AES: Meeting of economics ministers / Project to create a joint airline
The three Sahel countries that signed the Liptako Gourma charter are aiming to create an airline. The recommendation was made at a ministerial meeting held by delegations from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger on Saturday 25 November 2023. It is one of a series of ambitious projects to address economic development issues in the member countries of AES (the Alliance of Sahel States).
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger face the same challenges in terms of security, social and economic development.
On Saturday 25 November, the economic ministers of the 3 countries met in Bamako.
The aim was to discuss and establish structuring projects to stimulate economic growth within the organisation.
At the end of the meeting, several projects were drawn up, including the creation of an airline and an investment bank.
In addition to this ambition, the ministers are planning to develop agriculture.
To this end, they plan to develop hydro-agricultural schemes of common interest to boost agricultural production, and to build and strengthen infrastructure projects (dams, rural tracks, roads, pastoral areas, animal vaccination parks, etc.).
With regard to food security within the bloc, the ministers intend to set up, through bodies dedicated to food security stocks, modern slaughterhouses for the export of meat and by-products from the area, and the implementation of civil nuclear power plant projects with a regional vocation.
The ministers also indicated the need to speed up «the implementation of energy, agricultural and water projects and programmes, as well as road, air, rail and river transport networks in the States of the Alliance».
In the financial sector, the member countries of AES announced the creation of a fund to finance research and investment projects and an AES investment bank.
According to the press release issued at the end of the ministerial meeting, «a technical committee to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the ministerial meeting» will be set up.
Olivier TOE
