Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 3 February 2017- The First meeting of the Specialized Technical Committee on Transport, Transcontinental and Interregional Infrastructures, Energy and Tourism will be held from 13-17 March 2017 in Lomé, the Togolese capital under the theme “Financing Infrastructure in Africa”.

Organized by the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in collaboration with the Togolese government, the first edition of the STC expects to welcome more than 300 participants including Ministers responsible for Transport (i.e. Air, Road, Railway and Maritime Transport), Energy and Tourism sectors, and groups of experts from Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Regional Development Banks, Financial Institutions and the continental specialized organizations, international organizations, academia, business and civil society from across the continent.

The theme of the meeting calls on African Governments and the Private Sector to achieve concrete advances in the financing of major infrastructures, notably those in the Priority Action Plan of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA/PAP) in ways that foster inclusive growth and promote employment in the continent.

H.E. Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ibrahim, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission, said "Preparing for the First Specialized Technical Committee on Transport, Transcontinental and Interregional Infrastructures, Energy and Tourism comes at a time in which African governments look to push road, airport, railway and energy projects to the finish line”.

H.E. Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ibrahim added that the meeting provides the opportunity for African Governments to discuss how to ensure better regulation and clearer policy certainty to ultimately attract infrastructure spending.

A special event of the meeting will be the High Level Panel Discussion on “Enhancing Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure Financing”, which will be held on Thursday 16 March 2017.

Preceded by the Experts’ meeting, which will hold from 13 March to 16 March 2017, the Ministers’ meeting will take place on 17 March 2017.

About the Specialized Technical Committees (STCs)

The Specialized Technical Committees (STCs), which constitute an important technical organ of the AU, were established under Article 25 of the African Economic Community Treaty (the Abuja Treaty). With the transformation of the OAU into the AU, the STCs were carried over by the Constitutive Act of the African Union under Articles 14 to 16.

The STCs are expected to work in close collaboration with the various departments of the AUC so as to provide well-informed inputs in their areas of specialization to the work of the AU Executive Council. They should also, be involved in monitoring development programmes implementation by the AUC and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

Therefore, the early operationalization of the STCs becomes imperative, given the overall objective of accelerating continental integration and the importance attached to the effective implementation of programmes and projects of the Union. To this end, the Assembly of the Union adopted The Decision: Assembly/AU/Dec.227 (XII) reconfiguring the existing STCs and created one on Transport, Intercontinental and Interregional Infrastructures, Energy and Tourism. The STC will meet on a biennial basis.

For further information: Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org I Website: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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