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This handout photo made available by Dubai Media
Office shows the UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, center, and Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimi, Minister
of State, on his left, as they receive the Presidents and the presidential
delegations from the eight UEMOA nations: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Côte d'Ivoire,
Guinea- Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo at the West African Investment
Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Dubai
Media Office)
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Eight
West African nations agreed Tuesday to US$19 billion worth of infrastructure
deals, with the lion's share going toward a massive road and railway project by
a company in the United Arab Emirates, AP reports.
Abu
Dhabi's Trojan General Contracting won the US$16 billion project to build roads
and railways across Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. The company is owned by
Royal Group, which is owned by Emirati businessman and Abu Dhabi royal family
member Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
UAE
companies have been aggressively expanding and investing overseas. The country
sees itself as a gateway connecting Africa and the Middle East with Asia, and
Asia with Europe. Backed by its oil wealth, the UAE has itself rapidly evolved
in just a few decades from a nation of poor fishing villages into the one of
the region's leading investment hubs with modern infrastructure, skyscrapers
and mega highways in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
"Dubai
is today the center of business. ... The UAE is a real reference of growth and
progress," said Benin's President Thomas Yani Boyi at the signing ceremony
held in Dubai. "We have a lot of natural resources and wealth in our
countries."
He
described the projects announced at the investment conference as the beginning
of "a Marshall Plan" for West Africa.
The investment forum brought to
Dubai the eight heads of state of the West African Economic and Monetary Union,
which groups together Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire
,
Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Guinea-Bissau. The bloc represents a combined
population of around 100 million people.
A
total of 16 agreements were signed at the investment forum. Other projects
cover a range of sectors such as energy and food security.
Benin,
Guinea Bissau and Niger agreed to a nearly US$2 billion project that includes
roads, a bridge, airport and a thermal power plant by Essar Projects, the UAE
subsidiary of India's Essar Group.
The
Oman-based Hasan Juma Backer Trading and Contracting secured a US$700 million
dry-port development project in Cote d’Ivoire.
Ahmad
Abdulkarim Julfar, the CEO of the telecom company Etisalat, which operates in
West Africa with a 53 percent share in Maroc Telecom, told The Associated Press
that despite the high risks associated with investing in an often politically
unstable region, there is also a huge potential for growth and expansion there.
Etisalat is 60 percent owned by the UAE and operates in a number of African
countries.
"We have started to
see signs of improvement in governance in some of these countries," he
said. "Etisalat has been a successful ambassador for the UAE. ... We have
a long-term view in these countries."
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