VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNK #0774/01 3351830
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011830Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 8935

UNCLAS NOUAKCHOTT 000774 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID CN ECON MR MV PREL PU SO SOCI XF XI
ZP, ZR 
SUBJECT: MAURITANIA'S RESPONSE TO THE PRESIDENTIAL 
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT REQUEST 
 
REF: STATE 112468 
 
¶1. (SBU) In response to Reftel A, Post will establish an 
interagency working group chaired by DCM Dennis Hankins and 
coordinated by Economic Officer Stephen Kochuba to promote 
the vision of President Obama's proposed Entrepreneurship 
Summit. Other members of the working group will include 
representatives from Post's political and public affairs 
sections, as well as inter-agency members representing the 
Peace Corps, the U.S. African Development Foundation and a 
USAID representative when USAID returns to Post. 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) Post will use the Presidential Entrepreneurship 
Summit as a public diplomacy tool to highlight Post's 
re-engagement with the newly elected Mauritanian government 
and to promote America's commitment to business development 
in Mauritania.  Following the 2008 coup d'etat, Mauritania 
lost its status as a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) 
threshold country and AGOA beneficiary. As a result, the 
announcement of the participation of Mauritanian citizens in 
this summit will assist Post's ongoing public diplomacy 
efforts to demonstrate America's continued support for 
development of the Mauritanian economic and commercial 
domains, despite Mauritanian's removal from the MCC and AGOA 
programs. As an initial event, Post plans to invite our 
nominated business leaders for an informal coffee hour hosted 
by the Ambassador to openly discuss challenges and 
opportunities that exist for Mauritania's business community. 
This type of event will send a strong signal to influential 
business leaders that the Embassy is committed to working 
with the Mauritanian business community. A small and 
personalized event will resonate with Mauritanians and 
encourage them to share additional ideas and suggestions for 
future events and activities to support the goals of the 
Entrepreneurship Summit. Post will also consider using 
appropriate and available spaces on the International Visitor 
Leadership Program (IVLP) for creative individuals in the 
business realm who have not previously visited the USA. 
Returning individuals on the IVLP program and participants in 
the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit will be welcomed 
back in an official capacity by the Embassy to recognize 
their participation, and these events will include media 
coverage to highlight the objectives of the programs. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Post canvassed representatives from multiple 
Embassy sections to develop a list of appropriate nominees 
for the proposed summit. The individuals were carefully 
selected to represent a diverse, but balanced range of 
political views, ethnicities, industries and strata of 
Mauritanian society. To be sure that a variety of economic 
backgrounds were represented, a number of nominees may need 
financial support to attend any events held in the USA. 
 
¶1. Abdel Qadous Abeidna: Mr. Abeidna is a 40 year old 
businessman and intellectual from a prominent Mauritanian 
tribe.  He attended Columbia University in the USA and is 
fluent in French, Arabic and English. He is one of the 
rotating presidents of the political group Front National 
pour la Defense de la Democratie (FNDD) and was a prominent 
voice of opposition to the military coup d'etat of 2008. Mr. 
Abeidna serves on the board of directors of some of 
Mauritania's largest private companies and his family owns a 
number of prominent businesses.  He is active in the 
humanitarian field with his personal NGO, Medecins du Desert, 
which provides free medical care to impoverished residents in 
rural Mauritania. 
 
¶2.  Lemat Mint Sid Ahmed Megueya: Ms. Megueya is a leading 
Mauritanian businesswoman and President of her own company, 
L'etablissement Lemat Mint Megueya. She is also the president 
of the Mauritanian Union of Female Entrepreneurs, which works 
to promote the role of women in the business sector. After 
making a proposal to the President of Mauritania, Ms. Megueya 
lead the development and construction of a prominent market 
for goods produced by Mauritanian women. 
 
¶3.  Moulaye Sidi Mohamed Ould Abbas: Mr. Abass is the 
President and General Manager of one of the largest private 
banks in Mauritania, BMCI. He is in his mid-thirties and took 
control of BMCI bank after the death of his father, a 
self-made business man and founder of BMCI. Mr. Abbas speaks 
fluent Arabic, English and French and studied in both France 
and the USA. Concerned by the lack of opportunities for young 
Mauritanians, he is launching the Mohamed Abbas Foundation 
(named after his late father), which will be a charitable 
organization designed to support young and creative 
Mauritanian businessmen and women. 
 
¶4.  Diagana Mohamed Hadiya: Mr. Hadiya is in his late 20s and 
fluent in French, Arabic and English. He is a prominent, 
 
young Afro-Mauritanian business leader. He has a degree in 
industrial electronics from Dakar, Senegal, and a Diploma in 
Cost Accounting from the Chamber of International Commerce of 
Geneva, Switzerland. He is the manager and a large 
shareholder of AFRICASIA Sarl, a company established to 
import and export motorcycles and electronic and industrial 
parts from Asia. He is a member of the Association of Young 
Mauritanian Entrepreneurs. 
 
¶5.  Amadou Birane Baro. A prominent Afro-Mauritanian 
intellectual and business leader. Mr. El Bechir speaks Pular, 
English and French. Mr. El Bechir studied a variety of 
Business Administration subjects in Lille, France and studied 
and taught in Columbus, OH. He was an assessment and 
evaluation coordinator in the Columbus Public Schools in 
¶2003. He returned to Mauritania to work as the director of 
quality hygiene security and development with the prominent 
Mauritanian transport logistics company SOGECO.  He also is 
the director of an after school program for Mauritanian youth. 
 
¶6.  Kane Mamadou Elimane: Mr. Elimane is a prominent 
Afro-Mauritanian intellectual and entrepreneur in his late 
20's. He speaks fluent French and Pular, and intermediate 
Arabic. He has a Master's degree in Private Business Law from 
the University of Nouakchott. He is the co-founder of AKB 
Services, a private company specialized in maintenance and 
cleaning of buildings and offices. He has been particularly 
active in public health campaigns, working with UNICEF to 
supervise a nutritional survey for rural areas of Mauritania. 
 
 
¶7.  Leila Bouamatou: The daughter of one of Mauritania's 
wealthiest and politically connected businessmen, Ms. 
Bouamatou is both an intellectual and a businesswoman. She 
studied at the American School of Geneva in Switzerland, as 
well as in France and Spain, where she obtained a Master's of 
Business Administration with a focus in financial accounting. 
 She speaks fluent Arabic, French, English and Spanish. Only 
in her mid-twenties, Ms. Bouamatou is the head of the 
treasury department at the Generale de Banque de Mauritanie 
(GBM), one of the largest commercial banks in Mauritania. She 
is extremely well-connected and is passionate about 
educational opportunities for young women in Mauritania. 
 
¶8.  Marieme Mint Mohamed Saleh: A former employee of the BMCI 
bank, Ms. Mohamed Saleh left to establish her own 
import/export company in Mauritania. Beginning in January 
2009, she will also take over as the head of the newly 
established BMCI-financed Mohamed Abbas Foundation, which 
will aim to educate young Mauritanians in business practices 
and then finance their small business start-ups with small 
business loans from BMCI. The goal of this organization is to 
find young and creative Mauritanians interested in developing 
businesses in the technology and creative fields, which are 
currently under-represented in Mauritania. 
 
¶9.  Mohamed El Hassen Boukhreiss: Mr. Boukhreiss is a U.S. 
college graduate and currently works as the director of 
Finance at the Ministry of Economics and Development. The 
Ministry of Economics and Development is a powerful ministry 
in Mauritania, and Mr. Boukhreis works closely with the 
Minister himself. His inclusion in the program is important 
as he is an effective public servant, and he will serve as a 
representative of the Mauritanian government. He is fluent in 
Arabic, French and English and has demonstrated a willingness 
to work closely with Americans and the U.S. Embassy in his 
work at the Ministry. 
 
¶10.  Sokhna Ly Ba: Ms. Ba holds a Master's degree in 
Socio-Economics from the University of Paris in Nanterre, 
France.  She currently works in the equivalent of 
Mauritania's Social Security Agency. She is an accomplished 
Afro-Mauritanian woman who designed Mauritania's first 
micro-finance lending programs in close cooperation with the 
U.S. Peace Corps program in the mid 1990's. In 1997 Ms. Ba 
was recognized for her work to promote women's rights in 
Mauritania by the United Nations Population Fund. She has 
also been granted a rare letter of commendation by the 
Mauritanian Inspector General. Ms. Ba's previous and 
continued work in the Mauritanian microfinance realm places 
her in a particularly valuable role to influence the 
reduction of rural poverty through business development. 
 
 
 
BOULWARE