BUJUMBURA, June 7th (ABP) – The Burundi Development Agency (ADB) organized a reflection workshop on infrastructure on Thursday, June 6, to identify priority sectoral reforms.
According to the Director of Registration and Investor Services at ADB, Mrs. Alice Irakoze, the policies related to private investments have been put in place by the Government of Burundi, which wishes to see the growing role of private investments in its development strategy as well as in the vision of Burundi as an emerging country in 2040 and a developed one in 2060.
Mrs. Irakoze indicated that the success of the implementation of the vision requires its appropriation by all in order to strengthen the participation and commitment of all socio-economic strata, including the private sector. Similarly, she continued, for more than ten years, the government has embarked on the path of legal and institutional reforms in the framework of facilitating investors and improving the business climate.
To guarantee the implementation of the code, she said that ADB’s main mission is to promote and facilitate local and foreign investments, as well as exports. That institution is therefore called upon to improve the business climate in order to attract more investors to Burundi, specified Mrs. Irakoze.
As a result, improving the business climate remains one of the top priorities of the Burundian government, as it has committed itself to sanitizing the investment climate through the initiation of certain reforms.
The network for the transportation of goods and people and that for the transportation of energy are the cornerstone of the national economy. They remain the source of growth for other sectors of the country’s life, she stressed, adding that that sector faces major challenges and that its development is essential to promote economic growth, facilitate the mobility of people and goods, facilitate business production and improve regional connectivity. Those challenges are related to institutional, legislative and regulatory frameworks, thus limiting Burundi’s competitiveness in the different economic communities of which it is a part.
According to her, that workshop aims to bring together public and private sector development actors so that they can identify and propose legal and institutional reforms that could stimulate development, create jobs and improve business opportunities and environment in the infrastructure sector.
During the discussions, the representative of Regideso, Mr. Aloys Ndayikundira, highlighted the challenges that limit the development of the energy sector, including the low electrification rate, the scattered rural population, the lack of spaces to set up electrical, water and gas infrastructures for areas to be developed, and the outdated electricity master plan.
To address those challenges, he proposed some solutions, including updating the electrification master plan to facilitate interventions.
Before concluding, he revealed that the Government of Burundi, through the Ministry in charge of Energy, is developing projects to increase energy production by building hydroelectric and solar power plants. As for Regideso, it is building transport and contribution lines to channel energy from those plants.
In addition, he said, to address the problem of dilapidated networks in the city of Bujumbura and to strengthen the 30 kilovolt (KV) network, the mobilization of funding for the project to rehabilitate and modernize the networks of that city and electrify the peripheral neighborhoods, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have provided an amount of $200,000,000 with the aim of achieving the country’s development.
Regarding the management of the public road, the participants suggested to carry out diagnostic studies throughout the country to have the state of all the roads and consequently plan their rehabilitation, to revitalize the private sector in the management and monitoring of the association of African road managers and partners.