Sarkozy Unveils Investment Package
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Cape Town, Feb 29, 2008 (Business Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — France was not disengaging with Africa but was intensifying its engagement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday in announcing a package of investments for sub-Saharan Africa of more than R100bn over the next five years.
Sarkozy is in S A on a state visit and before speaking to Parliament he and President Thabo Mbeki concluded agreements that will see Eskom acquire turbines for new generators and a deal worth EUR 1,36bn that will see French engineers help SA to solv e its energy crisis.
French firm, industrial group Alstom 1,36bn contract today (Friday)with Eskom to will supply six turbine islands for the new Bravo power station. Significantly, about half of the value of the contract would be sourced locally.
In November Alstom also won a contract of the same value for the construction of the turbine of the 4800MW coal-fired Medupi power plant in Lephalale, the first coal-fired power station to be built in SA in 20 years, as part of Eskom’s R340bn programme to double generating capacity.
In his speech to a special joint sitting of Parliament, Sarkozy said he had committed France to the battle against poverty in Africa and to the continent achieving its millennium development goals.
He announced targeted initiatives to support economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa involving the French Development Agency.
These will include a R2,5bn investment fund, which would develop and encourage African companies. The second was a R2,5bn guarantee fund to provide bank credit and capital to African small and medium enterprises.
He also announced that the French Development Agency commitment to support to the private sector would double to R20bn over the next five years.
This would help create 2000 African companies and create 300000 jobs. It brings the total commitment of France to sub- Saharan Africa to R100bn over five years.
Sarkozy also launched a stinging rebuke at the Group of Eight (G-8) developed countries, saying that at his first G-8 meeting since his election it was only during lunch on the last day that representatives of about one billion Africans were invited to join the gathering. “It was embarrassing.”
He said that there should be at least one permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for Africa. He said it was unrealistic and dangerous to try and manage world affairs without a major representative from Africa.
Sarkozy said that existing French defence agreements with African countries would be adapted to modern conditions. He said the basis of all new agreements between France and Africa would be transparency, which was the best antidote to suspicion. He also said that all French defence agreements with African countries would be made public and that future French military presence in Africa would be firstly to help Africa develop its own collective security, including the African Union stand-by force.
“Do not misunderstand me, this does not mean that we are disengaging, it is quite the contrary,” Sarkozy said.
He paid tribute to SA’s negotiated settlement, which he said was a great lesson for mankind. He said it was an extraordinary achievement that after 27 years in prison Nelson Mandela had declared that the oppressor too should be freed. He said the path of reconciliation and transformation on which SA had set out had rescued the 20th century so that despite its atrocities it ended on a note of hope.
1,36bn contract today (Friday)with Eskom to supply six turbine islands for the new Bravo power station. Significantly, about half of the value of the contract would be sourced locally.
The signing will be attended by president Thabo Mbeki and his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy, who is in SA on a historic two-day visit to cement business ties with the region’s power house.
In the meantime, it also emerged yesterday that Areva, whose CE Anne Lauvergeon is part of the Sarkozy delegation visiting SA, had signed a a 80m contract with Rio Tinto Alcan to build a power substation for its planned aluminium smelter at Coega.
The contract appears to signal that Rio Tinto is pressing ahead with the electricity-hungry smelter, despite the fact that Eskom is unlikely to be able to supply the smelter’s 1355MW demand, when it comes on stream in 2010.
Eskom earlier this year indicated that the smelter project might have to be delayed.
Neither Areva nor Rio Tinto could be reached for comment yesterday.
19bn worth of orders on its books, the Medupi and Bravo contracts are the biggest currently in the Alstom project pipeline.
“These are extremely heavy investments. There are probably no bigger contracts (for the construction of turbines) in the world at the moment. I don’t think people realise how big this is. I have never seen a contract of this size in my life,” Joubert said.
Despite a global scramble for equipment and skills, Joubert said Alstom was “absolutely comfortable” that it would be delivering its commitments on Medupi and Bravo on time.
Alstom also has an agreement with French firm Areva, which is bidding for the tender to build SA’s first new nuclear power station since Koeberg, to build the conventional island of the nuclear station. Should Areva win the contract it would see the value of Alstom’s projects with Eskom increase by approximately a third.
Alstom has a presence in SA through Alstom SA, which is 50,2% owned by empowerment groups Tiso and Kagiso.
Filed by Colum Grove-White under Employment, Development, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Regional Security