The President's remarks, which were aired Wednesday, stem from his recent meetings with British Prime Minster Tony Blair, who has made African development a priority for the upcoming G-8 Summit hosted by Blair. In his message, President Bush cited his administration's efforts to expand trade between the United States and Africa to encourage economic development. "Africa is a continent of promise and the United States wants to help the people of Africa realize the brighter future they deserve," he said.
The broadcast was aired by all of VOA's African language radio services-Amharic, Afan Oromo, Tigrigna (to the Horn of Africa), Kirundi/Kinyarwanda (to Central Africa), English, French, Hausa, Portuguese, Swahili, Shona and Ndebele (to Zimbabwe)-as well as by Straight Talk Africa, VOA's most popular television call-in show to Africa.
The president's message was also aired by other VOA language services and is available on VOA's web page at www.voanews.com/english/2005-06-08-voa66.cfm.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 100 million people. Programs are produced in 44 languages, including English.
For more information, call the Office of Public Affairs at (202) 401-7000, or E-Mail publicaffairs@voa.gov.
