Speaking at the handover ceremony of the Chairperson of the AU Commission in Ethiopia, he called for a strategy to mobilize international partners interested in mutually beneficial investments in Africa.
“The African Union Commission, in coordination with the economic communities and regional mechanisms, should work on the organization of a major continental conference on infrastructure in Africa during the current year,” Lourenço suggested.
He added that this space should contribute to convey to cooperation partners, at bilateral and multilateral levels, the importance and advantages of investing in financing and infrastructure for continental interconnection, as a way to participate directly in the growth and development of the continent. It is also a way of “doing justice to Africans and people of African descent, one among many other avenues of redress,” he said.
He stressed that infrastructure is a pillar of Agenda 2063, which calls for mobilizing the largest possible volume of financial resources to achieve the objectives in this area, as well as in technological innovation, food security and energy transition.
He considered it a priority to invest in the construction and improvement of roads and highways, in the modernization of railways, ports and airports, as well as in the creation of electricity transmission and distribution lines to bring energy from areas with surpluses to those lacking them.
He also called to work together in the construction of a new international financial architecture, so that the “continent is no longer seen as a secondary and marginal player, but as an active and determining part of the global economy.”
The AU Chair also stressed the need to think of a more agile operating model for the organization, less bureaucratic, with more possibilities of leading to good resolutions and conclusions, with an agenda that can be addressed in a reasonable time.
He thanked the outgoing Chairperson of the African Union Commission, whose actions and performance made it possible to strengthen the organization, and especially Moussa Faki Mahamat and Monique Nsanzabaganwa, former Chairperson and former Vice-Chairperson, respectively.
ef/abo/mem/kmg