DAVOS – United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today represented the United States at a World Economic Forum event titled “Opportunities for Public Private Partnerships to Drive Economic Development and Address Social Challenges in Support of Call to Action for Northern Central America.”
In her opening remarks, Ambassador Tai highlighted the ongoing work of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Call to Action for Northern Central America and underscored U.S. commitment to working with the Partnership for Central America in pursuit of fair and equitable growth in the region.
Ambassador Tai’s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:
It’s a pleasure to be here today with all of you to chart the path forward on business and investment opportunities in northern Central America. Thank you to the Partnership for Central America for convening this session on such an important and timely topic.
As you all know, Vice President Harris launched the Call to Action for Northern Central America May 2021. And the PCA is the U.S. government’s main private sector implementing partner in this important initiative.
One of the key components of the U.S. Strategy to Address the Root Causes of Migration is supporting economic opportunity.
To attract meaningful investment, the U.S. government is committed to implementing the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement, combatting corruption, promoting the rule of law, protecting labor rights, reducing violence, and empowering women and small businesses in the region.
And we are committed to supporting our private sector partners’ operations as well – from advocating for investment climate reforms to promoting workforce development.
At the Summit of the Americas last June, the Vice President announced that the Call to Action has already galvanized commitments to more than $3.2 billion in private sector investments for the people of northern Central America.
We’re beginning to see results from these investments – including job creation, financial and digital inclusion, and education and training opportunities. These outcomes are improving the prospects of potential migrants in the region.
Our partnership between the public and private sectors – and particularly with PCA – is critical to all of this work.
By working together, we can unleash growth and opportunity that far exceeds what either the public or the private sector would achieve on its own.
As the Vice President said at the Summit of the Americas, the idea of a public-private partnership is not new, but what distinguishes the Call to Action is the integration of so many efforts in one ecosystem.
This includes some companies that are even competitors with one another, as well as civil society organizations and the convening power of the U.S. government and our ability to scale.
The Call to Action brings all of these sectors together to collaborate, coordinate, and share lessons learned.
I’m pleased to tell you that under the Vice President’s direction, U.S. government stakeholders have been working with PCA leadership to elevate our collaboration to new levels under the next phase of the Call to Action, including through innovative mechanisms to facilitate private sector investment.
But we cannot go at it alone. This is truly a partnership, so we invite new partners to join us in our mission to drive economic progress together, to craft a more fair and equitable tomorrow.
We look forward to working with all of you in this endeavor. Thank you.
