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African Regional News Updates |
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7 April 2009 Britain on Monday committed
£100-million ($147-million) to boost key trade routes
in sub-Saharan Africa, saying a further $1-billionhad
been pledged by partners.
"The UK government today committed £s;100-million to
transform regional infrastructure and increase trade
across Africa," the Department of International
Development (DFID) said in the Zambian capital.
Development partners had agreed to more than
$1-billion to upgrade road, rail and ports and support
trade in the region, DFID said in a statement.
The announcements came at the launch of a north-south
corridor to be financed by public and private
investors, including the World Bank, European
Commission, regional economic communities and
development agencies, DFID said.
"The north-south corridor will improve transport
networks and encourage new investment that will, over
time, increase prosperity and reduce poverty in the
region," British Trade Minister Gareth Thomas said in
Lusaka.
In Brussels, the European Commission announced that it
had also pledged €115-million ($154-million) to the
infrastructure project.
"It's very clear that Africa is being hit by wave
after wave of aftershocks from the financial crisis,"
said EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel.
"This regional response to free-up trade and stimulate
growth and jobs is essential at this time and for the
long-term development of Africa's economy."
Addressing the launch, Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni said that infrastructure development on the
continent had lagged.
"The biggest problems for Africa in the last 500 years
has been lack of social transformation. Africa's
social transformation has been the way it was 500
years ago," Museveni said.
The corridor aims to remove trade bottlenecks in eight
countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and
South Africa. - AFP |
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