South African Presidency on infrastructure development in Africa

President Jacob Zuma looks forward to a fruitful discussion of the good progress made in implementing the African infrastructure development programme during the meeting of the 33rd NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC), on Saturday, 13 June 2015.

President Jacob Zuma chairs the Presidential Infrastructure Championing Initiative (PICI) which reports to the HSGOC. The PICI aims to facilitate continuous dialogue and work to boost infrastructure development. South Africa was given the task of coordinating the North-South corridor, focusing on road and rail. The initiative has served to link Heads of State and Government to specific infrastructure corridors to ensure strategic political leadership in the championing of cross-border infrastructure projects. The PICI is primarily tasked with bringing visibility to the infrastructure projects, facilitate the unblocking of bottlenecks and any political impasse, provide leadership in resource mobilisation and subsequently ensure speedy implementation.

“Infrastructure investment spending has quadrupled, exports have increased and Africa is receiving a growing share of foreign direct investment. It is not surprising therefore that infrastructure development took centre stage at the World Economic Forum on Africa meeting in Cape Town on 3-5 June 2015. These positive trends come on the back of improved governance and a much sounder approach to macroeconomic management in our continent. We need to sustain these trends and deepen them,” said President Zuma.

Infrastructure development is taken seriously in South Africa and work in all provinces and municipal metros is coordinated through the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) led by the President. “Infrastructure development is one of our key job drivers together with tourism, manufacturing, mining and beneficiation, the green and blue economies and agriculture. We are refurbishing and building new schools, clinics and hospitals, we are building three universities and 12 training and vocational education colleges, we are constructing and improving rail, roads, ports, broadband, roads, dams and power stations. What we are doing in the country dovetails with the continental infrastructure programme,” said the President.

Regional integration is the key and infrastructure development is a catalyst for economic development on the continent. Many of the regional economic communities (RECs) have developed regional infrastructure plans to facilitate regional trade and investments. However, it is important to also invest in national infrastructure, in addition to regional infrastructure. These are projects that should ultimately unlock the economic potential of the continent and provide development opportunities for communities, cities and regions.

The North-South Corridor championed by South Africa is a multimodal and multidimensional infrastructure corridor that includes road, rail, border posts, bridges, ports, energy and other related infrastructure. The corridor passes through 12 countries – Tanzania, Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

These projects form the nucleus of the implementation of the broader Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

Progress has been made by the championing countries in bringing these projects to a reality.

With regard to the Missing Link of the Trans-Sahara Highway-Algeria, it is expected that the entire construction of this highway will be completed by 2016/17.

The roll out of the works on the Optic Fibre from Algeria via Niger to Nigeria, has already been set.

Plans for the Dakar-Ndjamena-Djibouti Road/Rail-Senegal is also in the pipeline. It is expected that the project implementation phase will start before 2018.

The execution of contracts for the early gas phase on the Nigeria-Algeria Gas Pipeline, known as the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, is in progress.

With respect to the Kinshasa-Brazzaville Bridge Road/Rail, it is envisaged that the construction of this road/rail bridge will be completed by 2025.

His Excellency President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has been providing strategic leadership and advocacy for information and communications technology (ICT) on the African continent and is playing a similar role globally, through the Broadband Commission for Digital Development. This important intervention contributes to the project of Unblocking Political Bottlenecks for ICT Broadband and Fibre Optic Projects in the neighbouring states.

The objective to connect five capital cities was completed in 2013. All five countries are now interconnected and linked to the submarine cables at Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

This will bring this particular PICI project to successful completion within three years as planned. Thus this is a flagship successful project for the PICI.

Significant progress continues to be made with the North-South Road, Rail and related Infrastructure Corridor, managed by South Africa.

A number of hard and soft infrastructure issues and projects are in progress and are being addressed. To date, there are various projects in various stages of the project life cycle, consisting of road, rail, bridge, border posts and energy projects.

To alleviate pressures at Beit Bridge, South Africa and Zimbabwe committed to improving operations at the border post.

This year, the PICI Ministerial Working Group led by Minister Jeff Radebe also recommended the inclusion of the following energy projects: the Strategic North-South Transmission Line; the Sahel Desert Tech Solar Project; and the Central Power Transmission Line.

The Ministerial Committee also recommended that South Africa champions the manufacturing and production of locomotives and wagons as part of a deepened industrialization drive.

“With solid and efficient infrastructure, Africa can without doubt reach the much sought after and almost magical 7% growth rate per annum – a good starting point for Africa. Infrastructure is the way to go towards sustainable development. Africa is on the right track,” said President Zuma.