Africa is an infrastructure hot spot says report

BY AGENCIES

AFRICA is emerging as an infrastructure hot spot with countries like SA, Nigeria, Kenya and others preparing for significant infrastructure investments.

This is according to the 2015 Infrastructure Report to be released at a gathering of the Top 100 Global Infrastructure Projects at the 5th Annual Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum later this month in London.

"Investors see Africa where Latin America was 20 years ago," authors of the report CG/LA Infrastructure said on Friday as it called on governments from developed and emerging markets - especially including countries in Latin America and Africa, and the countries of the Arab Spring - to increase infrastructure investment in order to create jobs, as well as to support the construction and engineering industries and other sectors of the global economy.

Key findings of the report included that infrastructure clusters were emerging in countries and regions including China, Brazil, Canada and Australia. Among the BRICS, India and Russia were falling behind.

The report also found that investment was greatest among commodity producers.

"Areas of greatest activity tend to be found in areas that are involved in the global commodity boom, so Brazil, China and parts of Latin America and Africa have booming infrastructure sectors."

Key sectors continued to lag, the report added, while investment in electricity and highways was expected to account for 65% of investments in infrastructure.

Water distribution and waste-water treatment would receive less than 9% of total investments.

The report discovered that investment in infrastructure projects in the US was declining.

"Currently, investments in US projects make up 11% of the global infrastructure markets, but rather than increasing with economic recovery, investments are declining."

CG/LA has predicted that global demand for infrastructure projects would reach nearly US$10-trillion in the period from now until 2015, while investment was seen as falling considerably short of that figure, reaching only US$4.5-US$5-trillion.

 

"The critical fact is that we are not acting; instead, we are sleeping at a time of maximum danger and significant opportunity," CG/LA Infrastructure President and CEO Norman Anderson said.

"The world needs to invest - and this is not just an obligation to the next generation, but a way to ensure growth now, and what might be even more important, to widen the creation of opportunities in economies around the world. Policymakers seem exhausted after three years of crisis, but this is when they need to be most active, most creative, and most resourceful."