Highway Linking Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire Begins Soon - Dr. Kaberuka
May 29, 2015
African Development Bank (AfDB) outgoing President, Dr Donald Kaberuka, has disclosed that the Bank will soon begin the process of constructing a highway linking Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.
According to a dispatch from Abidjan, Kaberuka made the statement at programs marking the bank’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.
He pointed out that beyond Ebola, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have survived years of bloody conflicts and that the processes of state building were ongoing, adding: “Others advised that we halt the processes of state-building and focus just on directing all resources to fighting Ebola.”
However, he resisted that notion as head of the Bank, and “thought fighting the virus and the state-building processes needed to work hand-in-hand and side-by-side.”
He said the fragility of the Mano River Union Basin countries reflect in the works of the Special High-Level Panel on Fragile States which President Sirleaf chairs, indicating that fighting the epidemic cannot be left with the affected countries alone.
The outgoing AfDB president also noted that it would require the global community as a whole, and now that the virus is being contained, the Bank can now return to the original plan of state-building.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development of Sierra Leone, Dr. Kaifala Marah, said his country experienced a loss of over US$1 billion from the Ebola crisis as an impact on the economy and the loss of investments.
He informed the gathering that prior to the Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone was a resilient nation overcoming the effects of a bloody civil war.
“We had 129 megawatts of electricity from just five megawatts during the war years and we were doing well with agriculture and the economy was listed as one of Africa’s fastest growing economies with the promotion of peace and reconciliation in full swing,” Minister Marah pointed out.
Also speaking, the head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Dr. Carlos Lopez said comprehensiveness in tackling the virus came much later based on complicated processes and competition for visibility among actors.
He said the developed nations made so many mistakes in dealing with the outbreak and it was unfair to just criticize the initial response of the affected nations.
Source: By Cholo Brooks- GNN Liberia
