The round table for the financing of infrastructures in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) will be held in Paris, on November 16 and 17. Due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in Europe, the event will take place in a hybrid format, face-to-face and virtual.
The device chosen will make it possible to reproduce the physical experience and to hold a full event during a pandemic. Thanks to this solution, participants who will not be able to take part in face-to-face work, given the current limitation in the number of places during conferences due to the resurgence of the covid-19 pandemic, will do so by videoconference.
Placed under the high patronage of Denis Sassou N’Guesso, President of the Republic of Congo and President in charge of Cémac’s Economic and Financial Reform Program, the event will bring together a high-level delegation of finance ministers from member countries of space, with some heads of international organizations such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Economic Commission for Africa, UNESCO, the European Union, the main donors and private investors.
“The completion of the eleven hand-picked integrating projects, the Paris round table should make it possible, on the one hand, to contribute to the development of physical infrastructure in support of the development and competition of the economies of the sub-region, and on the other part of promoting the development of human capital ”, assured Michel-Cyr Djiena Wembou, permanent secretary of the PREF-CEMAC Economic and Financial Reform Program.
The construction of the Chollet dam, on the border between Cameroon and Congo, is one of the emblematic projects for which Cémac is looking for investors. This has been launched since 2010, through the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the heads of state of Congo and Cameroon. Two high-voltage energy evacuation lines are planned: one of 700 km will be built in Cameroon and the other of 1500 km in Congo. Estimated at more than 1,198 billion CFA francs, the project also plans to supply the other brother countries of Central Africa, namely the Central African Republic, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Besides this project, there is also the construction of a Kribi-Campo-Bata bridge linking Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea; the dry port of Beloko on the Douala-Bangui corridor; the dry port of Dolisie on the Congo-Gabon corridor; of a Cameroon – Chad power grid interconnection line.
“The objective of the round table is to mobilize, if not all, a good part of the funds intended for the realization of development projects”, indicated the Steering Committee made up of experts from the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Bank of Central African States, the Development Bank of Central African States, the Cémac Commission and PREF-CEMAC.
