MONROVIA, June 2 (LINA) – American politician and Congressman James Clyburn was among several U.S. Government officials who met with a Liberian delegation during their recent visit to the United States of America.
Clyburn has been the third-ranking Democrat in the House behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Steny Hoyer since 2007.
He has also served as House Majority Whip since 2019.
The engagement among officials of the two nations, according to a dispatch, covered a range of subjects which were placed into four components.
Congressman Clyburn, according to the dispatch, stressed the need to launch Liberia’s tourism ambition around the 200th anniversary of the landing of free slaves on the shores of Liberia, promising to work with the Government to achieve these aims.
Earlier, the discussion focused on Liberia’s recovery from the macroeconomic shocks of 2018 and from the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic and the Government’s evidentiary commitment to improving governance, fighting corruption, and preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and illicit financial flows;
It also focused on Liberia’s investment opportunities and possibilities, the ambition to anchor Liberia-U.S. relations on American investment and on grounding Liberian tourism on the deep umbilical ties between Liberia and the United States, and the Government’s commitment to reforming the business climate, highlighted by the pending Judicial Conference on the investment climate.
It was also centered on the state of Liberian democracy and the Government’s evidentiary commitment to upholding the tenets of democratic governance through the holding of free and fair elections, the guaranteeing of basic freedoms to assemble, protest or criticize and upholding of the fundamental human rights of all Liberians.
The last component of the discussion, according to the dispatch, focused on a review of the five-year Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the drive for a second Compact through demonstrated governance improvements as gauged through the MCC Eligibility Scorecard and through the Government’s commitment to sustaining the impact investments under the first Compact.
Other members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who formed part of the meeting include: Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chair of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs under the Appropriations Committee; and Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
The Delegation also met with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mrs. Linda Thomas-Greenfield and held wide-ranging discussions with officials at the Departments of State and Treasury, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Development Finance Corporation. at the State Department.
The dispatch stated that the Delegation met with Mr. Michael C. Gonzales, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs and with Madam Lisa Peterson, acting Assistant Secretary and Mr. Scott Busby, acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, both in the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
At the Treasury, the Delegation met with Mr. Eric Meyer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa and the Middle East, while at the MCC, the delegation met with Mr. Mamoud Bah, Acting Chief Executive Officer and other members of senior management.
Led by Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah, the Liberian delegation included the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel F. McGill, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Williametta Saydee-Tarr, the Minister of State without Portfolio, Mr. Trokon Kpui and the Mayor of the City of Monrovia, Jefferson Koijee.
The Delegation was supported by Liberia’s Ambassador accredited to the United States, George S. W. Patten.
