The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is to give Angola $1 million (€940,000) to create a unit to replicate the model followed in the Lobito Corridor, Angola’s government said in a statement distributed in Luanda, at the end of President Joe Biden’s visit to the country.
“The Angolan Ministry of Transport and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today in Luanda that aims to strengthen capacities in the transport and infrastructure sector, through a strategic partnership that includes a donation of 1 million dollars from USAID,” reads the statement.
Announced following the US president’s visit to Angola this week, the donation aims to “replicate the successful model of the Lobito Corridor in new strategic projects, reinforcing Angola’s role in regional and global development,” namely through the “creation of a Project Management, Concessions and Public-Private Partnerships Unit (UGPCP), which will be responsible for identifying, preparing, monitoring and managing critical infrastructure projects,” the statement explains.
It adds that the US agency will provide technical and financial assistance to build the capacity of this unit, while the Ministry of Transport will guarantee the logistical and human resources needed to implement it.
“Among the priority projects are the Southern Corridor, or Namibe Corridor, and the Caio Deep Water Terminal in Cabinda, whose international tenders will be launched soon, after the preparatory work has been completed,” it states.
With an initial duration of 24 months, the memorandum provides for the training of 11 specialists to join the UGPCP, the launch of new concession projects and the implementation of innovative solutions that position Angola as a benchmark in infrastructure and public-private partnerships on the continent, following the interest that the Lobito Corridor has attracted among international investors.
The agreement was signed by the minister of transport, Ricardo Viegas d’Abreu, and the US undersecretary of state for African Affairs, Mary Catherine Molly Phee.
The Lobito Corridor, an infrastructure project that links Angola with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, is the first strategic economic corridor launched under the aegis of the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), in May 2023, and was followed by the signing of a joint declaration between the European Union and the US on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in September 2023 in New Delhi, to support the corridor’s development.
In October last year, during the Global Gateway Forum, the EU and the US signed – together with Angola, DR Congo, Zambia, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Finance Corporation (AFC) – a memo of understanding to define the corridor’s development.
The AFC is the main promoter of the project, and it is expected that the railway line to be modernised, in the part that already exists, and completed, will create economic benefits of approximately $3 billion (€2.7 billion) for the countries, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 300,000 tonnes per year, and create more than 1,250 jobs during its construction and operations.
Lusa