Renaissance DSN’S PROJECTS

Anybody who has not been to Brazzaville for a year is in for a jolt. Little Maya-Maya airport has become a bright, modern, Chinese-designed building with wide, functional corridors, the latest delivery of the first module in an ambitious project that will eventually rival Western terminals. Outside, impeccably manicured grounds line the renovated road into the city. The closer you get to the heart of the capital, yesterday compared to a sleepy provincial town, the more you notice deep changes under way. Private building projects hotels, guesthouses, etc., signs of a city buzzing with activity are popping up left and right. A brand new prefecture opened up in the centre a few weeks ago. Some streets have been restored, as though Brazzaville has resolutely turned its back on the painful past and late 1990s’ civil wars. President Denis Sassou N’Guesso, comfortably re-elected in July 2009 to a seven-year term that, according to the constitution, should be his last, is overseeing completion of major construction projects. Congo is building new roads connecting its main towns to one another. The first stretch of the $2-billion (€1.4-billion) Pointe-Noire–Brazzaville motorway, linking the economic capital to Dolisie, will open in December. Work on the second, from Dolisie to Brazzaville, set to open in three years, will start shortly. Kilometres of road have been paved or upgraded throughout the country, fluidifying the movement of goods and local products. Above all, the colossal combat for energy in a country notorious for chronic power shortages is making headway. Brazzaville’s 30mw thermal power plant, Pointe-Noire’s 350mw gas-powered station and the 120mw Imboulou hydroelectric dam north of Brazzaville, which opened on 7 May, have raised hopes, but the rundown grid needs upgrading. government’s long term goal is to meet national demand, estimated at approximately 600 megawatts. By September 2011 power was no longer unexpectedly going out in whole quarters of the capital, bringing a collective sigh of relief from an exasperated population weary of waiting a seeming eternity for a return to normal after power plants were destroyed in the years of civil war; officials said it would take at least a decade to rebuild them. But drinking water is still in short supply for Congo’s four million people. The rehabilitation of a water treatment plant in Brazzaville and the construction of another, which will be able to double the supply capacity, are under way.

The gradual completion of promised infrastructure has met with satisfaction from Poto-Poto cabdrivers and PointeNoire shopkeepers, but they have not yet perceived any immediate improvement in daily life. The high cost of living is what people worry about most. Congo imports most of its food from the huge Democratic Republic of Congo on the other side of the river. The result: soaring prices and cash-strapped families. Curbing prices is the government’s other priority. «Agriculture has always been proclaimed the ‘priority of priorities’ in our country,” the president has said. “Today we are committed to turning that slogan into a reality whose aim is to ensure our food independence.»

The idea is to encourage local production and industrialise the country. Several projects are under way to achieve those goals, foremost among them the creation of agropastoral villages. The first three are being built in the Pool. They will gradually be scattered throughout the country, each accommodating 50 families that will receive two hectares of land for private farming and a specific unit for the development of collective activities.

The overall goal is to create a veritable agro-industry that in the long-term will help meet the population’s needs without resorting to food imports, estimated at $60 million a year. What’s more, the activity will create jobs in the countryside. Employment is the last weak link. Youth joblessness is a national concern. On 12 September young people and around 40 private companies discussed solutions, especially in the areas of training and integration into professional life, during the Youth and Action Forum, which the Délégation générale des grands travaux organised under the aegis of the ministry of employment and vocational and professional training at the Brazzaville Convention Centre. Most technicians working on big projects are foreigners because young Congolese lack training.

After tackling basic infrastructure the government will focus on social projects. President Sassou N’Guesso says the 2012 budget will have two priorities: health and electricity. In 2013 the emphasis will shift to education. Congo’s people expect nothing less. They are entering an era of all-out reconstruction in a country that has already laid the groundwork for «roads to the future», the president’s 2009 campaign slogan, by building the infrastructure required for to continue its economic take-off: the growth rate was already 10.9 % in 2010. The light finally seems to have turned green. So get to work! .

By Emmanuelle PONTIÉ, Special correspondent