"A New Day for Africa" Remarks by Alexander B. Cummings Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, The Coca-Cola Company November 12, 2008 The 2008 Africare Bishop John T. Walker Memorial Dinner Washington, D.C. Listen to the audio version of Alex Cumming's remarks. (MP3) (5:11 mins)

Please update your Flash Player to get the full experience of this page.

Mr. CUMMINGS:  Good evening. Thanks, T.J., for that wonderful introduction. Frank Fountain, Julius Coles, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

I am honored to be here with all of you and with past award winners including Ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman Donald Payne, Dorothy Height and Dr. Lewis Sullivan. I'm also pleased that some of my colleagues are here: from Africa William Asiko and from Atlanta Ingrid Saunders Jones, Rick Frazier and Jeff Seabright.

Tonight, we're celebrating here in Washington, D.C., but in a few hours the sun will rise over the African continent, and a new day will begin.

Today a community will get a new water pump, a new school will welcome students, an entrepreneur will start a new business, and hopefully today, many people will enjoy a refreshing Coca-Cola.

Whether we talk about the economy, education, or healthcare, a New Day is dawning across Africa, and I'm honored to help recognize leaders like President Bush and organizations like Africare that are making this new day possible.

For two decades, the people of The Coca-Cola Company have been honored to support Africare's work. I'm talking about the type of partnership reflected in the honor given to President Bush this evening. His leadership has made America a stronger partner, friend and champion of Africa, and we have seen that leadership first-hand through our work with USAID.

Earlier, I spoke of some of the wonderful things that will happen in Africa today, but we also know there will be other moments that are not so full of hope. A young boy will spend hours walking to a river to get water instead of spending those hours learning in a classroom. A child will needlessly suffer from a disease caused by a lack of proper sanitation. These are different moments in different places, but the common thread is the need for fresh, clean water.

We at The Coca-Cola Company have expertise in how to find, treat and transport water. We also have a sense of obligation to help the communities that we serve. We recognize that if the communities we serve are not sustainable, then our business does not have a sustainable future.

Last year, we set an ambitious goal -- to return to communities and to nature the amount of water equivalent to what we use in our beverages and in their production. We call it being "water neutral." We are working to do that by reducing the amount of water it takes to manufacture our beverages... recycling the water we use... and replenishing water in communities and in nature.

In Africa, we have combined those goals with the power of partnership. Today, including our Foundation, we support 24 water and sanitation projects in 16 African countries. Those projects provide clean drinking water to a quarter of a million people.

There's a saying in Liberia, where I'm from that "A little rain each day will fill the rivers to overflowing."

Friends, each day we're making more progress, building stronger partnerships, and creating more hope.

Tonight, I am here to say that all of us at The Coca-Cola Company see an even brighter future for Africa -- not just the dawn of a new day -- but the dawn of a new era for the entire continent.

The world tends to focus on Africa's problem. Tonight, we are celebrating Africa's progress. And together with you, we see a bright new day dawning across a continent that is alive with promise and opportunity. I thank you.

# # #