Infrastructure: Japan, China go head to head

China Merchants Group (CMG) is expected to be involved in the project. Hu Jinhua, the assistant president of CMG, said: “The development of Bagamoyo Seaport and the industrial zone project will not only accommodate future trends such as the increasing size of container vessels and the trend for shipping lines to form alliances, but also greatly enhances the competitive advantages of the Tanzanian port in the future.”

China Export-Import Bank has also funded the $498m development of the new deepwater port of Kribi in Cameroon. Unlike on most port projects, the construction and operating contracts have been separated: China Harbour Engineering Company is undertaking the construction work, while a short list of five bidders has been published for the operating contracts.

This comprises: two consortia: Necotrans and KPMO, and Sea Invest and CLGG; plus three individual bidders: Turkey’s Marsa Maroc, ICTSI of the Philippines and APM Terminals. Kribi currently has just an oil terminal, which handles oil from the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline.

China Export-Import Bank has funded the $498m development of the new deepwater port of Kribi in Cameroon

Bridging loans provided
Two important bridge projects have been announced in recent weeks. A new 525-metre bridge is to be constructed across the River Nile between the towns of Njeru and Jinja in Uganda to reduce congestion on the 60-year-old Nalubaale Bridge. Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company and Zenitaka Corporation of Japan have been awarded a $140m contract to undertake the work, with $100m funding provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under a virtually interest-free loan.

The government of Uganda will provide the remaining funding via the state-owned Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA). The Second Nile Bridge is expected to open in 2018. Uganda’s Minister of Works and Transport, Abraham Byandala, said: “We shall have an alternative bridge and certainty of uninterrupted traffic flow rather than what we have had with a single bridge at Jinja, over Nalubaale/Owen Falls.”

An 820-metre bridge is planned across the River Wouri in the Cameroonian economic capital of Douala, again to relieve congestion on the existing colonial era bridge, which currently serves 45,000 vehicles a day, including a great deal of the freight bound for Douala Container Terminal.

The contract to construct the bridge has been awarded to SOGEA SATOM, with $175m provided by the government of France and $67m by the government of Cameroon. The new bridge will carry five road lanes and two rail tracks.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance said: “The economic importance of this bridge is more than words can tell because you know that this bridge does not only link the Littoral Region with the South West, West, and North West Regions that are very productive as far as agriculture is concerned. It links West Africa to Central Africa because Douala is the entrance to Central Africa. It links the ECOWAS countries and the CEMAC countries.”