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AfDB: 15 billion CFA Francs for road connections to the road-rail bridge between Brazzaville and Kinshasa

06 May 2019

The 3rd meeting of the organizing committee of the round table of technical and financial partners for the construction of road-rail bridge between Brazzaville and Kinshasa with the extension of the Kinshasa- Ilebo railway and the development and tarring of the Ouesso-Bangui- N'djaména road and navigation on the Congo River and its Oubangui and Sangha tributaries was held on May 6, 2019 in Brazzaville, under the direction of the Minister of Development, Territorial Equipment and Public Works, Jean Jacques BOUYA, chairperson of the organizing committee of the round table .

Bringing together the officials of the African Development Bank, the Economic Community of Central African States, ministers and experts from the four (4) countries concerned by these integrative projects, this third meeting set as objectives the fine tuning of preparations for the round table; examining the different presentations of the round table ; the report on the preparations for this event to the Congolese Head of State Denis Sassou Nguesso designated champion by his peers for the road-rail bridge project. 

The following points were agreed upon at the end of the meeting: 

  • the ADB Representative confirmed the commitment of his institution to finance the organization of the round table up to the balance available on the CD13 studies. He also announced the availability of an allocation of UA 20 million (unit of account) from the regional public goods cash desk for funding road connections to the road-rail bridge; 
  • ECCAS is invited to speed up the recruitment process for the company specializing in event planning; 
  • States should consider the possibility of refunding the awareness-raising missions of technical and financial partners according to the terms to be agreed with ECCAS. The related costs will be reimbursed from the budget of the round table; 
  • the sensitization of technical and financial partners by the ministers on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the AfDB planned in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, from June 10 to 14, 2019 and the Arab investors forum planned in N’Djamena, on June 26, 2019. ECCAS must contact the partners identified for this purpose; 
  • an insignificant shift in the date of the organization of the round table initially scheduled for June 20 to an ideal date of July 3, 2019.

In her speech, the Deputy Secretary General of ECCAS, Marie Thérèse Chantal MFOULA took the opportunity to thank the African Development Bank Group for its support in organizing the round table before summarizing the state of advancement of its preparations which, despite the difficulties encountered, are proceeding in accordance with the roadmap. The Deputy Secretary General of ECCAS said that the construction projects of the road-rail bridge between Brazzaville and Kinshasa with the extension of the Kinshasa- Ilébo railway as well as the development and tarring of the Ouesso-Bangui- N'Djamena road and navigation on the Congo River and its Oubangui and Sangha tributaries have already reached maturity to be presented at the round table. 

Recalling his role as head of the donors of the infrastructure for development in Africa program (PIDA), the representative of the AfDB, Joseph KOUASSI NGUESSAN, head of the infrastructure, energy and financial sector division for Central Africa, welcomed the expected results and reiterated the availability of his institution to support the States involved in the organization of the round table with a view to implementing of these structuring and integrative projects.

“This meeting comes after the Abidjan meeting, which had revealed the progress of corridor 13 study whose detailed design is now available on the one hand, and the finalization since January 2017, of detailed studies of the road-rail bridge between the cities of Brazzaville and Kinshasa on the other hand. I urge participants to continue this momentum, in order to successfully mobilize the enormous resources required” he said.

Closing the third meeting of the organizing committee of the round table of technical and financial partners, Minister Jean Jacques BOUYA, president of the organizing committee of this round table, welcoming the outcome of this meeting, appreciated the initiative of the African Development Bank of the grant for the funding of road connections to the road-rail bridge and requested, once again, its contribution, not only in the success of the round table, but also, in the implementation of these regional projects whose importance cannot be overemphasized.

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