Southern African nations set for huge investment for 15-year infrastructure improvements

20 June 2012

Some $500 billion (£319.5 billion) of investment could soon be set aside for cross-border projects in Africa in the coming months to help improve transport and communications infrastructure in the future, Engineeringnews.co.za reports.

A Regional Infrastructure Master Plan from the South African Development Community (SADC) will be put forward at an upcoming summit in August, showing how infrastructure changes would be made in the next 15 years.

This would include improvements made to regional power, transport, water and communications across several countries.

SADC secretariat deputy executive secretary for regional integration Joao Caholo told the news provider that changes are important, adding that "one of the critical missing links is infrastructure".

It comes only days after it was revealed that South Africa's railway sector will benefit from 263 million rand (£20.29 million) of investment in the coming years, helping to replace old rolling stock and make up for a lack of recent maintenance.