CAIRO – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi called on Thursday for materialising the aspirations of African peoples through the provision of main infrastructure including roads, electricity and different projects.
Sisi underscored the necessity that African countries lay down tangible mechanisms and take steps to achieve development aspirations.
“Are banks in major countries ready to offer loans to Africa to upgrade its infrastructure to carry out development plans? the president wondered in a dialogue session held as part of 29th annual meetings of the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in the New Administrative Capital on Thursday.
The session is themed “Africa is hedging against foreign shocks and domestic challenges.”
Sisi said Group of 20 includes the largest economies in the world, asking about the destiny of other world countries which do not have the same economic potentials of the G20 member states.
The Covid-19 pandemic was the best proof on that as it showed some countries’ incapability of reaching to the status of G20 countries, he added.
“Is the infrastructure in Africa ready for development and moving African countries forward toward the best?,” he asked.
Sisi said Egypt needed about 400 to 500 billion dollars to upgrade its infrastructure over the past years.
Upgrade projects were carried out on only 10 to 12% of Egypt land area, he said.
“What is the cost of having an infrastructure that would enable African countries achieve hoped-for integration?,” Sisi wondered. Sisi said “I am speaking about integration among countries of African continent.”
During a visit to Germany five years ago, Sisi said he underscored the importance of establishing good infrastructure, including power, roads, railways, port and airport projects in order to materialise aspirations of African peoples.
Providing a continental infrastructure is challenge one in Africa, he reiterated in the dialogue session.
Sisi noted that the African continent has the highest population growth rate and the largest number of young people.
Sisi wondered “How can we materialise the dreams of these youth while we are not able to link between countries of the continent via roads, railways or aviation?
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi underlined the importance of securing needed finance to have needed infrastructure for development in Africa.
He stressed that some African countries have great agricultural potentials, even more than Ukraine, noting however that cultivating one million feddans is costly as it needs electricity, railway services and modern agricultural technology.
He noted that any country needs about 30 billion dollars to turn one million feddans into agricultural lands.
He underlined the importance of achieving security and stability as the bases for any change in any African state.
“We are facing a problem of fulfilling the aspirations of people who want to attain their hopes and goals as swift as possible without taking into consideration the State’s ability to achieve their hopes in the appropriate timeframe,” said President Sisi during a dialogue session held as part of 29th annual meetings of the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
President Sisi, meanwhile, underlined the need of looking first into the State’s ability to fulfill the people’s aspirations.
“About 200 countries in the world, of which only 20 have the economic capacity,” the president went on to say, asking how many African countries are among the 20 richest nations.
“And here I am talking about more than 55 African countries,” he went on to say.
President Sisi further said that any country will not be able to achieve progress without attaining stability and security first.
The private sector in any country is in need of security and stability, he added.
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