Country to seek over $7B from donors for development plan

April 20, 2016 1:58 PM

"It will aim to mobilise the sum of 4,425 billion francs for public investments planned for the period of 2016-2020," he said. "This is part expected from external partners."

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara attends a news conference at the presidential palace in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, March 15, 2016.

Ivory Coast will seek to raise 4.425 trillion CFA francs ($7.65 billion) during a meeting with donor partners next month to help fund an ambitious 5-year development programme, the government's spokesman said on Wednesday.

The West African nation is aiming to invest a total of around 30 trillion CFA francs from 2016 to 2020 as part of efforts to foster economic development and reduce poverty.

Around 18 trillion CFA francs is expected to come from private sector investment with the government's contribution making up the remaining 11 trillion CFA francs.

Bruno Kone said that an advisory group headed by President Alassane Ouattara will meet in Paris on May 17 and 18.

Having emerged from a decade of political turmoil following the civil war in 2011, Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower and French-speaking West Africa's largest economy, is increasingly turning the heads of foreign investors.

Under the stewardship of Ouattara, who won re-election in a landslide victory in October, its economy has expanded by an average of around 9 percent in each of the past three years.

But the former senior International Monetary Fund official is under pressure to make that growth more inclusive in his second, and final, five-year term.

($1 = 578.6000 CFA francs)

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