In a report published on Thursday 21 August, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, analysed eleven strategic transport corridors in Africa of interest to EU investment.
Four priorities were identified by the experts: - reducing our carbon footprint and preserving biodiversity; - digitalisation of corridors; - improving access to public services and markets, particularly via rural road networks; - support for productive value chains (mining, agriculture, industry).
Transport infrastructure and connectivity appear to be the areas offering the most significant benefits, while digitalisation remains the most complex challenge. A centre of high productivity has been identified in West Africa.
The study, based on limited data and the assumption of a stable political context, does not contain any operational recommendations. However, it does provide a strategic comparative basis for guiding the investment choices of the EU and its partners under the Team Europe initiatives.
Twelve corridors, eleven analysed. On the basis of a series of analyses undertaken since 2020 by the JRC with the Commission’s International Partnerships departments, an initial list of eleven strategic corridors was announced at the sixth EU-African Union Summit in February 2022. A twelfth route, the Lobito corridor (Angola-DRC-Zambia), was added in 2023. The assessment of Corridor 11, which crosses Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda, has been postponed.
Link to the JRC report: https://aeur.eu/f/i58 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)