Scheduled for November 16 and 17 in Paris, France, the event aims to mobilize European investors around integrative and development projects in Central Africa. But the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe risks complicating the travel of participants, especially donors.
Ten days before the opening of the round table for infrastructure financing in Central Africa, the organizers face uncertainty linked to the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictive measures adopted in Europe. The Steering Committee of the Economic and Financial Reforms Program of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (PREF-CEMAC) did not comment on a possible postponement of the meeting, much less on its face-to-face or videoconference format.
This event is important for member countries of the zone looking for foreign investors. From twelve projects initially at an estimated cost of FCFA 2,820 billion, the PREF-CEMAC Steering Committee reduced these projects to eleven last July, after having notably twinned the Mbaikoro-Benja-Bekoninga road project, at the border Chad-Central African Republic, with that of the Brazzaville-Ouesso-Bangui-N’Djamena corridor to link the Congo, the Central African Republic and Chad.
Estimated at $ 1.7 billion, or approximately CFAF 955.4 billion, the Ouesso-Bangui-N’Djamena asphalt road is a link in the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville-Bangui-N’Djamena trans-African corridor, which is part of the network of the first priority program of the consensual transport master plan in Central Africa. It will include more than 1310km of corridor, 25.17 km of penetrating and 49.07 km of roads, thanks to the asphalting of the sections of earth road Ouesso-Bétou (Congo), Bétou-Mbaiki, and Bossembélé-Mbaikoro (RCA-Tchad ), as well as the rehabilitation of the sections of paved roads Mbaiki-Bangui and Bangui-Bossembélé (RCA).
The leaders ultimately want to increase inter-state economic exchanges, direct access to the ports of Pointe-Noire where goods from and to the Central African Republic and Chad can transit, and the development of natural resources and wealth. mining in the Central African region, the opening up of certain inaccessible areas and the reduction of poverty.
Besides this project, there is also the construction of the Kribi-Campo-Bata bridge connecting Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea; the dry port of Beloko on the Douala-Bangui corridor; the dry port of Dolisie on the Gabon-Congo corridor; a Cameroon – Chad power grid interconnection line; of the Chollet hydroelectric dam between Cameroon, Congo, CAR and Gabon.
“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.
