Post #362

Gabon Tries Again🇬🇦 Gabon's government has engaged ore producers in building infrastructure, but risks falling into a half-century-old trap 🌐 Gabon’s president, Brice Oligui Nguema, received a delegation from Australian mining giant Fortescue, which is promoting the Belinga iron ore project in Gabon's North-East. The parties agreed on the construction of a new deep-water port in the Kobe-Kobe area of Gabon by 2030. 🛤 Given that weak infrastructure is the main obstacle to iron exports, including from Belinga, the project is likely conceived precisely as part of Fortescue’s future logistics chain. 🎰 In the 1970s Gabon already bet on infrastructure, but it played out differently than planned. Back then, the country intended to invest its oil revenues in the Trans-Gabon railway to ship manganese from deposits of the French company Ermet. 🛢️In the end, Gabon spent a significant share of its oil revenues, and the railway turned out to be loss-making! The country nearly went bankrupt and continued to incur losses until the railway was privatised in 1999. With the new project, the authorities should therefore be cautious not to fall into the same trap again: if the Australian investor wants a deep-water port, it should also chipinitself ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow