João Lourenço recalled that, in his acceptance speech when he took over the presidency of the continental organisation last month, he made special mention of infrastructure, an issue he mentioned again this Thursday.
"In my acceptance speech, I made particular reference to the issue of infrastructure, as I believe it deserves special attention from this committee, which I ask to design a strategy to mobilise Africa's international partners interested in making investments with mutual benefits", he stated.
"Infrastructure is one of the essential pillars of the African Union's Agenda 2063, which requires us to mobilise the greatest possible volume of financial resources to achieve the goals we have set in this area and in the areas of technological innovation, food security and energy transition", he added.
On the occasion, the AU President stated that the continental organisation's commission, "in coordination with the Economic Communities and Regional Mechanisms, should work on organising a major continental conference on infrastructure in Africa during the current year", where they should "seek to convey to the main cooperation partners, at bilateral and multilateral level, the importance and advantages of investing in financing and investment in continental interconnection infrastructures, as a way of participating directly in the entire process of growth and development in Africa, one of the many ways of doing justice to Africans and people of African descent, one of many other avenues for reparation".
The President of the Republic also pointed out that a serious investment in the construction and improvement of roads, as well as in the modernisation of railway lines, ports and airports, is a priority. "I consider it a priority to invest seriously in the construction and improvement of our roads and highways, in the modernization of our railway lines, ports and airports, as well as in the creation of electricity transmission and distribution lines, so that we can take energy from areas where there is a surplus to those that lack this fundamental asset", he said.
He therefore advocated working together to build "a new International Financial Architecture", so that the continent "can no longer continue to be seen as a secondary, marginal actor, but rather as an active and decisive part of the global economy".
"It is essential that the African Union participates in the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, with a clear vision of what it wants, so that we can achieve simpler and fairer access to adequate financial resources to implement our projects aimed at boosting Africa's socio-economic progress", he added.
Among other things, in his speech, the AU President also highlighted another challenge that Africa is currently facing: "Another important challenge facing the African continent is related to issues related to terrorism and violent extremism, the unconstitutional changes of democratically elected governments and the conflicts that still prevail on our continent".
"In terms of peace and security in Africa, it is my conviction that we must act to find African solutions to African problems and achieve the silencing of guns, so that this issue does not continue to dominate our agendas and our debate for an almost eternal period", he also pointed out.
At the ceremony held on Thursday – held at the AU headquarters in the capital of Ethiopia – Mahmoud Yussuf took office, replacing the outgoing president Mussa Faki Mahamat, as well as Selma Malika Haddadi, as vice-president of the commission.
The Commissioners for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment; Infrastructure and Energy; Political Affairs, Peace and Security; and Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development were also sworn in at this event.
This handover ceremony was considered by the AU leader as of "great importance".
"It is with great pleasure that I take the floor to make some remarks at this handover ceremony between the outgoing presidency and the new presidency of the African Union Commission, which I consider to be a moment of great importance in which we have just witnessed the end of a period of important achievements for our organization, during which the African Union, through your action and performance, has become a more robust, more active institution and more capable of facing the challenges that it faces, especially those related to the process of necessary reforms, initiated by the leadership that ends its mandate today [Thursday]", he said.
In addition to this ceremony, João Lourenço's agenda in Ethiopia includes a visit to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali on Friday.
