ECA’s Soteri urges African countries to sign the Luxembourg Protocol

Railways are the key to open and free trade across Africa and their development is critical to the continent’s sustainable development agenda, Soteri Gatera, Chief of Industrialization and Infrastructure at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). In a presentation at PIDA Week 2018 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Mr. Soteri said Africa badly needs an integrated railway network, especially as its roads cannot contain the growing strain from trucks transporting goods across the continent. The Luxembourg Protocol, which was adopted in 2007 but is still not in force, creates a new global legal regime for securing creditors, facilitating more and cheaper asset based financing of railway equipment without state support. The protocol is expected to be in force in contracting states by late 2019. Experts say the protocol will also encourage foreign inward investment and support nondiscriminatory infrastructure use at a time when new rail projects and technology will require unprecedented investment in railway equipment in Africa. Delegates also discussed the Single Africa Air Transport Market (SAATM), which Nepad Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said has the potential for remarkable transformation that will build prosperity while connecting the African continent.