By DOH JAMES SONKEY
The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute has declared that “there will be no real take off or industrialisation of Africa without transport infrastructures.” He made the declaration last November 14, 2019 at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel, as he chaired on behalf of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, the official opening of the two days 12th edition of the African Infrastructure Forum on the theme ‘Transport infrastructures: drivers of regional emergence.’
Welcoming participants at the forum, PM Dion Ngute said the choice of Yaoundé as host is strategic because Cameroon’s political capital plays key role in fostering sub regional and continental integration through the modernisation of transport infrastructure.
He underlined the lack of transport infrastructure like roads, railway lines, air links and sea ports as the major challenges to development confronting the African continent as a whole.
Stressing that the leading role of transport infrastructures in Cameroon’s path to emergence by 2035 cannot be overemphasised, the PM said the forum offers an opportunity for experience-sharing, to see how ICTs can be used to boost transport infrastructures in Africa.
Various speakers at the forum were unanimous that road infrastructure has been identified as one of the biggest bottlenecks of economic development in Africa.
Hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development represented by Minister Delegate, Paul Tasong, the African Infrastructure Forum laid the ground work for ambitious structural adjustment projects in the transport domain that would speed up the move of African countries towards achieving the status of emerging nations; with middle level industrialisation and international commerce taking precedence.
Organisers hinted that “The African Forum on Infrastructure created in 2008 by PROPARCO, an affiliate of the French Development Agency, AFD, is an open arena for debates on the best road, rail, port and air infrastructure which African countries could adopt. They can do this through networking between governments, their private and public sector actors and the entire transport ecosystem for the benefit of overall growth.”