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Washington Ledge

Dispatches from public radio's correspondent at the Washington Legislature. Austin Jenkins is the Olympia correspondent for the Northwest News Network. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) weekly public affairs program "Inside Olympia."

Ebola Makes West Africa A No-Go Zone For Washington Investment Officers

NWNews | By Austin Jenkins

Published October 16, 2014 at 4:02 PM PDT

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa means Washington state investment officers won’t be traveling to that region anytime soon.

Theresa Whitmarsh, executive director of the Washington State Investment Board, said her staff hasn’t been to West Africa in quite some time. And at this point she won’t authorize travel there because of Ebola.

“We don’t intend to send staff to West Africa until we have a better feel for the kind of controls they have on the ground there,” Whitmarsh said.

Whitmarsh adds that Africa, in general, holds potential as an emerging investment market. Currently less than 1 percent of the state of Washington’s investments are in Africa.