According to a note from the US embassy in Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe, the conference is being held through the Power Africa initiative, with multilateral development organizations, private sector partners and donors.
The objective of this conference is to support the mining, agriculture, health and transport sectors, as well as facilitate access to energy along the Lobito Corridor, in addition to identifying energy needs in the infrastructure and member countries.
The initiative also aims to "map projects and developers to create a roadmap for coordination and engagements in each country and establish a reporting system with clear roles to monitor performance and impact," the note reads.
The event will be attended by the representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Angola, William Butterfield, the Deputy Coordinator of Power Africa, Ted Lawrence, as well as representatives of the Departments of State, Commerce and Energy, the International Development Finance Corporation, the International Development Finance Corporation and the United States Trade and Development Agency.
Other participants will include representatives of multilateral organisations such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Union, as well as other development partners and the private sector.
In May of this year, the Governments of Angola and the United States signed financing agreements totalling 1.3 billion dollars for investments in the Lobito Corridor.
At the end of 2022, the concession for the Lobito Corridor was awarded to the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) consortium, formed by Mota-Engil (49.5 percent), Trafigura (49.5 percent) and Vecturis (1 percent), which will operate, manage and maintain this railway infrastructure for 30 years, as well as the mineral terminal at the port of this city.
The Lobito Corridor was the first strategic economic corridor launched under the auspices of the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (GPI) in May 2023.
On the sidelines of the G20 Summit in September 2023 in New Delhi, the European Union and the United States issued a joint declaration to join forces to support the development of the Corridor.
