THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE Palambo, or Longo) will make it navigable from 11 to 12 months a year (Ministère de l’Economie, du Plan et de la Coopération international 2007). More intensive use of the river for transporting goods and passengers means replacing the SOCRATAF’s<sup>4</sup> equipment, which is ongoing following its recent privatization.

Restoring the navigability of the Congo and Ubangi rivers would make the port of Pointe Noire an alternative to the Port of Douala for the CAR trade, through a combination of river and rail transport using the CFCO<sup>5</sup> line from Brazzaville to Point Noire. In fact, Point Noire is one of the best-performing ports in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Republic of Congo is one of the few countries in Africa that has developed a national port master plan (see box 1).<sup>6</sup> For the CAR to benefit from the potential offered by the port of Pointe Noire and river transport (Ministère de l’Economie, du Plan et de la Coopération international 2007), measures to improve the entire corridor (including improvements in navigability of the Congolese river stretches, rehabilitation of the CFCO railways, improvements in the port of Point Noire, and rehabilitation of the Cameroonian and Congolese road sections of the Pointe Noire–Brazzaville–Bangui corridor) would need to be closely coordinated with the Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

## **Box 1. The CAR could benefit from the development of transport corridors in the Republic of Congo**

Tapping the potential for developing transport infrastructure in the Republic of Congo would mean taking advantage of multimodal transport corridors that already exist. Once the road and rail corridor to Brazzaville are operating normally, the port of Pointe Noire should be able to capture the Republic of Congo’s imports and exports, particularly timber, now diverted to other ports in West Africa, such as the Port of Doula in Cameroon and the Port of Matadi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

If the Republic of Congo were successful in reestablishing a transit role, traffic and associated transport revenues at Pointe Noire could double. In an optimistic scenario, the Republic of Congo would essentially double the existing imports and the export of timber going through Pointe Noire—from around 1 million tonnes of imports and exports each to around 2 million tonnes. The overall value of traded goods would also double, from $3.3 to $6.6 billion per year, as would the associated transportation revenues, from $135 to $278 million per year.

_<u>Source:</u>_ <u>World Bank 2010b.</u>

# Air transport

## **Achievements**

After years of decline, the CAR’s air transport traffic and connectivity are recovering. Between 2001 and 2007 the number of total seats declined from144,991 to 44,503 due, in part, to the collapse of Air Afrique and Cameroon Airlines, the latter serving the market since 2004. The greatest downturn took place in the number of international seats, which fell from 118,122 in 2001 to 20,661 in 2007. Estimated

> 4 Société Centrafricaine des Transports Fluviaux.

> 5 Chemin de Fer Congo Ocean.

> 6 The Port Authority of the Republic of Congo has developed a national port master plan and secured commitments of $798 million in private investment to double the current 17-hectare container facility and double the existing annual throughput capacity of 300,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) within 8 years. The port investment program also includes deepening the port to accommodate vessels of up to 6,000 TEU, rehabilitating wharfs and warehouses, constructing drainage and electricity supply networks, and creating a timber yard (World Bank 2010b).

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