Yaoundé, 26 April 2015 (BDEAC, ECA, ECCAS, CEMAC) – The Central African Development Bank (BDEAC), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Secretariat General of ECCAS and the CEMAC Commission have just launched an initiative to revive the implementation of the Central Africa Consensual Transport Master Plan (PDCT-AC, in French), adopted in January 2004 by ECCAS Heads of State and Government. It is within this framework that experts from the four member institutions of the Operational Monitoring Committee (COS, in French) of the PDCT-AC participated in a meeting hosted by the Central African Sub-Regional Office of the ECA.
For three days, the said experts sought to identify the problems delaying the organisation of a donor roundtable on financing PDCT-AC priority projects and to propose a draft roadmap to revive the activities of the Plan, to the managing bodies of COS.
“We wish to contribute to breathe a new lease of life to PDCT-AC. I congratulate member-institutions of the Operational Monitoring Committee (COS) for their commitment and I thank the President of BDEAC for the initiative of this meeting”, said Mr. Emile AHOLHE, Director of the Central African Sub-Regional Office of the ECA, who also noted that revival of the said Plan will contribute greatly to improve transport conditions in Central Africa, thus driving the integration and development of the sub-region.
The experts invited to the meeting were also very enthusiastic. While Mr. Pierre Hervé ELLA PEKE from BEAC argued that “we wish to contribute to address the backlog with solid proposals”, his colleague, Mr. Jean Robert TSOYE NKONO, contended that “it is a source of pride for Central Africa to have prepared and adopted a consensus programme.”
In the opinion of Mr. Dominique NGASSAKI of the CEMAC Commission: “it is our duty to make concrete and pertinent proposals to kick-start the programme (PDCT-AC)”, while his peer from ECCAS, Mr. Jean-Claude Azonfack, described PDCT-AC as “a programme that should even serve as a reference for other African sub-regions.”
According to Mr. Tidjani CHETIMA of the ECA, the team that met in Yaoundé “is very close-knit and committed to doing its own bit”. He added that Cameroon’s Minister for Public Works who is Chair of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee (CMS, in French) looks forward to the revival of PDCT-AC activities and the outcome of the meeting must be communicated to him as soon as possible.
Note to editors
Adopted by ECCAS Heads of State and Government in January 2004 to speed up regional integration in Central Africa, the Central Africa Consensual Transport Master Plan (PDCT-AC, in French) is the sub-regional reference framework for the development of transport infrastructure and facilitation of transportation in the zone. The Plan comprises three major components: (i) transport infrastructure, (ii) facilitation of transport and transit and (iii) the Geographic Information System (GIS).
It deals essentially with establishing inter-capital liaisons, transit corridors and inter-connection liaisons that permit networking through implementation of about three hundred projects, including a first set of 55 priority projects adopted in June 2007 in Libreville (Gabon) by the second Conference of African Ministers in charge of Transport and Public Works.
So far, 36 of these 55 priority PDCT-AC projects have already been implemented or have secured financing, thanks to the efforts of ECCAS member States to mobilise internal and external resources. It is high time resources were found for the next priority set of projects. Such is the objective of a donor roundtable to be organised on the funding of PDCT-AC priority projects.
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