Investment into country up 25 pct this year

July 13, 2016 6:00 AM

The Centre hopes total investments this year will amount to 810 billion CFA francs ($1.4 billion) and will target international investors to do so, Esmel said.

A general view of the construction site of Ivory Coast's third bridge, the Henri Konan Bedie, named after the country's former president, is seen in Abidjan, February 13, 2014.

Investment in Ivory Coast is up 25 percent in the first half of this year on the same period in 2015, according to the Centre for Investment Promotion, which tracks in-flows into the economy in most sectors other than mining and power.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is emerging from years of political turmoil and its now fast-growing economy accounts for around 40 percent of the eight-nation West African CFA franc currency zone.

Investments registered by the Centre amounted to 219 billion CFA francs ($370 million) between January and June, up from 174.8 billion CFA a year ago, the Centre's director, Emmanuel Essis Esmel, said on Tuesday.

"Ivory Coast's attractiveness to investors is clear," he told reporters.

Twenty-eight percent of the investments are in construction and public works, 25 percent in food and agriculture, 16 percent in transport and storage, 12 percent in plastics and 5 percent in hospitality, the centre said, adding that 30 percent of the investments are held by Ivorians.

($1 = 591.7500 CFA francs)