The African Union (AU) is currently looking for a contractor to take part in building the long-anticipated trans-African railroad and considering state-owned company Russian Railways as a potential candidate, the AU Commission's high representative for infrastructure and trade told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2019) The African Union (AU) is currently looking for a contractor to take part in building the long-anticipated trans-African railroad and considering state-owned company Russian Railways as a potential candidate, the AU Commission's high representative for infrastructure and trade told Sputnik.
"There is a number of areas where Russia can work with Africa. Africa is trying to promote intra-African trade, and one of the main impediments is infrastructure. We are talking about roads and railways ... The biggest railroad is called Trans-African Beltway which goes from the Kenyan port of Lamu, which is now under construction, to Juba in South Sudan. What we now want to do is to extend it from there through Central Africa to Cameroon, then build a land bridge linking Atlantic and Indian Ocean," Raila Odinga said.
The AU envoy added that the union was currently looking for a company to carry out this project and that Russian Railways had been considered as one of the candidates.
"The Afreximbank [African Export-Import Bank] was talking to the Russian Railways and will introduce them to me for this project," he noted.
According to Odinga, the railroad project is now at the stage of planning, with the AU now looking for financing and contractors in order to move on to the construction stage.
