AAI Trustee Maurice Tempelsman, Chairman of Lazare Kaplan International Inc.—in cooperation with AAI, the Corporate Council on Africa, and the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU)—hosted a well-attended reception and luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in New York City for the H.E. Festus G. Mogae, President of Botswana. Over 50 representatives from the Botswana delegation, corporations and non-governmental organizations were in attendance.

In his keynote address, President Mogae highlighted Botswana’s many successes as a democratic nation over the past 40 years: high rates of economic growth, prudent economic management, political stability and vibrancy and efficient welfare and education system. President Mogae promoted Botswana’s most significant economic resource, its gems, as essential for continued development, in which these “development diamonds” have been and will continue to be used for the good of the nation to fight poverty, disease and ignorance.