SADC Announces African Infrastructure Master Plan, PPP Contracts Worth $100bn up for Grabs

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, February 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With Africa being touted as the 'new frontier' for infrastructure development, The Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat has started developing an 'infrastructure development master plan', reports Engineering News. In addition to the massive infrastructure projects already being implemented across the region, SADC's development plan will deal with an estimated $100 billion deficit in the region's roads, railways, ports and inland waterways, power, communication and water infrastructure.

Prompted by a recent World Bank-initiated study that estimated Africa's yearly infrastructure deficit at $91-billion, while the yearly "infrastructure gap" stood at $31-billion, the region's Finance and Economic Planning Ministers also agreed to proceed with a workshop in March to strategise the development of a new SADC fund to support the direct financing of infrastructure projects in the territory.

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are now widely recognised as a vehicle to assist governments close material, financial, managerial and technical gaps, while supporting further regional infrastructure integration. SADC's Deputy Executive Secretary for regional integration Joao Caholo recognizes this by stating that the plan - the finalisation of which was accelerated following the inaugural meeting of SADC's infrastructure Ministers in Zimbabwe last year - would seek to leverage private sector funding and partnerships to alleviate public financing constraints. The new 'Finance and Investment' partnership model in line with SADC's protocol calls for greater economic policy convergence and regulatory harmonisation to remove restrictions to greater economic integration.

The same ministers from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in Uganda, the Ministry of Finance in Kenya, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in Ghana as well as from the PPP Unit at Department of National Treasury in South Africa will attend PPP Investment Summit in June to discuss and debate successful strategies and models for structuring and financing PPPs across Africa.

The Johannesburg based summit facilitates discussions on leveraging PPP opportunities and highlights the vision for infrastructure growth as one of the most important drivers to ensure service delivery goals are achieved. The programme can be found on http://www.pppinvestmentsafrica.com and includes PPP thought leaders from NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, African Development Bank, Development Bank of Southern Africa sharing their insights into priority projects in Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana, while key financiers and advisors will provide first-hand feedback of what investors are saying about infrastructure partnerships.

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For information about PPP Investment Summit taking place 27 - 30 June 2011 in Johannesburg, Sandton, South Africa please visit http://www.pppinvestmentsafrica.com or alternatively please contact: Katia Andrejev, Marketing Manager, IQPC at katia.andrejev@iqpc.com or call +971-4446-2748