Africa Briefs

DRC to rebuild industryThe Democratic Republic of the Congo announced a plan to re-industrialise the resource-rich but impoverished African nation with a US$58 billion investment plan.The plan would see new railways, ports and other infrastructure to connect six pillar regions of the vast country and chart a long-term course of growth to 2040, Industry Minister Julien Paluku said.The blueprint aims to revitalise businesses in a country that has only 507 registered industrial entities, from the 9 600 or so inherited from colonial ruler Belgium at independence in 1960.The plan seeks to roughly double the number of industrial production units in the next five years, reducing an annual bill for imports by 60% as more goods are made at home.To get there, Paluku said the government is seeking US$58 billion for investment: US$21 billion for rail; US$22 billion for energy; US$6.3 billion for airports and ports.It aims to host an investor conference to seek funding commitments, he said. – Nampa/AFPSudan receives millions in IMF aidSudan has received more than US$857 million as part of a global allocation by the International Monetary Fund to help vulnerable countries, the central bank said.The IMF "has allotted ... the equivalent of $857.68 million to Sudan and it is available without restrictions given the current economic situation", the central bank in Khartoum said in a statement.It said the funding will allow it to "press ahead with implementing flexible managed float policies, stabilising the exchange rate, and the overall economy".Sudan has been struggling with economic woes that deepened after the April 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir following mass protests triggered by economic hardship.The transitional government installed in August 2019 has vowed to fix the economy which was battered by decades of US sanctions and mismanagement under Bashir. - Nampa/AFPAlgeria to divert Spain gas suppliesAlgeria said it was ready to divert all its Spain-bound natural gas exports via an undersea pipeline that bypasses Morocco, state media said last week, two days after Algiers cut ties with its North African rival.In a meeting with Spanish ambassador Fernando Moran, energy minister Mohamed Arkab stressed "Algeria's full commitment to cover all of Spain's natural gas supplies through the Medgaz" pipeline, said a statement quoted by the official APS news agency.Algeria exports natural gas to Spain via both the Medgaz pipeline and the higher-capacity GME pipeline which runs overland through Morocco.But on Tuesday Algiers abruptly cut diplomatic relations with its western neighbour over alleged "hostile actions", accusations the kingdom has dismissed as "absurd".The rift came just over two months before the GME pipeline, currently owned by Spanish gas giant Naturgy, passes into Moroccan ownership on November 1. – Nampa/AFP

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