Addressing participants here at an international forum, President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, Thursday urged investors and operators to participate in the financing and the realization of the large infrastrucutre programme in Africa.
Some 1,000 participants, among them the former Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade,
are gathered here for the forum whose theme is “Build Africa”.
According to President Nguesso, “investors, operators and concerned players should partner with Africa of tomorrow”, adding that the delay Africa is experiencing in infrastructural development could be overcome.
Speaking in the same vein, the Congolese minister of Town and Country planning, Jean-Jacques Bouya, said “Investments in sub-Saharan Africa’s infrastructure represent only 3 per cent of our States’ GDP, namely half of the percentages noted in emerging countries.”
“With an average annual growth of 5 per cent, Africa, a young population, has every reason to assume that it can overcome the weaknesses of today over infrastructure,” Bouya pointed out.
PANA reports that the international forum on infrastructure in Africa is an initiative of President Ngesso, who mooted it in March 2013, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa.
The forum is expected to lead to the reduction of the gab between abundance of natural resources and the lack of infrastructure in Africa.
