
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 3, 1993                   TAG: 9312030174
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

VIRGINIA TO TRADE IN AFRICA

Virginia will develop business opportunities in Africa through two new trade offices to open next year at a cost of $250,000, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's office announced Thursday.

The offices, which will open by February in Dakar, Senegal, and Gaborone, Botswana, are the fulfillment of a promise Wilder made during a trade mission to the continent last year.

"There is an entrepreneurial spirit in Dakar that one can see and feel - the capital city is overflowing with foreign businesspeople in search of business opportunities in West Africa," the governor said. "And in Botswana, Virginia finds the most stable, longest-running democratic country in Africa."

But economic incentives offered by the governments of Botswana and Senegal also factored into Wilder's decision.

In a letter Monday to Ruby G. Martin, Wilder's secretary of administration, Botswana promised to absorb the hotel accommodations and internal flight costs of any Virginia business people who want to explore business opportunities there.

by CNB