconds left so i'm going to wrap it up. i don't want you to get tough on me. i'd love to talk later maybe in e q&a about battleground texas. i see this latino demographic brute force, this latino educational attainment,
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economic power bubbling up and democrats and republicans are going mano a mano for the latino vote and we're seeing it in this election for 2014 and this is just what is to come nationally and federally. so with that i will wrap it up. >> all right. thank you. [applause] and we will certainly talk about the battleground of texas. fortunately we have two tejanos who are part of this panel. i was born in el paso. four. >> austin. texan by marriage. >> texan by marriage. so daniel, the libre initiative. you're obviously coming at this om a perspective of reaching conservative latino voters and tell us about the electorate. tell us about the libre initiative. what does 2014 mean from your perspective? >> well, we feel it's important, i think more
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important than demographic status, educational status, is latinos are getting a sense of ownership in the process. look, puerto rico has high participation rates when it comes to voting. that's because they own the island. they feel that they're part of the community, that they can control their destiny, that they can control the political outcomes and policy outcomes of the island. so we need to create the sort of same environment, same feel here and the libra initiative does that -- libre initiative does that. we talk about market principles, talks about virtues of capitalism, of rule of law, why we should have limited government and check the power, this should be a country by the people and for the people. by doing that, by engaging in churches and chamber of commerces and colleges, wherever latinos congregate and meet, we feel we can engage folks and do that proper outreach to get latinos to come out and vote and in fact
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control their destiny of the political outcomes and policy outcomes. we have a conservative perspective. there is by every major no argument that the democrat party has benefited from the latino vote for the longest time. every presidential race, the republican party has -- candidate has never enjoyed a majority of the hispanic vote. george bush set the high water mark at 45%. that's a given. look, i think what's important here is that we understand that this has been a conversation within the latino community that has been dominated by the left. to their credit, folks on the left have engaged, have outreached, have been in the communities, have seen the value of the growing demographic that you so eloquently spoke of in the hispanic community and they capitalized on that by sending resources and people and engaging the latino vote. so what i have seen as a
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political observer as well, arturo, is that on the conservative side, there's been sort of a dir election of duty of advance -- deer election of duty that will make society better that will improve the lives of those who are at the bottom. what are the policies that generate prosperity and what are the policies that generate poverty? we should be having an honest conversation within the conservative community about those issues directly with the latino community. and so i think the republican party has sort of had a bad approach to this. they just felt that the principles of economic freedom, the principles of the free market were sort -- would sort of sell itself to the community. look at who we say we are. 33% of us, according to a pew poll, say we self-identify as conservatives. 32% self-identify as moderates. and only 30% as liberals. so the vast majority is actually agreeing with you at any given time in the latino
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community which is the whole swing effect that you're talking about. but we haven't been courted effectively. and so if the left has the unions that are engaging hispanics, hollywood celebrities that are, you know, promoting progressive policies, liberal policies, if they have, you know, obviously the party that's dedicated resources and time with that, if univision is running sort of left slanted news packages on policy, on the 8-1 ratio, the universities are much more liberal, then of course you are going to get the outcomes that you're getting. my point is this, latinos have not rejected conservatives or republican candidates because of what they believe, because of the principles. they rejected them because there's been an absence of this conversation about the virtues of the free market, about self-reliance, about hard work, about what makes america strong. so we aim to drive that
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conversation. even in the -- i think in a state like texas where 44% self-identify as democrats and only 16 self-identify as republicans, there are massive gains to be made by conservative candidates because there is i think -- there's been so much open fields for the democrats for so long that now as conservatives who engage, martinez, marco rubio, ted cruz, all hispanics who went up to the highest offices in the republican party based on republican votes. there is opportunity if they engage. this by the way is the generation of ronald reagan that sort of came up and was influenced by this. i'll wrap up by saying the conversation needs to be driven by the republican party, by conservative candidates and they actually stand to gain much more than i think the
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democratic party because they are so far behind if they increase the percentage a little bit, they stand to gain a lot from the latino community. which of course makes us powerful. >> thank you. do me a favor and pass this down over there to our friend cristobal. it's separated by the pregnant woman. >> they can't cross this line. >> which probably is a good time to remind us all that -- what makes naleo a special forum is the expression of everybody's perspectives and ideas, respecting all of them but also engaging and challenging each other. now you have the floor. >> i want to thank him because he lent me his jacket. my luggage didn't come in yesterday. that's bipartisanship, folks. [applause] >> we may have differences about politics, but we're all latinos, we're the same communidad. we work to get it done. turn back if i can get to the
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powerpoint here, going back to the question about values and what brings us together. i will start with a very personal story. like a lot of folks here in this room and daniel and others, we're -- many of us come from families of immigrants. my parents came to this country, like many of your parents, with very little in search of the american dream. there is a picture of my grandfather and my mom, migrant farm worker, did everything she could so my brother, richie, and i could have chances she didn't have. and she didn't get that because she was working in the fields. by the time my brother, richie, and i came around, she settled our family in el paso and did everything she could, including work three jobs, so richie and i could have the chance that she didn't have. my brother, richie, always wanted to be president. my mom said, if you guys put your heart and mind to it, you can do whatever you want to achieve. richie said he wanted to be president of the united states.
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he's autistic. he'll never be president. he knows that. he cherishes his right to vote. he knows voting is his voice. at the same time and unfortunately, you mentioned at the beginning, across the country there are states that are introducing laws that are designed to suppress the vote. they have a disproportionate impact on people like my brother. they have a disproportionate impact in the latino community. about five million people will se their vote to -- right to vote. in my state, texas, if you have a college i.d. card you can't vote and if you have a gun license you can vote. has a different idea about values and principles and they know they can't win with our community on those, to be honest. what they're doing is shaving the vote and working to suppress latino political power. it's the same reason why the
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right won't pass immigration reform. they don't want us to vote, i have to say that. i'm sorry to say that. if these anti-voting laws and efforts aren't bad enough, we have structural problems as well in our community that keeps us from building political power. we talked about this milestone in 2012 around record participation rates. but more latinos stayed home on election day than actually voted. that's a serious problem. and as a result of this lacking political participation, we have a dirt of latino elected officials. this room should be a lot bigger. we should have twice as many latinos. with a country of 53 million and only 28 representatives in congress, we should have twice or more than that. it's much worse for latinos where we make up less than 2% of all electives in the country. what that means is we have a vicious cycle. when you don't see your community reflected on the ballot, you don't see your faces, your voices, similar names on the ballot, you're less likely to vote. so it's a vicious cycle that
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represses turnout. we have to change that. we're falling behind other demographics. i'm running out of time so i'll say this briefly. what happens if we're successful and we change this game? it's what led eva longoria and i think is who visionary voices, if we're successful is this. the ee here a picture of rio grande valley. this is the poorest crenssuss track in the country. it had 1200 voters but only 150 of these latino voters turned out in the election. they pressed the local authorities to improve the roads. what they were told is, why bother, nobody out there votes anyways? they pressed him and said what would it take to show quote-unquote life and he said 300 votes. they turned out more than 500 voters for a local election.
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[applause] now watch this. this is that same road a year and a half later. that's what happens when you have latino voters for power, accountability and people turn out to vote. we have to take every state in the country and we'll finally have true latino political power. and when we do we have to do things differently. we've got to empower our voices. we have to support future latino leaders. we have to invest in our own communities through this leadership pipeline. that what we're working to do at the latino victory project. when we're successful, latino values, which are american values, will be reflected in the policies that drive our country forward. and with those -- what those values are are clean air and water because latinos scored at the top of the charts when it comes to the environment, believe it or not. it means we have access to adequate health care that's affordable and universal. it means we have access to an ample education and it means that the immigrants come out of the shadows and they're equal
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participants in our economy. and that they have good jobs that pay living wages. i'm out of time. let me say this last thing, arturo. i started at the beginning talking about my brother richie who always wanted to be president. when he went to vote on 2012 on november 6, he didn't have the right i.d. luckily for him and for many others that law was held of in the courts and not in effect that day. it is now. on that day november 6 it was not in effect. the el paso times, our paper of record in el paso. it's our "new york times," when he walked out of that voting booth, the el paso times was there and got a picture of him. we have it framed at home. it's sitting right there. it made the front page. it was the best day of his life. so together for our brothers, our sisters, our family, our communidad, we have to pave that road. gracias. >> all right, thank you. [applause] >> we have a little bit of time
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to peel back the onion on this. want to talk to you, dr. defrancesca soto. we have these independent institutions certainly approaching the latino vote from a partisan political perspective and cristobal, you run a c-3, but you also have a c-4. i don't know if you launched it or not. libre initiative is a c-4. so coming at this from a much more political perspective than an institution like naleo would ever do, squarely in the middle, nonpartisan organization. what does it mean for latino political development? >> disagreement and debate is the lifeblood of democracy. and so the fact that we have these two gentlemen who have very different political perspectives to me is wonderful. i love it. i also want -- [applause]
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beyond that, beyond where they are in the political perspective, one thing that is very exciting for me is to see the eye on the money because at the end of the day in politics, whether you like it or you don't like it, we run on money in this political system. and in order to run and be viable, you need that funding. so i think that this is really where the future of the maturation of latino politics lays. in having, not just people who say i'm on this side of the spectrum or i'm on that one, but literally putting their money where their mouth is. >> so money where their mouth is. ok. cristobal, your institution came out of the futuro fund, right? this was eva longoria, henry muneyose and other efforts to bring -- munoz and other
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efforts to bring money into the political system. daniel, you referenced economic power as really being part of the pillars of latino development. so money is a common thread here. where does money, from your perspective -- you talked about developing economic wealth -- >> frankly, whether it's a church a chamber of commerce, any kind of institution, the accumulation and sufficiency of capital is critical to advancing any kind of -- any kind of effort or messaging or advocacy that you want to do. so it is a lifeblood, you're shrill right about that. with that you're limited in what you can do. but it also positions you to do things that normally you wouldn't do if you don't have the resources. i think as a community, you know, we have evolved, we have stepped up, you know, when it comes to being able now to seek contributions and donations from americans, you know, who are aligned. look, frankly, i am a
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conservative. that's what i believe. that's what we advance. it's a game where you got to get your ideas into the marketplace and if people buy those ideas then they're going to join you. so that's the game. and you need capital to do that. >> let me change this a little bit. just remembering cristobal, last year on the stage one of your founders was here, henry munoz, in his capacity as a member of the -- leader of the d.n.c. he was talking about how latinos have benefited -- the democratic party had benefited from latinos' participation but he also sat there and was faced with a question that is -- where are the latinos in the cabinet? where is the progress? he admitted that the progress has not been achieved. is the democratic party at risk of losing latinos to daniel's efforts because of the neglect or takes us for granted? >> so what henry also has said before is that -- and the reason the latino victory
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project is nonpartisan is we can't be taken for granted by any party or any candidate. we got to build our own power. for the future of this country, then we have to take that future in our own hands and get it done ourselves. that's also connected to this money question. i think it's so important that we talk about that because our community is not used to talking about this question. the futuro fund is the first time they broke the code and figured out, how do we get latinos engaged in the political process? they flexed their financial muscle for the first time. for us what that means is to be successful, to increase the number of latinos that are elected, to get you more members, arturo, we need to actually invest in our own community. that's why we launched the program first. many of our families we have the eldest daughter, usually, that hits the first milestones, educational, financial milestones. first lawyer, first doctor, first software engineer. eva longoria calls them the c.e.o.'s of the families.
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they are generally apolitical. they have not been asked to give before. they need to invest in our community. they will deliver the first latino or latina president of the united states. [applause] >> really quickly. i wanted to sum it up. you know, you sum up the pain points. [speaking spanish] we need to put into our community that notion of writing checks. the anglo community is able to do that. they've just become accustomed to doing it. it's not part of our routine and it's something we need to start doing. i don't care if it's $5. if it's $100,000, great. but it starts with the routine and we know from political research that once you do something you're more likely to just keep doing it over and over again. so i think your organizations
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are really critical in starting that tradition of money giving. >> you want to follow-up? >> i was just going to say, a telling statistic in the state of texas, only 25% of latinos have been reached out to by a political organization or candidate. only 25%. it's no wonder that only 38% is the turnout rate for texans while in florida it's 62% for latinos. so you're seeing a disparity there in messaging, in folks, you know, getting the word, informing the electorate about the issues that matter to them, that's going to improve their society, that's going to improve their families. so that's the effort that we're involved in is to get our messaging to the communities. it is a marketplace of ideas. and money is critical. >> so let's talk about texas then. because this is, you know, it s the big prize increasingly so. as it continues, even a bigger prize in california.
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picked up four congressional seats after this last redistricting, reapportionment, largely because of the growth of latinos in the state. 65% of texas' growth was latino. daniel, there is a lot of effort by cristobal's friends to turn texas from red from purple to blue. obviously i think you're probably looking at that -- you're based in texas yourself. >> correct. >> how are you going to stop that? >> well, obviously we want more hispanic engagement. we want more hispanics engaged in the political process but we want more conservative hispanics. that's not a secret agenda. that's what we're about. and so turn texas blue goes against everything we're about. so battleground texas, of course, is a threat to us. and so we have to engage. we have to get into the communities. we have to work with churches. we have to work with chamber of commerces. we have to work with our partners on the ground. we are also creating a volunteer force.
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we're going to have about 3,000 folks that are going to be on the ground helping us to advance conservative principles, conservative ideas. talking about the marketplace. talking about limited government, these kinds of things. we are well on our way to enlisting those folks who are already helping us. we have offices and staff already in dallas and houston and south texas and in san antonio. so that's what it's all about. it's engagement. i think at the same time it's an opportunity to also engage our young, you know, and get them involved in the political process at a certain age where they can begin to see the political process from the inside. for far too long the latino community was on the outside looking in. and i think that's why [speaking spanish] back in the 1960's and 1970's we had to march, we had to protest, we had to have our fist in the air because that's all we had. it was uncomfortable to do that. that's the only solution that we had. now we're on the inside. this is a new generation that is much more sophisticated,
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that is now in the congressional staff offices, in the state legislatures, in high elected offices. let's use those resources and let's drive the conversation. both on the left and on the right and now let's -- >> we'll come to that because there are still a lot of latinos marching in the streets and holding sit-ins. we'll talk about the immigration effort in a second. cristobal, to you, are there really realistic prospects of a blue texas? >> there's no doubt that latinos in texas are going to build latino political power and that's going to change the course of this country. it's just a matter of when. for us, we're taking the longview. we're a startup conversation but with an eye on 2020 because in 2020 you have some things that rarely happen at the same time which is a presidential election, census, followed by redistricting and latino jorts in the two biggest states, california and texas. we have to be ready for that we have to be ready with our leadership pipeline. we have to be ready with our
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resources. we have to be ready to get latinos out to vote. if we are successful, turn out record voters, elect a record number of latinos, we can help drive the redistricting line and help drive policies for the balance of the century. we need to get everything in place, especially in texas, to get that kind of impact. now, i have to point this out. i like daniel. i think he's a nice guy. >> has a nice jacket on. >> has the nicest jacket in the building. [laughter] and i think he's honest. i really do. i think what he said is accurate. i think the ads that are actually attacking latino candidates, we have so few, and i don't like libre initiatives, latinos that are champions for immigration, that bothers me. but he's honest. but his ads are not. the reason i point this out is we have a couple of people in texas that can change that
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state starting now. we've got pete gallego in the rio grande valley from san antonio over towards el paso has put incumbent who his neck out. and the statewide elected lieutenant governor, she's a rising star. we have other rising stars across the country. i would just like you to hold your fire on our latino candidates. >> what cristobal is saying is to dem onize the messenger. he says the left doesn't -- it doesn't play politics either as if the left doesn't message, you know, to positions, their positions or their ideas. look, everything that we do is fact check. everything we do we have to stand by it. everything we do has to be ethical. and so, you know, it's a game of let's have this conversation and we're going to have that conversation and we're not going to back down because it's
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not about pete gallego. it's about pete gallego's ideas. we don't want centralized government. we don't want collectivism. we don't want liberal policies that lean more toward dependency instead of self-reliance. we don't want bigger government. that's the idea, the battle we're having so let's have that conversation. i'm not going to play the game, i'm going to back away from latino policies. i think conservative principles is better for our community. 'll drive that regardless. >> express the sentiments towards nonlatino candidates. there are probably a lot of candidates that ideas you don't want to see that you can go after. if you think of people in florida like representative garcia they're doing a tremendous job father our community. to go after them i think -- >> i want to get into the issue of immigration now. and vicky, i want to start with
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you. your capacity working with latino decisions, you've been doing some, i think, really excellent polling of the latino electorate and latinos overall about this issue. and seeing this issue really rise on the agenda of latino voters. something we haven't seen before. it's been an important issue for the community but not for the latinos who show up at the polls until more recently. >> yes. >> right? talk to us about that and then we're going to go to our two friends here to see what it all means. >> so immigration -- and arturo, you mentioned this at the very beginning of your comments -- is not the all-encompassing issue for latinos. we care about education. we care about income. however, what immigration has become is a gateway issue for latinos. because what we have seen is that latinos in the middle, moderate conservatives are
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pushing back against the tenor the rhetoric toward immigration. even though they're second, third, fourth generation, they're moving away from those candidates who speak of immigration in such a way. so, you know, my little shortcut for thinking about what's the effect of immigration on politics, it's a gateway issue. and the republican party is split down the middle. there's the george w. bush school of thought that back in the 1990's got it and said, you know what, immigration is part of this country and we need to put it inside of the big tent and this is how we are going to court latino voters as part of a larger agenda. the problem with immigration and the republican party is in
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selling it to the non-hispanic base. and that was what george w. bush was very good at. e was able to sell it to conservative evangelical groups and say this is part of our christian view. i don't know if the republican party has come to that fork in the road. if they do in fact come to that fork in the road and say, you know what, we're going to tone down the tenor and try to figure out a solution, latinos will support this. because one thing we've been finding from our work in latino decision is that latinos don't hold a grudge. we ask in survey after survey, if the g.o.p. were to turn strategy and embrace immigration reform -- and not even necessarily comprehensive but some sort of substantive immigration reform, latinos would say, hey, i'd give the g.o.p. a shot. we're talking about 40% to 50% of latinos. the question is in immigration,
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is the g.o.p. going to pursue that vote? >> so daniel, question to you. as a reminder to all of us, also a year ago, the chairman of the republican national committee sat on this stage endorsing immigration reform. yet here we are a year later, the senate passed it. it passed it during the naleo conference last year. but the house refused to move immigration reform. the house, controlled by republican leadership, given vicky's comments, what do you think? >> look, without question, how a candidate or a party or an individual who's running for elected office speaks about minorities in the political narrative, the impression given is how you speak about them then translates what will be your policy remedy to those folks? so the republican party has not done a good job on that when it comes to immigration issues. that doesn't mean that hispanics should run away from the republican party.
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that means we should flood it and change it from within. that's what we're doing. we want to have a conversation within the conservative movement to say, hey, immigration is positive for america. america was built on the waves of poor immigrants who created new wealth, new opportunities and made us strong because of our economic system. we should be fighting for an economic system that absorbs those immigrants. and not resisting, you know, the new waves of poor immigrants. it is good for our economy. it is good for our families and it is good for our future. that's the conversation we should be having. >> being able to sell it to the non-hispanics in the republican party? > i've been invited by the pea -- by the tea party. we need to have a pathway to citizenship. i state that publicly. we are for that. but we also understand the political realities of things that the democratic party doesn't get to define what immigration reform is. it needs to be both the republican party and the democratic party in a true bipartisan spirit and then, you know, fixing the differences.
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while the republican party wants a visa reform, legalization. the democrat party, because of pure political interests, wants to get a path to citizenship because the votes are there. as of this moment. i don't feel that. i feel if we can inform the hispanic community with those principles, we can win those percentages back. they need to come to the middle and reconcile those differences. we want to be a bridge to that. hopefully we can work together to make that happen. >> cristobal. >> and do what's best for our community. >> i said at the beginning that the reason the right doesn't pass immigration reform is because they don't want us to vote. now, when you look at these conservative principles that you espouse -- he worked hard, i think. we have a bill that won't pass because the right won't let us to pass. >> the republican party for not advancing immigration reform, can you say the -- >> at this point -- here's what we have to do to build
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political power which is hold these folks accountable. the ones that are stopping immigration reform now, hold them accountable and those are the ones running in november on the right. let's increase the latino votes and let's get them out of office and hopefully we can have immigration reform and work together to make that happen. now, the conservative principle problem, though, it's not just around immigration reform and not moving that because they don't want to expand our democracy to allow latinos in, it is things we hold dear. if you think about the environment, we want to have a clean environment that we can give to our children and grandchildren. jobs, protections and regular laces that allow us to work and get paid a good living wage. not just on immigration but across the board on these conservative right-leaning principles, you will not get latino voters. you have great value within your organization to try them move -- to move them toward these things but it's not going to work in our community.
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>> vicky. >> oh, where to begin? [laughter] >> what has happened with regards to immigration has been -- as these two gentlemen pointed out, a stalemate. it's a stalemate that we're seeing at the federal level etween the executive and congress. and i fear that it's not going to budge in the short term. namely the next two to three years. so i want to train the spotlight on something else, which is state and local level politics with regards to immigration. because we are stuck in d.c. nothing is happening in d.c. but at the end of the day, people carry out their lives on a day-to-day basis in their neighborhoods, in their cities, in their counties and we see a lot of the most effect happening to folks who are getting picked up and deported.
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noncriminals. ok. the criminals we understand. you know, they're breaking the law and they need to leave because they have a criminal record or what not. but for other folks on a day-to-day basis, we need to figure out how our state legislatures and how our county boards, how our school boards can affect the lives of immigrants and also latinos more generally. so we can go back and forth and point fingers. president obama, boehner, mitch mcconnell, harry reid, democrats, republicans, that's not going to get us anywhere. what can you do? because you here today are the ones that are going to go back to your communities and get stuff done. i believe our politics are local. that's the viewpoint i'd lead you off with. [applause] >> yes. that's what the mid term elections are really about. these are elections that are happening at the local level. 435 congressional races, stedge legislature races, what do you
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think the process will be for voters? -- for latino >> the prospects. this election year is trending conservative republican. i do think the way things are looking right now, if you take a look at the political map across the country, the republicans will take the senate. that's looking more and more viable. they're going to hold the house. i think folks, especially hispanics, are disillusioned with the obama administration. his famblt has dropped 23 points since -- his favorability has dropped 23 points in the latino community. 59% of colorado hispanics are now in this favor with obamacare. there is nothing delivered on jobs. the deportation has increased. there's been a lot -- there's been inaction on immigration reform. so you're seeing i think a lot of disillusionment on the part of the american electorate that is trending republican. now, i say that because i see
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it just as a window for the republican party. as a political observer i'm saying it. as a window where they need to step in and have great candidates, drive, you know, great ideas because i think hispanics are at a crossroad and we have swung back to the middle. we are at a fork in the road and it is not enough for republicans to just stand there and, i think, say generalizations and platitudes. they need to be a part of the community and earn our vote. i do not think the democrats have done that. they had the opportunity and they lost it. >> what typically happens is the midterm election drop-off with latinos and the problem is that it allows for those on the right to increase their power and, in so doing, moving on immigration reform is harder to do and
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moving on a cleaner environment is harder to do. i hope we can flip that this year to do that to increase latino turnout in a substantial way and spotlight the problems that we are seeing with the right. they held up immigration reform and you mention something that i think is a perfect example. if we springboard to get latinos out of vogue, we remove representative kaufman and we thwart someone who is anti-immigrant from taking positions. we are in california and something special happened with proposition 187. this was an anti-immigrant initiative and it showed latinos running on the screen saying, they just keep coming. they registered, they turned out in record numbers.
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you will not see that happen. we have changed the state forever. we can use the right holding up immigration reform to springboard success for latinos across the country. [applause] >> all right. unfortunately, we are coming to the close of the opening session and this has put into context what this election means and what the next days of conversation will be. i will give you time to make final remarks and we will let you have the last word. >> thank you for allowing me to be here at the conference. i hope that, in the future, this is expanding and we have to open up the walls because we have a record number of latinos coming into elected office. i will close with this. demographics are not destiny. what we have talked about throughout -- on the left and right -- about building latino
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political power, for it to materialize, we have to make it happen together and i want to leave you with a call to action to join us. go to our website and join us on twitter. please do not forget to donate. that is how we have to do this. we have to invest in our community. >> this election cycle is going to be a battle of personalities. it is not about who speaks better. it is a battle of ideas. it is about how the country looks and the economic system. it is about how we will be as a community and culture. let's engage in a debate and have an honest debate. no sacred cows. that is what we need. >> so, there have been a couple of tense moments between these gentlemen and this is great. out of disagreement and out of
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feeling uncomfortable, that is what mobilizes you and get you to vote. i want us to keep thinking about the importance of political maturation from marching in the streets. we still march and we vote more. we give money to expand this room to have more alike to officials. >> excellent. please join me in thanking the panel. [applause] of ases his second day three-day summit but u.s. and african leaders in washington dc. we're going to go live to that right now. we're about to begin the heads of coca-cola and ibm driving hedge fund managers to talk about what they need to set up business on the african
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continent. whose and rice moderates the discussion of infrastructure needs and the conference wrought -- brought together nearly 50 heads of state to discuss business opportunities with the united states. >> 42% of the population now having access to banking services. these also require a lot of innovation and robert, and product that is appropriate to that sector of the population. the size of the transactions has thee appropriate to requirement of the population. [applause] >> thank you.
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during the financial crisis, many of the banks in the rich countries had problems. the african sector was expected to follow but did not happen. what do you have to say to individuals and turns of the solidity and the regulation of the banking sector? >> thank you. are more solid than 2007, 2008, 2009. of the framework on the african continent, we saw the central banks being able to impact and the effects fairly well. the individual banks continued to perform well.
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up 4.5ket cap has gone times. again, when we looked at the quality of the loan portfolio, although we had the trading effects of the financial crisis, keeping this idea, the spike was a minimum. again, showing appropriate policies in the financial sector , and the strength of the management team. >> strong regulation, good supervision. very effective resolution mechanisms to any problems. >> people talk about africa
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as if it is an exception. asia, are there problems in myanmar, serologic, in pakistan that are so different? what is different terms of risk? >> i actually believe that africa is a stage that asia was 15 years ago. a number of companies, many in a chance tohey have plant flags and grow aggressively. of us who go those local and you can plant ourselves properly with the right investment, the right quality people locally and the right technology transfer, we can win a lot in africa.
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you go there and travel as we have done, any look at the opportunities there, you can .ind ways we need to take from them certain level of guarantee about our risk which takes to read three days between the time that the state takes the money back. we're not going to partner with the ifcions like po that can do the underwriting into the guarantee granted to us that we accept as collateral. that is how i view it.
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about -- [inaudible] were quite knowledgeable about this. just stayve if you the same, the rich will get richer. it will will drive consumption you wrote which africa will need consumption led growth which africa will need at some point. getting people of the lower end of society to participate in their growth. that will not happen without financial inclusion. you're left out and all you can do is operate with cash, if you cannot pay a bill easily, if you cannot borrow mainly committee cannot save easily you cannot be a part of what the economy is what capable of doing a delivery. doing well,st about
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it is not doing well and doing good at the same time. most companies that would benefit from it. a --ieve it is actually 3.5 g of a country -- gdp of a country. you need people to check it. evasion all of the tax you were talking about them you cannot convey the long term without a lonarge upon prince -- amount ofconomy cash in the economy.
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drugs do not come in exchange for a citibank line of credit. have the transparency that comes in the electronic payment, and that ties back to the idea financial inclusion. and then you have what james would do with us as partners, to use our technology and innovation with them to make a difference to what we can transformo to help transparency and reduce the role of cash, reduce corruption, and fix the system. >> thank you very much. we have been act of in africa frica.ive in act a lot of business people want to invest in our sector as they did in the telecom sector. that thisto provide is confidence, that clarity that can put the risk of capital
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there, and long-term investments. what needs to be done for those? so last year when president groupvisited africa, our committed $2.5 billion towards the africa initiative. we have been able to deploy part of that because of what i'm going to share here with you. one is that in the country we decided to start from nigeria. the nigerian government had a res massive reformation of the sect are. they give us a duty to acquire the major power assets. assets, theired the
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output was 100 and 50 megawatts of outlo electricity. this month we generated 453 megawatts of electricity. in just seven months we have tripled the output. this is what the private sector can do. this, african governments, and i'm happy to have quite a number of african political readers here, we are happy to reform. investment, weake the will be able to triple the power output. have similarrtners power.
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we could invest in that. the second thing is the issue of policy stability. -- power isadership a long-term investment. one or two years down the line, policies change. ande want to drive power increase in access to electricity throughout the continent, we need to make sure that we are seeing through carefully our policies, and once we put in place a policy we should see it through. a plan, rationale, and no surprises. is the thing generalization of our policies across the continent.
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division and roadblocks are good things. from nigeria, and give or take certain issues you can't predict the way these policies would play out, that would need to be invested in countries to help improve assets in africa. theakes so long to get [inaudible] . ]. we succeeded in nigeria because of the reform that was already in place. firms arete equity not interested because it took so long to do the transaction with the continent. we need to make sure we fast-track this.
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regulators need to therstand the stage of power sector development in africa. it is different from the regulatory mindset of the rest of the world where the electricity has been significantly improved. lastly, our governments need to have -- we need to realize that if we have the right tax like we have in nigeria, that encourages you to
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invest more in the economy. key also.is long-term investments. the type of money needed power is not just to show the commercial, but to work with utilities. [inaudible] we need to also have the the accessnate and to electricity in africa. andpolitical leadership, such on the continent, we need the mobilization.
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we need to make sure that when we mobilize we can address this critical area of need. country without money already, we need to make those reforms. healthy to -- we need to mobilize savings and focus on the and. the end is where we deploy the capital to grow the economy. lots more can be said, but i know we have time constraints. >> thank you. my timekeeper says four minutes. we have a sense that that predictability, that clarity and
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are so stable that we can see more investment flows and the politics of africa. >> thank you. the purchase now agreements and the agreements outgeneral that nigeria set are really good. i will start with nigeria because nigeria has said that the standard, quite frankly. the problem is across all of the other countries you do not see standardization them every time you go to make a deal you to go from scratch and
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you spent months negotiating. every single project has a certain different ppi. it is not well organized at all. i think that if some of the other african countries took the work that has been invested in nigeria, things would be a lot better and easier to work. one other thing that i would like to respond to is not only is it important that american companies partner with african companies, our partnership has been a fantastic example. it has worked really well. in the 450ested megawatts. i think it is essential, you have got to find the right partners in africa. like are many more people
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these companies that are keen to africa.ess with first of all, you need to concentrate on finding the right local partner. a halfave one and minutes i am told. we want to check on the audience to see if there is a question. anybody? i see none. therefore we are back to my panel. ?ny last words you other partss behind of the world in africa. there may be other reasons why american companies have not moved to africa with the alacrity that chinese companies have. i do not think it is too late to catch up, and american companies
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need to spend more time looking for opportunities in africa. private equity is only one small sliver of what we can do. secondly, this is a very good and unusual summit. as i have been too many summits and many business meetings and conferences, the trick is the follow-up. it is not the great meeting, it is the follow-up. i hope there is a mechanism to follow-up this conference, and i am assuming that the commerce department and others will find a mechanism to make sure that this does not happen just once but happens for what lay. -- frequently. k and makelook tak sure to find mechanisms to defend such -- keep in touch. we hope that our growth will be extended for a few years. and that south africa will be included. african and africa are
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open for business and partnership. >> a great point. welcome to africa. we wish you americans a lot of money that, just behave yourselves. that is all. [laughter] over the last 20 years, africa has gone through very substantial reforms. legal, itpolitical, see inrtant that what we the media, that we look engaged where africa is using the markets. its eggs a lot about what is happening in africa. in nigeriapening
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tele whole story because markets are never wrong. >> very good point. >> all of the work in nigeria, egypt, it is all partnerships. if you want to go quickly, go alone. if you want to go far, go together. you will not get very far without this kind of partnerships. >> thank you. the people of washington. we will hear about the electrify africa initiative. i would like the american public to open their minds a bit more as it is and not
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as it was 20 years ago. we cannot ignore the key , trueent of our society inclusive growth cannot occur without the facts. thank you. [applause] >> let me summarize. point. too often in the u.s. that news, boko haram, terrorism activity. of the the performance stock exchange. markets never lie.
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bear that in my each time you look at the news. second, go to the bank and say you know africa more than i do, can we invest together? we have more information. , we know our continent. there there with you, and challenges and opportunities can be met together. thank you for this panel. [applause] ♪ >> this is what africa looks like when the lights are off. daye are here at the second of a three-day summit by u.s. and african leaders in washington dc.
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a panel just ending on markets and finances. coming up next, the national security advisor susan rice moderates a discussion on infrastructure needs in africa. exploreussion will public private partnerships and technological information and heads ofn with the companies like coca-cola and ibm as well as hedge funds managers to talk about what they need to set up business on the africa continent. it has brought together nearly 50 african heads of state and government to discuss business opportunities with the u.s. in a moment with a discussion on infrastructure needs and later on today, 1:45 p.m. eastern, vice president biden will address the group. discussionwed by a on the biggest issues impacting development. john kerry will welcome the
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, and really rose will moderate. live coverage of all of that here on c-span. while we wait for the next panel to begin, former alaska governor sarah palin headlines this year's western conservative summit in denver. gress tos on con engage the president. politicians dose nothing barack obama saying he less president that makes his own laws and ignores laws he does not like. that is true.
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but what are you going to do about it? [applause] let's call their bluff. i am calling their bluff because we need a little less talk and a lot more action. there is only one remedy for a president who with high crimes and misdemeanors. it is the i word. but you can see sarah palin's entire speech tonight. now back to the business forum. >> i think the foundation and michael bloomberg for organizing this important discussion on powering africa. two decades, we've heard again and again, very strong economic growth. but the encouraging growth story will only continue if we tackle the problem of infrastructure. our studies show that the poor
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state of infrastructure in sub-saharan africa, including electricity, water, roads, and ict, cuts country's economic two percentage points every year. and it reduces business productivity by as much as 40%. losses taken enormous human toll in addition to taking a toll on economic growth. heard a lot about the infrastructure gap. there's is about $100 billion a year that is needed, and less than half of that is applied by the government. of 800ve also heard that million people in sub-saharan africa, there is only about 80 gigawatts of installed capacity, a deficit of hundred gigawatts. -- of 100 gigawatts. many enterprises do not have access to energy, despite enormous potential for hydroelectric power, geothermal, wind, and solar power. the 5.5% orearlier,
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so growth in africa has been done without power. just to give you a very specific there,, i was recently and the president said that it perbeen growing at about 6% year and the cost of energy with 75 cents per kilowatt hour. here washington, d.c., would probably pay $.10 to $.12 per kilowatt hour. what do we do? first, we think the u.s.-power -- the u.s.-africa power initiative will achieve an important goal for providing electricity for africa. today, i'm very pleased to announce that the world bank group, following president powers lead, will support africa by committing $5 billion in direct financing, investment guarantees, and advisory services.
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[applause] for project reparation in power active -- power africa six member countries, ghana, kenya, tanzania being members. it will achieve the important goal of generating 10,000 new megawatts of energy in sub-saharan africa. but while our expertise and financial support will help to move these projects forward, we know we need much more funding. the world bank is a 70-year-old institution. we just had our 71st birthday in july. and we have done wonderful work in many african countries, but i knew, and i knew soon after arrived at the world bank group, that we were not structured in a way to have the kind of impact that we knew we could have in tackling problems like power in
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sub-saharan africa. wewe're arranged -- rearranged everything. we having creased our financial capacity. able to provide state-of-the-art solutions, not , butdata and analysis solutions from all over the world. we are now a global knowledge organization as opposed to being a regional or country based knowledge organization the past. but we have to step up. i think you heard on a previous panel, jeff and melt -- jeffrey immelt said very clearly that we need more things. we will provide the kind of capital to get project moving. secondly, we will use our 70 years of experience to take the lead on project reparation of what we know are meant -- project preparation of what we issues in africa. for me, having the chance to
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travel many times to africa, and specifically is world bank group president, i cannot help but think about my own life, which started in 1950 nine in south korea. i was born in a country that recently had gone through a war. it was one of the poorest countries in the world with the gdp per capita at that time lower than ghana's. the economist at the world bank stated that korea was a basket case. to confucian, to uneducated, to agrarian to ever have any hope of developing. we have heard those same kind of pronouncement about africa too many times. i think that -- back to 2000, when a small group of us began pointing to the small problem of hiv in africa. we made the point that this is a problem we can solve. this is a problem we can tackle.
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there were naysayers everywhere. it is impossible to treat hiv in africa. africa will have to wait for the next generation. but through the effort of people like george w. bush, who pepfard the cap far -- initiative, and many in congress here who supported it, the outcomes are much better. we should never doubt the potential of africa not only to solve its own problems, what to grow in a way that will boost the entire world. it was the developing countries from 2008-13 that account for half of the global growth. we at the world bank group believed in africa. the next five panelists have all done things that show that they, too, believe in africa. sector private representatives here today, i would invite you, and get to know us at the world bank group. we do political risk insurance,
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credit enhancement, direct equity investments, and we have a private equity instrument called the asset management corporation that will invest with you in africa. the opportunities are enormous. just imagine, an investment in electricity that will not only provide you with very strong returns, but will reduce the price and increase the access to electricity for the people there. it to gathern do with all of you. we look forward to the next meeting of the united states government africa leaners we can talk about the great things that we have accomplished for our companies and on behalf of the people of africa. .hank you very much [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please theome to the stage and chief executive of
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ibm. chairman and chief executive and cofounder of blackstone. .co and cofounder and our moderator, assistant to the president, and national security advisor, the honorable susan rice. [applause] >> hello, everybody. thank you so much for joining us. inant to join my colleagues thanking the organizers of this event, in particular the department of commerce and secretary penny pritzker and
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bloomberg philanthropies, and in particular might bloomberg, for their -- michael bloomberg, for there extraordinaire a to make this the impact that it is. i'm honored to join such a distinguished panel to discuss africa's and for structure potential and africa's infrastructure challenges. toore i do, i would like you join me in thanking again jim kim in the extraordinary announcement that he just made on behalf of the world bank for power africa, the president signature initiative, to double access to power in africa. and the commitment of $5 billion for the world bank group is an enormous contribution. i know president obama is personally very grateful. [applause]
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broadly speaking in the context of this panel, we want to explore the nature of africa's and restructure needs -- infrastructure needs and the challenges that we face in terms of trying to enhance both the energy infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, information, communications, and technology infrastructure, and this panel is incredibly well-suited to do so. we have ceo's, investors, those who specialize in every aspect of the infrastructure challenge. what i would like to do most of all is to invite you all to particular the challenges you see in terms of bringing greater infrastructure to africa, so that africa's development is facilitated and supported, where in particular you see the opportunity for policy to play a role in strengthening africa's access and opportunities in the
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infrastructure realm, and where you see the risk. i know each of you are well-suited to elaborate from your own perspective on that. steve, i wanted to start with you. you run a global base of investors. -- you have become very involved in africa of late. i wanted to ask your perspective. where do you see the greatest challenge to enhancing infrastructure in africa? what role can the private sector best play? what role can african governments and african partners best play to increase the quality and quantity of infrastructure? the think the people on first panel actually did a pretty good job of laying this out. whether it was jeffrey immelt or .omeone else we have been doing infrastructure for a while in africa. we completed building a dam in
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comprises about 40% of the electricity. and it lowered the price by about one third and increase the gdp by about 60%. power is really very substantial. and from the perspective of sub-saharan africa where 70% of the people don't have , and for a lot of people in this audience, they understand that. for people who would normally be in the developed world, it is incomprehensible. and the continent is still growing at 5%. imagine the $300 billion that was necessary to really africa,y sub-saharan it's a huge number and would
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make a huge difference. i think, anytime you have 5% growth anywhere in the world, you are going to attract private capital, unless you try to stop it. and the returns should be there. but it is really the supply chain. it is about reliability of policy. it is about continuity, in terms over time.cies because these projects are not necessarily done within the ,ifespan of one administration and if you invest the time and somebody else decides they do not want it, that is a risk. there are also the issues of rule of law. which is something that as .nvestors, all of us need if you don't have a rule of law, or security, then you cannot
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risk capital. thingsre a variety of that government can do, which frankly, are not difficult. you just need the will to do and the support for new projects, and the probability that you get a significant .ptick in your economic growth the ability to increase employment, increase gdp per capita is quite high. >> if you could, steve, elaborate a bit. obviously, predict ability, long-term policy development and sticking to those policies is critically important, but which can government is taken africa that would lay the , one that ision adhered to over the long term? national, or regional
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efforts that could be taken that would be particularly useful within some regions? things areregional much more difficult than national things. ,s we look at our own country or otherwise, it is hard for people to get together and agree . it is tough enough in one country. i like to do easy things. i find they are hard enough. to figure out what it wants to do. is it prepared to buy power? what kind of price is a prepared to guarantee over your supply? what is the supply? is it fanciful? will somebody -- is it plentiful ? will somebody ensure that happened? there are all kinds of things that can make a project easier. it would be really useful if there was a pan continental
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template of what people should do. the g-20, as you probably know, is thinking of that type of ofroach for a variety different infrastructures, so that people who do things are going to look at the same type of criteria. countries will know what is the preferred outcome on those criteria, so you don't have to have the same negotiation over and over and over. that is part of the global agenda. i think it would work really well for africa. groups,ad regional in western south america, which looks like it's going to work pretty well, that would be great. there are so many countries in africa, that it cannot be an easy thing to harmonize everyone's policies. if you could, even better.
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but it is a tough objective. >> thank you. if i might come i would like to eo to strike next -- strid next. your particular perspective, in the industry you are most active in -- communications and -- give us a sense of how the opportunities there are evolving in africa, and a sense of this question of whether you see the potential for regional collaboration and regional spur greater can investment in infrastructure. >> thank you, susan. this conference is a great vision realized for us. thank you for organizing it and for starting this new chapter. i had been active in building
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african infrastructure all my career, 30 years. i have built ridges, roads -- bridges, roads, and i have been involved in the telecommunications sector since private sector was first allowed in. back in early 1990's. and during that time, i have invested in bulk telecommunications infrastructure in some 17 african countries, whether in the south or the east or the north, french-speaking, portuguese speaking. we have been there and we have people in all those countries. us in 1994 when telecommunications penetration as a percentage of the population who had a telephone was .07% on the african where it conceivable
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that 70% of african people could have a phone in their hand, you would have been committed to an institution. would have that time been greater than the gdp of the continent. in the eyes of many people. sector hasprivate invested more than $100 billion so that 650 million africans now have a cell phone. fact, as far as entrepreneurs in this sector, the medication's revolution is behind us. yes, people are still blue -- still building towers, but we have moved on. we are now moving on to digital connectivity. how do you build the agile infrastructure? for instance, our -- build the
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digital infrastructure? for instance, our come three -- company has been laying fiber. we have a system that began in durban, building along the side of the road. and if you know your continent, as you know, susan, we follow the road, went up north, across the river, and into zimbabwe, zambizihe nbc --the into zambia. building infrastructure in those countries. today, our focus is ensuring that these networks can now create an overlay where we can .rovide education, health we can provide agricultural extension services to farmers.
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future, creating digital jobs for young people. then we can employ the young africans as well as providing .elp, support, and other things it is as much an infrastructure today as it is to build the original physical infrastructure that we are building. strive, i would like to ask you to elaborate. you have been a huge proponent in african human capital, particularly the young people. and you have been a great supporter of the young african leaders initiative, which the president was proud to host last week during an external very summit of our washington fellows. as someone sove deeply involved in the digital usere, as to how we can
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both the partnership between the united states and africa and investment to promote skills development and skills transfer, which is a huge underlying our partnership in africa, and where the united states very much wants to take it. we want africans, particularly the up-and-coming generations to be extraordinarily competitive internationally, and to have the skills and education that they need. how do you see the role of the private sector, and particularly information and to indications technology, in trying to support them? >> thank you. we look at schools and we look at the brick-and-mortar. again, if we had to go out and build schools, we haven't got the resources today. we have to look beyond the brick and mortar.
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the brick-and-mortar schools are an invention. we can use the technology we have today to provide education to children. the tools are already with us. we were talking earlier, and i know we will talk a lot of it more about that. but the most important thing we've got today, that we've got to do is to educate, to invest in our young people. as an earlier panel said, 60% of africa's population is between the age of 15-25. we haven't got time to wait. we have to use this infrastructure that we have. we don't need to get -- and we need to get children into school. 50% of the world's children not in school are in africa. we have to get them into school. them intoe get school, we have to deliver the
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quality education that will help industry employment. but even then, it's not enough. we have to look at making them entrepreneurs, to create the next generation of industry. this is where i think president obama's initiative is so powerful. it is also important that we have young americans heading the other way. as i have been saying on our part, and it is a commitment that we have made, which i'm happy to announce here. we are happy to receive 20 young americans every year coming the other way, that will come and work in corporate africa, so when they return to work for goldman sachs and other industries, will have an alumni of business people for the next generation. thank you. [applause] tar, if i are
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might go to you. you, for many years, have been a pioneer and a stalwart in africa . a norm iseveloped networks of partners, created vast numbers of jobs, and now doing great work to help develop clean water. i would like you to elaborate, based on coca-cola's experience, about the infrastructure challenge, but also to talk about the partnership with the new alliance. >> thank you, ambassador rice. i also want to start by complementing president obama and the u.s. administration for this wonderful initiative. been somethings in the waiting and it comes now at a great time. wonderful to be here at this occasion. my company is honored to be part
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of the african community since 1928. fast-forward, i think what we see is, the youngest continent, and incredibly vibrant continent. i was saying three years ago that this decade, when it started, would be the decade of africa. the untold decade of africa has started. small improvements in government in africa are yielding financial results, as our infrastructure investments. as a company that operates proudly 147 factories and is one of the largest private imply or's on the continent and more than 80,000 employees directly, and indirectly, almost one million through our infrastructure. and today, i'm also proud --
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back at the beginning of the decade, we announce investments of $12 billion, and in the decade we are in, of from 5 billion -- up from 5 billion in the previous at it, and we are increasing that to $17 billion now, and we are not even in the middle of the decade yet. [applause] i would like to look at infrastructure in africa over three vectors. vectors number one, the basic infrastructure, the power, telecommunications, roads, bridges -- all of that infrastructure. that allows business infrastructure, is this investment and infrastructure. that is the second vector. and now, i think we are seeing that transitioning also into what i call social infrastructure, which is the best vector of what is described as the golden triangle of business working together with government and civil society, academia, in the golden
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triangle to create social infrastructure. education, to improve the entre nous real spirit -- entrepreneurial spirit, to improve sanitation and water in africa. one third of the continent still lives without clean water today. we have an initiative called rain, which is short for replenish africa initiative. to we bring water so far 1600 communities. i'm proud to say we work closely with ibm on a project. we bring sterile, vaccine grade partners, with the bill and melinda gates foundation, other partners, coinvestors into small villages, small towns, and we pride -- provide connectivity, solar power. and this unit that we have developed works with solar power.
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1000 leeches of solar power , no matter how contaminated the water is, all working on solar power. invited partners to come and talk with us. i have talked to strive about it. we need to continue to scale these big projects up from where they are. then we have another initiative, .hich is the last mile again, we work with the bill and melinda gates foundation to work on hiv within our own infrastructure. we can know the last mile with more than tens of thousands of vehicles and micro-distributors in africa, which by the way, most of which are women entrepreneurs. that the next into the 2020 initiative for women to be empowered and that connects into getting the vaccine for last mile into the villages.
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thise have increased tradition by 30% of hiv vaccines in just tanzania alone through that initiative. and the best part of the commitment that we had with president obama on world aids day 2.5 years ago to extradite. those are all of the social infrastructures. gaps of basic infrastructure that steve talked not sufficient foreign direct of today in africa. there needs to be more. despite the fact that we need to amle up these programs, i extremely bullish about the future of africa.