Marketing platform for PIDA Week to boost projects

Swakopmund. © Vadim Nefedov via 123RF

The theme of PIDA Week is: Regional infrastructure development for job creation and economic transformation. The third edition of PIDA Week is being organised by the African Union Commission (AUC), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with the Namibian Government and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Adeyinka Adeyemi, senior advisor and head of the regional integration and infrastructure cluster in the ECA’s Capacity Development Division (CDD), says the main objective of the PIDA Week is to provide a marketing platform for selected PIDA projects to accelerate their implementation.

“For my team in particular, we will focus on the proposed model law on transboundary infrastructure development in Africa, which we believe if adopted by the continent will without a doubt facilitate private sector investment and financing in transboundary infrastructure enterprises in Africa,” he said.

The proposed Programme for Infrastructure Development (PIDA) Model Law for Transboundary Infrastructure Projects in Africa will harmonise cross-border regulation of transboundary infrastructure projects and promote intra-African trade and open domestic markets to international trade.

Over a five-day period, participants at PIDA Week will discuss how to double and synergise their efforts to accelerate projects preparation and implementation; mobilise adequate financial and technical resources for projects; increase private sector participation in PIDA implementation; and mobilise member states to integrate the PIDA projects into their national development plans.

The 2017 PIDA Week will showcase six major PIDA “Corridor” projects as facilitators of job creation and economic transformation at the continental, regional, national and local levels. The corridor projects to be considered include:

• Central Corridor (Dar es Salaam to Chalinze Toll Road) - EAC
• Kinshasa-Brazzaville Road and Railway Bridge - ECCAS
• Ethiopia-Sudan Power Interconnector- EAC
• Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya Power Interconnection – SADC
• Batoka Hydropower Plant– SADC
• Abidjan-Lagos Corridor – ECOWAS

The PIDA Week program will also include a media breakfast and a site visit at Walvis Bay Port Extension and Railway Project. It aims to build on the achievements of the 2015 and 2016 meetings in Abidjan and the momentum created in the previous two events to continue to engage stakeholders on the effective delivery of infrastructure on the continent.