Ambassador Speeches

AMBASSADOR JANET E. GARVEY

Remarks at the Presentation of the
Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence

U.S. Embassy, Yaounde
November 6, 2007

Thank you, Secretary Rice, Under Secretary Fore, and Assistant Secretary Sullivan for your continued leadership and vision in recognizing the important contributions made by America’s good corporate citizens.  Embassy Yaounde is so pleased that this year the ACE Principals Selection Committee has chosen a leading U.S. company operating in Cameroon, Transnational Automotive Group, or TAuG, for the Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence.  This is a tremendous honor for TAuG and for Cameroon.

I want to acknowledge the Government of Cameroon’s support for this project, as demonstrated earlier today by the visit of Minister Etoundi Ngoa, Cameroon’s Minister of Small and Medium-Size Enterprises.  It is also appropriate to acknowledge the tremendous contributions made by Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni and my predecessor, Ambassador Niels Marquardt.

TAuG combines American capital, business practices, and management, with high-quality Chinese buses, and a Cameroonian workforce and customer base.  It serves as an example of how our nations can work together to forge win-win situations in Cameroon and serve as a model applicable across the African continent.

TAuG's fair recruiting practices, investment in employee training and concern for employee welfare are its greatest assets.  TAuG has undertaken to provide safe, secure and hygienic work conditions in keeping with U.S. standards, an important “transfer of best practices” to Cameroon’s business environment.  In return, its employees deliver a consistently strong performance, allowing TAuG to offer clean, comfortable and reliable service – the company’s simple but highly effective competitive advantage.

I commend TAuG not only for coming to Cameroon with an aggressive investment plan, but also for staying, despite many challenges.  From the outset, TAuG's management expressed a moral as well as financial commitment to succeeding in Cameroon, citing primarily the obligation it felt to its local employees.  TAuG has demonstrated the heart, business acumen and persistence needed to succeed. In so doing, TAuG has paved the way for other investments in Cameroon and has provided a positive story of how American companies can succeed in Africa.

Within the next few months, TAuG will add a bus line to bring passengers to the traffic circle down the street from this Embassy.  This street, where American buses will bring Cameroonian passengers, is named Rosa Parks Avenue, in honor of the world’s most famous bus passenger.

For me, this will serve as a wonderful symbol of how American companies like TAuG can inspire and lead the way in Africa, both in terms of business success and in terms of ethical practices.

I know that Cameroonians and, especially, the employees of Transnational Automotive Group, are very proud to receive this award.  Thank you, and let me now welcome TAuG’s Lal Karsanbhai and Bokwe Mofor to the podium.