Economics

Ivory Coast Seeks Return of Golden Age With Roads, Bridges

  • Government plans to ease congestion in biggest city, Abidjan
  • Focus on infrastructure has sustained high economic growth
Abidjan skylinePhotographer: Jose Cendon/Bloomberg
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Ivory Coast plans to renew most of its road network and ease congestion in the largest city, Abidjan, as part of a $6.4 billion plan to improve infrastructure in the world’s biggest cocoa producer.

The government’s focus on large infrastructure projects has sustained one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies since 2012 and helped the country regain its position as a regional hub in French-speaking West Africa after almost a decade of conflict. Investment spending accounts for a third of the 2018 budget under President Alassane Ouattara, with the International Monetary Fund forecasting economic growth at 7.3 percent this year.