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Central Africa is active for the culmination of integration projects asdiuhas diuashd huaisd hiuashd iiud ido du iuadaispupsdapd0dudosudoi dh lsah adosdhd odo sadhhsidodhoi o h

19 February 2019

The Congolese government , in partnership with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the African Development Bank (ADB) , on February 19, 2019 chaired the first meeting of the organizing committee of the Round Table of technical and financial partners for the raising of the funds necessary for the realization of three projects, notably the construction of the Ouesso-Bangui-N'djaména road, the road-rail bridge between Brazzaville and Kinshasa with the extension of the Kinshasa-Ilébo railway, as well as navigation on River Congoand its Oubangui and Sangha tributaries.

Chaired by the Minister of Planning, Statistics and Regional Integration, Ingrid Olga Ghislaine Ebouka Babakas, in the presence of her colleague from transport, civil aviation and merchant marine, Fidèle Dimou, this first meeting enabled stakeholders to review the roadmap for the roundtable. Participants also presented the participant's notebook comprising six points, namely the characterization of a geopolitics; concept note; the transport sector: stakes and prospects; the Brazzaville-Kinshasa road-rail bridge construction project and the extension of the Kinshasa-Ilébo railway; the Ouesso -Bangui-N'Djaména road construction project and river and port developments.       

The work of this first meeting resulted in a report recounting the efforts of the four countries concerned (the Republic of Congo, CAR, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the three targeted projects along the lines of the validation of the detailed preliminary draft of the study of corridor 13 (the Ouesso- Bangui-N'Djaména road and navigation on Rivers Congo , Oubangui and Sangha) at the end of the joint technical committee workshop which preceded this meeting which held from February 14 to 18, 2019 in Brazzaville.

In his address, the Deputy Secretary General of the Economic Community of Central African States, Ms. Marie Therese Chantal Mfoula, reiterated the determination of her institution to spare no effort in enabling a positive outcome of integration projects entrusted to it by member States.

Taking the floor, Mr. Augustin Karanga representative of the African Development Bank, leader of donors for the funding of projects of the NEPAD and PIDA infrastructure development program, underlined the satisfaction of this financial institution with results achieved after three years of studies to which it contributed financially. These studies were punctuated by adjustments to technical reviews.

On behalf of his colleague of the ministry of development, territorial equipment and public works, Jean Jacques Bouya, chairman of the organizing committee for the round table of technical and financial partners, the Minister of Planning, Statistics and regional integration, Ingrid Olga Ghislaine Ebouka Babakas, welcomed the major structural and sectoral reforms carried out at the macroeconomic level, significant natural resources and above all the potential of human capital of the Central Africa subregion . She also asserted that the development of infrastructure is essential for growth because it improves competitiveness and facilitates the economic integration of the continent into the global economy. "The implementation of these projects will create new job opportunities, promote cross-border trade and investment in the fields of manufacturing industry, major infrastructure works and services including tourism" added Minister Ebouka Babakas.

The objective of these projects is to improve the living conditions of people living in areas affected by the project by facilitating access to basic socio-economic services and infrastructure, opening up these areas, while taking into account the revitalization of the productive sectors and strengthening of regional integration by increasing inter-state travel and trade, with the aim of opening up to the rest of the world.

The 1310 km long Ouesso- Bangui-N’Djamena road, estimated at 957 billion CFA francs, is divided into three segments as follows:   

  • The 504 km long segment in Congo, for a cost of works of 386 billion CFA francs; 
  • The 693 km long segment in CAR, for a cost of works of 487 billion CFA francs; 
  • The 113 km long segment in Chad, for a cost of 84 billion CFA francs.

This road is part of the Pointe-Noire-Brazzaville-Bangui-N'Djaména corridor. The segment under study is also part of the Trans-African route No. 3 connecting Tripoli in Libya to Cape Town in South Africa.

Navigation on River Congoand its Oubangui and Sangha tributaries, the segment from Brazzaville / Kinshasa to Liranga as well as the development of several new ones were also the subject of the study. This has to do with the development of the ports of Liranga, Bétou in the Congo, Maluku, Gombé in the DRC and Moungoumba in the CAR; upgrading of the main ports of Kinshasa, Brazzaville and Impfondo, and Bangui. 

With a stretch of ten spans with a total length of 1575m, the works of which amount to 413.7 million euros without tax, the road-rail bridge between Brazzaville and Kinshasa integrates road and rail connections, a substation single border control, and a control and surveillance post. Environmental measures and expropriations are also taken into account.

This meeting, which is the first in a series of meetings of the organizing committee aimed at examining the conditions and methods of organization of the round table of technical and financial partners which will take place next June in Brazzaville, also saw the participation of CTM experts and the CIMA studies bureau.

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