INVESTMENT Page 3 CREATING A BETTER BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT FISHING Page 5 PROTECTING THE WEALTH OF THE SEA OIL & GAS Page 6 THE SEARCH FOR BLACK GOLD CONTINUES TOURISM Page 8 DISCOVERING THE HIDDEN TREASURES OF THE DESERT Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content Wednesday, July 30, 2008 MAURITANIA This supplement to USA TODAY was produced by United World LTD.: 4410 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington - DC 20016 - Tel: 1-202.347.9022 - Fax: 1-202.347.9025 - www.unitedworld-usa.com When the people of Mauritania went to the polls just over a year ago, the world gained a new democ- racy. Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi became the West African Islamic state’s first civilian president, elected in free and fair multi-party elections that were hailed by international observers as a model for the rest of Africa. To the Western world, Maurita- nia is one of the least known African countries. Huge in size, but tiny in population, it extends from the At- lantic coast and the fertile north- ern bank of the Senegal River into the barren emptiness of the Sahara Desert, which covers around two thirds of its territory. The mainstays of the economy are fishing and mineral extraction. In recent years, significant deposits of oil have been discovered, at- tracting major international com- panies to the country and briefly making it the best performing economy in Africa; in 2006 growth was 11.9 percent. However, ini- tially high production levels have fallen due to technical difficulties, and hopes of a black gold bonan- za have had to be deferred. A former French colony, Mauri- tania became an independent state in 1960. From1984, the country en- dured two decades of authoritari- an rule under President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya; he was fi- nally deposed in a bloodless coup in 2005. The military junta that re- placed him promised to create the conditions for genuine democrat- International donors are backing it and the President is committed to further reform but Mauritania requires pri- vate capital and know-how to develop its economy Investment needed to help Africa’s new democracy grow Thanks to the Aftout Project, current and future generations will have access to clean and safe drinking water. The capital city, Nouakchott, is about to benefit from one of Mauritania’s largest public projects ever built that comprises a new drainage pump designed for a flow of 11,160 cubic meters per hour, a pumping station, a 129,000 cubic meter water reservoir and water treatment stations. Overall, the water supply to Nouakchott will triple from the present 50,000 cubic meters per day, to 150,000 cubic meters. The Societé Nationale de l’Eau strives to provide the population with drinking water in an effort to alleviate poverty and promote agricultural activities. The Aftout Project in Nouakchott is just the beginning: next stop, the entire country. SNDE Societé Nationale de l’Eau A more extensive version of this report is available at www.unitedworld-usa.com UNITED WORLD TEAM PROJECT DIRECTOR: Anne Cécile Moulin EDITORIAL DIRECTORS Jonathan Bossaer Antoine Chebrout PROJECT COORDINATOR: Nora Guessoum ic institutions and organize elec- tions within two years – and they kept to their word. President Abdallahi has spoken of building a new era of democra- cy by continuing the process of re- form. He has toughened up the law in an attempt to eliminate slavery and opened the door for the re- turn and reintegration of thou- sands of Afro-Mauritanian refugees, who were expelled from the country in 1989. “We are a country now experi- encing freedom and democracy, which we are determined to rein- force, maintain and give as an ex- ample to other countries,” Mr. Abdallahi says. However, the installation of a democratically elected govern- ment is not in itself enough to en- sure a brighter future for Mauritania, one of the least de- veloped countries in the world. For that it needs sustained eco- nomic growth, and help from abroad. Poverty is rife in rural areas and in the slums on the outskirts of the cities. The unemployment rate is estimated at 32.5 percent. Short- ages of food and drinking water are all too common. The subsis- tence farming that sustains around half the population of 3.3 million is vulnerable to drought, floods and locusts. The waters off the At- lantic coast teem with fish but have to be protected from over-ex- ploitation by European trawlers. “The first challenge to democ- racy is poverty,” says Mr. Abdal- lahi. “In poor countries the future of democracy depends on im- proving people’s living conditions.” The foundations on which the President seeks to build a better future for Mauritanian citizens are national unity, the rule of law and good governance. A serious at- tempt is being made to tackle cor- ruption, and the buzzword in the government offices in the capital, Nouakchott, is “transparency.” Mauritania needs private in- vestment to grow and diversify its economy, and create jobs for its people. Therefore, transparency is recognized as a vital ingredient for turning it into an attractive desti- nation for foreign direct invest- ment. “You can bring about significant economic growth only when you also really encourage private in- vestment,” the President says. “We try to make decisions and make changes that improve the climate for business in our country.” At the same time, Mauritania needs support from internation- al institutions and bilateral coop- eration with other countries. In December, Mauritania won a com- mitment from donors and part- ners, including the World Bank, the IMF, the European Union and the United Nations, at a conference in Paris, for more than $2 billion in support for its 2008-2010 de- velopment plan. In January, the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, visited the coun- try and signed an accord pledging assistance for development of the energy and oil and minerals sec- tors, and the expansion of the port at Nouakchott. Relations between the United States and Mauritania have im- proved considerably. Mauritania has been rewarded for its progress towards democracy by being added to the list of countries eligible for funding from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account, and its exports are once again offered favorable access to U.S. markets under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The United States Agency for International Development (US- AID) has signed a $2.94 million fi- nancing agreement to support decentralization, community de- velopment, community action, vo- cational training and income generating related activities bene- fiting Mauritanian youth. SIDI MOHAMED OULD CHEIKH ABDALLAHI President of Mauritania Mauritania has been praised for its transition to a democratically elected government but faces economic challenges that require international input FISHING AND MINING ARE THE MAINSTAYS OF THE ECONOMY BUT THE DISCOVERY OF OIL HAS ATTRACTED MAJOR INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES PHOTO: REUTERS
Transcript
INVESTMENT Page 3
CREATING A BETTERBUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT
FISHING Page 5
PROTECTING THE WEALTH OF
THE SEA
OIL & GAS Page 6
THE SEARCH FOR BLACK GOLD
CONTINUES
TOURISM Page 8
DISCOVERING THEHIDDEN TREASURES
OF THE DESERT
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
MAURITANIAThis supplement to USA TODAY was produced by United World LTD.: 4410 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington - DC 20016 - Tel: 1-202.347.9022 - Fax: 1-202.347.9025 - www.unitedworld-usa.com
When the people of Mauritaniawent to the polls just over a yearago, the world gained a new democ-racy. Sidi Mohamed Ould CheikhAbdallahi became the WestAfrican Islamic state’s first civilianpresident, elected in free and fairmulti-party elections that werehailed by international observersas a model for the rest of Africa.
To the Western world, Maurita-nia is one of the least known Africancountries. Huge in size, but tiny inpopulation, it extends from the At-lantic coast and the fertile north-ern bank of the Senegal River intothe barren emptiness of the SaharaDesert, which covers around twothirds of its territory.
The mainstays of the economyare fishing and mineral extraction.In recent years, significant depositsof oil have been discovered, at-tracting major international com-panies to the country and brieflymaking it the best performingeconomy in Africa; in 2006 growthwas 11.9 percent. However, ini-tially high production levels havefallen due to technical difficulties,and hopes of a black gold bonan-za have had to be deferred.
A former French colony, Mauri-tania became an independent statein 1960. From1984, the country en-dured two decades of authoritari-an rule under President MaaouyaOuld Sid Ahmed Taya; he was fi-nally deposed in a bloodless coupin 2005. The military junta that re-placed him promised to create theconditions for genuine democrat-
International donors are backing it and the President iscommitted to further reform but Mauritania requires pri-vate capital and know-how to develop its economy
Investment neededto help Africa’s newdemocracy grow
Thanks to the Aftout Project, current and future generations will have access to clean and safe drinking water. The capital city, Nouakchott, is about to benefit from one of Mauritania’s
largest public projects ever built that comprises a new drainage pump designed for a flow of 11,160 cubic meters per hour, a pumping station, a 129,000 cubic meter water reservoir and
water treatment stations. Overall, the water supply to Nouakchott will triple from the present 50,000 cubic meters per day, to 150,000 cubic meters.
The Societé Nationale de l’Eau strives to provide the population with drinking water in an effort to alleviate poverty and promote agricultural activities. The Aftout Project in Nouakchott
is just the beginning: next stop, the entire country. SNDE Societé Nationale de l’Eau
ic institutions and organize elec-tions within two years – and theykept to their word.
President Abdallahi has spokenof building a new era of democra-cy by continuing the process of re-form. He has toughened up the lawin an attempt to eliminate slaveryand opened the door for the re-turn and reintegration of thou-
sands of Afro-Mauritanianrefugees, who were expelled fromthe country in 1989.
“We are a country now experi-encing freedom and democracy,which we are determined to rein-force, maintain and give as an ex-ample to other countries,” Mr.Abdallahi says.
However, the installation of ademocratically elected govern-ment is not in itself enough to en-sure a brighter future forMauritania, one of the least de-veloped countries in the world.For that it needs sustained eco-nomic growth, and help fromabroad.
Poverty is rife in rural areas andin the slums on the outskirts of thecities. The unemployment rate isestimated at 32.5 percent. Short-ages of food and drinking waterare all too common. The subsis-tence farming that sustains aroundhalf the population of 3.3 millionis vulnerable to drought, floodsand locusts. The waters off the At-lantic coast teem with fish but haveto be protected from over-ex-ploitation by European trawlers.
“The first challenge to democ-racy is poverty,” says Mr. Abdal-lahi. “In poor countries the futureof democracy depends on im-proving people’s living conditions.”
The foundations on which thePresident seeks to build a betterfuture for Mauritanian citizens arenational unity, the rule of law andgood governance. A serious at-tempt is being made to tackle cor-
ruption, and the buzzword in thegovernment offices in the capital,Nouakchott, is “transparency.”
Mauritania needs private in-vestment to grow and diversify itseconomy, and create jobs for itspeople. Therefore, transparency isrecognized as a vital ingredient forturning it into an attractive desti-nation for foreign direct invest-ment.
“You can bring about significanteconomic growth only when youalso really encourage private in-vestment,” the President says. “We
try to make decisions and makechanges that improve the climatefor business in our country.”
At the same time, Mauritanianeeds support from internation-al institutions and bilateral coop-eration with other countries. InDecember, Mauritania won a com-mitment from donors and part-ners, including the World Bank, theIMF, the European Union and theUnited Nations, at a conferencein Paris, for more than $2 billionin support for its 2008-2010 de-velopment plan. In January, thePresident of the World Bank,Robert Zoellick, visited the coun-try and signed an accord pledgingassistance for development of theenergy and oil and minerals sec-tors, and the expansion of the portat Nouakchott.
Relations between the UnitedStates and Mauritania have im-proved considerably. Mauritaniahas been rewarded for its progresstowards democracy by being addedto the list of countries eligible forfunding from the U.S. MillenniumChallenge Account, and its exports
are once again offered favorableaccess to U.S. markets under theAfrican Growth and OpportunityAct (AGOA).
The United States Agency forInternational Development (US-AID) has signed a $2.94 million fi-nancing agreement to supportdecentralization, community de-velopment, community action, vo-cational training and incomegenerating related activities bene-fiting Mauritanian youth.
SIDI MOHAMED OULD CHEIKH ABDALLAHI President of Mauritania
Mauritania has been praised for its transition to a democratically elected government but faces economic challenges that require international input
FISHING AND MININGARE THE MAINSTAYS OF THE ECONOMY BUTTHE DISCOVERY OF OIL HAS ATTRACTEDMAJOR INTERNATIONALCOMPANIES
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Project to meet risein demand for waterOnce just a fishing village, Mau-ritania’s capital Nouakchott is nowits largest urban center. Estimatesof how many people live therevary from one million to 2.3 mil-lion.
Shortage of water has becomea serious problem for the hot,windy city as the huge reservoirin the rocks on which it was builthas gradually been drained. On-ly 25 percent of households haveprivate connections to the watersupply, and the rest are forced torely on vendors and public stand-pipes. Apart from the need fordrinking water, sanitation is an ur-gent concern. And, of course, thepopulation continues to expand.
Demand for water in Nouak-chott at peak periods is around80,000 cubic meters (m3) a day,but less than 50,000 m3 a day isavailable—a deficit of approxi-mately 40 percent during thehottest seasons.
“The water needs of the cityhave been a permanent headachefor the country’s authorities forthe last 10 years,” says Sidi OuldMohamed Lemine, who is chargedwith overseeing the project de-signed to secure the city’s future.
The Aftout Essaheli scheme, fi-nally under way after years of tech-nical preparation and attempts toraise funding, will supply Nouak-chott and nearby locations withwater from the Senegal Riverthrough a pipeline. It aims to meetall the water needs for the city un-til 2020—to be ex-tended to 2030 by asecond phase.
The project com-prises treatmentworks, both at thepoint of extraction andin Nouakchott, pump-ing stations, pipelinesand a reservoir. The to-tal cost is put at $450million and is beingfunded by Arab devel-opment funds, theAfrican DevelopmentBank and the Mauri-tanian government.
Water should be flowing fromthe Senegal River to Nouakchottby the start of 2010. Approximately150,000 m3 a day will be trans-
ferred through the principalpipeline.
As the project’s General Man-ager, Mr. Lemine is well aware ofthe need to keep up to schedule,
but also understandsthe importance of en-suring it meets theright standard. “Wemust pay special at-tention to the balancebetween quality andour timeframe,” hesays. “For the moment,all is going well, andwe hope we will beable to stay on top ofthese two require-ments until the end ofthe project.”
Liberalization since2000 has seen water services de-centralized and private operatorsallowed in. SNDE, the nationalwater company, was establishedin 2003 after the former combined
water and electricity utility was di-vided.
“At the time of SNDE’s creation,its goal was to deal with all largecities, which was initially very dif-ficult,” says Cheikh Ab-dallahi Ould Houeibib,SNDE’s General Man-ager. “Nowadays, how-ever, our companycovers almost all thelarge cities, which is atestimony to our effi-ciency.”
He says the utility iswell on course for re-alizing its targets. Inaddition to the AftoutEssaheli project forNouakchott, an ade-quate water supply willbe provided for Nouadhibou,Mauritania’s second largest city,until 2020. “If the needs in thesetwo cities are completely met, itmeans that we have achieved our
objective. SNDE’s projects carriedout throughout the country makeit possible to largely exceed theobjective for 2015.”
In addition to meeting humanneeds, water is crucialto economic activity.Private operators areencouraged to inter-vene in the sector—es-pecially in relation tothe country’s industri-al development.
“Several opportu-nities exist, such as thedesalination of sea wa-ter which can be resoldby private operators toSNDE for distributionin big cities,” says theSNDE chief. “If a pri-
vate American investor came toMauritania today he could find aniche in the water sector since thelegal regulation framework is al-ready in place.”
SIDI OULD MOHAMEDLEMINEGeneral Manager of theAftout Essaheli Project
A new government line-up istaking on the challenge ofupgrading public servicesand providing opportunitiesfor all
The problems are not new, butin Nouakchott there is fresh im-petus and a coordinated effortbehind the moves to deal withissues ranging from poverty andunemployment to improvinghealth care and providing betteropportunities for women andyoung people.
Since last year’s election, ac-tion plans have been drawn upwith a strong focus on the de-velopment of human resourcesand partnerships between thepublic and private sectors. SinceMay a fresh government teamhas been in place under the lead-ership of Yahya Ould Ahmed ElWaghev, who was appointedPrime Minister following the res-ignation of his predecessor, ZeinOuld Zeidane. Mr Waghev in-stalled a clutch of new ministersin key positions, including severalmembers from opposition par-ties, but a re-shuffle in July hasmeant that further change willnow take place.
Plans to upgrade the educa-tion system have been put into
place through the Ministry forBasic and Secondary Educationand the Fight Against Illiteracy,and the Ministry for Higher Ed-ucation.
The biggest challenge is to re-verse the trend of children drop-ping out of school. WhenPresident Abdallahi took overonly two-thirds of students weregoing on to higher education, andthe gap between what was beingtaught and the needs of the labormarket was highlighted by thefact that only 18 percent of newgraduates managed to find em-ployment within a year.
A new strategy is being for-mulated that will be less politi-cized and geared more towardsthe economic and social devel-opment of the country. Atten-tion is being focused on thetraining, deployment and moti-vation of teachers, and on creat-ing the optimum conditions forlearning. A national commissionis staging a general conferenceto take a close look at the edu-cation system and see how it canbe improved.
With unemployment estimat-ed at 32.5 percent and affectingall regions, sectors and ages, en-suring that young Mauritanians
are equipped for the labor mar-ket is a priority. The Ministry ofEmployment, Integration andVocational Training is taskedwith reducing unemployment to25 percent by 2010.
The government’s strategy fo-cuses on technical training, aneducational system consistentwith labor market needs, newapproaches and integration ini-tiatives, and public-private sec-tor partnerships. Considerableefforts are being made to analyzethe dynamics of the labor mar-ket.
Taking into account the needto build an efficient economy ca-pable of facing the challenges ofglobal competition, technical andvocational training is to be de-veloped and given more vigor.Approximately 3,000 young peo-ple are currently training for prac-tical qualifications or diplomas.Various micro project and in-come generating activities arebeing financed, as well as train-ing courses for unemployed grad-uates and direct employmentinitiatives.
Women account for two-thirdsof the jobless. According to theMinistry for the Promotion ofWomen, Children and the Fam-ily, poor schooling for girls is a keyfactor in disadvantaging ruralwomen in particular.
The Ministry organizes train-ing seminars for women andawareness campaigns to sensi-tize public opinion to the issueswomen face. Positive discrimi-nation allows women to benefitfrom 20-33 percent quotas inpublic services, politics and theeconomic life of the country.
Female contractors lack fi-nancial means to operate - a com-mon story in developingcountries. Training and experi-ence are therefore needed to in-tegrate women into the labou rmarket.
Meanwhile, the Ministry forHealth is focusing on improvingaccess to health care and im-proving its quality. Here too, at-tention is being paid to thetraining and effective deploy-ment of personnel.
The public and private hospi-tal network is being developed toensure general medical coverageacross the country. Action is be-ing taken against drug fraud, andpriority being given to makingsufficient medicines available atacceptable costs.
The development of the healthsector cannot be achieved with-out involving the private sectorand the government is creatingan institutional and legal frame-work to facilitate private invest-ment, including public-privatepartnerships. The aim is to es-tablish partnerships in areas suchas the acquisition of drugs andnew hospital equipment and theconstruction of hospitals.
GOVERNMENT
Fresh impetusbehind drive to improvelivingstandards
The scheme to transfer water by pipeline from the Senegal River to Nouakchott should be operational by 2010
Distributed by USA TODAYWednesday, July 30, 20082 MAURITANIA
CHEIKH ABDALLAHI OULDHOUEIBIBGeneral Manager of SNDE
A $450 million scheme will provide water for the capital city until 2020
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
IMPROVEMENTS INTRAINING ANDGREATER AWARENESSOF THE NEEDS OF THELABOR MARKET ARE KEY ELEMENTS IN NEW STRATEGIES
Private sector has a vital role to playThe government is seeking toencourage public-privatepartnerships to strengthen industry
Mining accounts for a high proportion of Mauritania’s earnings from exports
Mauritania has two ports on its At-lantic coast. The one in the capi-tal, Nouakchott, is used almostexclusively for imports of wheat,rice, machinery and equipment,while the other, in the northerncity of Nouadhibou, specializes inthe export to China, Europe andJapan of iron ore and fish products.
Nouakchott port is to be de-veloped with help from the Chi-nese and the World Bank, but itspeaks volumes about the lack ofinfrastructure in the country thatfor the two decades since it wasestablished, the port has operat-ed without the benefit of a singlecrane.
Limited agricultural produc-tion, drought and poor harvestsmean that Mauritania dependson imports for 70 percent of thefood needed to sustain its 3.3 mil-lion people.
Meanwhile, the industrial sec-tor is dominated by mining andfisheries activities, which accountfor virtually all its earnings fromexports. This leaves the countryhighly vulnerable to fluctuationsin world prices both for what itbuys and what it sells, as well asto natural events such as climatechange and plagues of locusts.
The government’s answer is topromote private sector-ledgrowth, and encourage foreign in-vestment. A commercial strategyhas been drawn up for the mainsectors—fisheries, oil and mining,and agriculture—and the promo-tion of local products. The state-backed food import-exportcompany Sonimex is helpingfarmers to commercialize theirproduce.
In the industrial sector, the Min-istry of Commerce and Industry
is focusing on the developmentof small and medium sized en-terprises (SMEs). The informalsector represents the largest partof Mauritania’s market-orientedeconomy. The formal private sec-tor is still relatively small. Of 500SMEs, only 78 are adapted to themodern economy.
The ministry’s first objective isto strengthen Mauritania’s indus-try while eliminating the majori-ty of anonymous companies thatdo not meet the requirements ofa modern economy. At the sametime, it is promoting the emer-gence of new companies in allfields. The government is seekingto achieve this by providing in-centives to promote public-pri-vate partnerships.
At the same time, Maurita-nia has been strengthening itsexternal commercial links. TheMinistry of Foreign Affairs andCooperation has said that Mau-ritania could complete a part-nership agreement with theEconomic Community Of WestAfrican States (Ecowas), fromwhich it withdrew in 2001, bythe end of this year. Meanwhile,
it has been taking part in nego-tiations with Ecowas to securea partnership agreement withthe E.U.
Mauritania has held member-ship of the World Trade Organi-zation since 1995, and is also amember in the Arab MaghrebUnion, within which it also hopesto boost trade links.
At present, trade between theMauritania and the United Statesis pretty much one-way, with Mau-ritania importing from the U.S.but exporting very little of its pro-duce; the value of U.S. exports toMauritania was approximately $48million for the first four monthsof this year, while Mauritania’s ex-ports to the U.S. totaled just $1.3million.
Mauritania’s recent transitionto democracy makes it eligible tobenefit from AGOA, the U.S.African Growth and Opportuni-ty Act that significantly liberal-izes market access to the U.S. fordesignated Sub-Saharan Africancountries until 2015. The gov-ernment says it will take advantageof the opportunity to increase ex-changes in both directions.
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In recent years, Mauritania’sWorld Bank/IMF-influencedeconomic strategy has favoredprivatization, liberalization, andinvestment incentives. The statehas gradually been withdraw-ing from direct involvement inthe productive and commercialsector, and the private sector isnow regarded as the future en-gine of growth.
The current government’sstrategy is focused on promot-ing private investment, and inparticular foreign direct in-vestment (FDI). In order to dothis , the authorities are ad-dressing areas such as access tobank financing and basic infra-structure, and making changesto improve the business climate.
It would be idle to pretendthat Mauritania is able yet tooffer an ideal environment forprivate companies to operatein. In terms of ease of doingbusiness, the World Bank Do-ing Business Report for 2008ranks it 157 out of 178economies. However, legal, taxand administrative reforms arebeing brought in, obstacles re-moved, and a new investmentcode is aimed at providing in-centives and making it easier tostart up and run a business.
Mauritania already has anumber of things going for it asan investment destination.“There is a real democracy andthis is a very important step forthe country,” says Mohamed Ab-dellahi Ould Yaha, General Di-rector of the General Delegationfor the Promotion of Private In-vestment (DGPIP). He arguesthat located between sub-Sa-haran Africa and the Arabworld, and with its long Atlanticcoastline, Mauritania offers“enormous economic potential.”
Established and supervisedby President Abdallahi, DGPIP’stask is to assist foreign invest-ment in the best way possible.It also advises the governmenton projects or initiatives thatneed to be supported.
Mr. Yaha acknowledges the
challenges to be over-come, such as theneed to improve thefinancial system andthe country’s infra-structure, reform theJustice Departmentand increase profes-sional education. Buthe believes the newinvestment code,which takes its mod-el from abroad, willprove attractive. “Weare operating changesto equip the country with a codeof investments inspired bycountries with successful
Mark Boulware, the U.S.Ambassador in Nouakchott,gives his personalassessment of the prospectsfor a democratic Mauritania
How has the election of a de-mocratic government in Mau-ritania affected its relationshipwith the USA?
We have been very impressedwith the way Mauritania hasbeen able to complete the suc-cessful transition to democracy.There were many people in theUSA and in the world who werevery skeptical when the militarytook power, saying that theywould be unable totake the country todemocracy. But theywere serious partnerswho worked to pre-pare elections thatwere free, fair andtransparent, as wit-nessed unanimouslyby international ob-servers.
Mauritania hasturned a historic pageby reestablishingdemocracy, and theyare rightly proud of that.Mauritanians haveopened the door to anew kind of relation-ship with the U.S. Establishingdemocracy is one element, butthere is also the courageous ini-tiative of the President to makethis meaningful.
For that I will specifically cite hiscourage in taking on the most sen-sitive issues in society, such as thedecision to return the Mauritan-ian exiles expelled years ago andto integrate them peacefully. Theother issue is that of the vestigesof slavery, which was part of hiscampaign and that has for the firsttime been criminalized by a newlaw. These issues are very impor-tant and constitute a satisfactoryelement in the new relationshipbetween the U.S. and Mauritania.We, like other countries, are look-ing for ways to help this democ-racy to succeed.
What kind of assistance is theU.S. providing to the country?
For years, the USA has beenphysically absent from Maurita-nia. Although we handle our as-sistance program from Accra,Ghana, we are still engaged in help-ing the country. Given the politi-cal situation in the past, we havefocused on humanitarian assis-tance rather than on real develop-ment programs. Our largestprogram is for food aid, about $7million a year. We look forward tointroducing substantial addition-al development programs now thatMauritania is a new member ofthe Millennium Challenge.
How would you assess theprospects of the Mauritanianeconomy?
Mauritania has tremendouseconomic potential. Some is be-ing exploited and some is beingassessed commercially for furtherexploitation. To exploit all theseresources the government isaware that it is necessary to cre-ate the right atmosphere in termsof reforms and arrangements toensure investors’ confidence.
We know that there has beensome initial disappointment com-ing from the exploitation in the oilfield, which yields less than whatwas originally expected. But wehope to see that trend reversed incoming years. We also know that
the mineral business is develop-ing and can be added to the pe-troleum industry.
For the USA, we are looking atMauritania as a democracy thatcan benefit from the AfricanGrowth and Opportunity Act(AGOA) that opens the U.S. mar-ket to its products. The questionnow is what products will be com-petitive in the market. It is a realopportunity for the Mauritanianeconomy. U.S. businessmen havebeen almost totally absent fromMauritania except for the sales ofequipment and some services tothe mining and petroleum in-dustries, but I think this will in-
creasingly change in thefuture.
What advice would yougive U.S. companiesconsidering investingin Mauritania?
The first thing theyshould do is to get in-formed about all the op-portunities inMauritania. For that mycolleague at the Mauri-tanian Embassy in Wash-ington can help give allthe information theyneed before coming inon the ground wherethey could help develop
sectors which are not yet mature.Otherwise they can, for example,participate in workshops orga-nized at the embassy and increasetheir awareness of the country.
How would you characterizeMauritania to someone look-ing at it for the first time?
For thousands of years Mauri-tania has been a crossroad of civ-ilizations that have entered incontact. It belongs partly to NorthAfrica and the Maghreb and part-ly to the African Sahel. This makesa unique identity and a societywith different challenges to faceto keep that historical legacy. Thechallenge may be overcome if thecountry is helped in strengthen-ing its democracy through peaceand stability.
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FINANCE
Banking sector is “poised for significant growth”
“The Mauritanian banking sectoris poised for significant growth overthe next five years due to solidmacroeconomic fundamentals, anemerging consumer market, and agrowing corporate sector.” The pre-diction comes from Vincent LeGuennou, Executive Vice Presidentof the international private equityfirm Emerging Capital Partners(ECP), which last month revealedits $15.9 million investment in thecountry’s seventh largest bankinggroup.
ECP is confident that there arebig profits to be made in a marketthat currently has one of the low-est banking penetration rates inAfrica—just 4.2 percent—but wherethe economy is growing and foreigndirect investment rising.
BACIM Bank, in which ECP nowhas a controlling interest, was res-cued from bankruptcy not long ago,when the Central Bank of Mauri-tania (BCM) stepped in and tookover its management with a viewto eventually finding an external fi-
nancial partner to turn its fortunesaround.
ECP is one of several foreign in-stitutions that have entered Mau-ritania with the encouragement ofBCM, which is committed to fos-tering competition to boost devel-opment of the financial sector. TwoFrench banks have already estab-lished subsidiaries in the capital city,Nouakchott.
Modernization of the financialsystem is ongoing, with assistancefrom the World Bank and theBanque de France. Ousmane Kane,the Governor of the Central Bank,says the priority is to reform a bank-ing structure and network that wasborn in an economic environmentthat no longer prevails today.
The government’s determina-tion to implement a policy of trans-parency has made reform inevitable.“In a democratic context of free-dom and liberalization, with cus-tomers always demanding moreand with the arrival of foreign in-vestors, it is essential that the fi-
nancial sector adapts and becomesmore competitive,” he says. Thebanks are obliged to live and im-prove in this new context.
“This is a necessity, as our bank-ing network needs to have solidbanks. The decision has alreadybeen made to open the bankingsector to all partners who acceptthe conditions provid-ed in the law. Thesepartners will be treatedas equals to nationalbanks. This is a strate-gic decision, becausewe want our banks tobe strong when dealingwith foreign partners,who are welcome toserve the economic de-velopment of our coun-try.”
New regulations arebeing introduced relat-ing to bank licensing, risk, man-agement rules applicable to affiliatesand the establishment of a sanc-tions policy. These will provide foran increase of each bank’s net cap-ital to a minimum of UM4 billion($16 million) by the end of 2009and UM6 billion ($24 million) by
the end of 2010, in addition to fullprovisioning of their non-per-forming loans by the end of 2009and the conversion of their ac-counting systems to internationalreporting standards.
All banks will contribute to a de-posit guarantee fund to be estab-lished by the end of 2008. Also by
the end of this year, allbanks will have hadtheir end-of-2007 fi-nancial statements au-dited by internationallyrenowned firms.
The BCM itself is un-dergoing reform, in-cluding thestrengthening of itsown accounting prac-tices in line with inter-national standards. Incollaboration with theIMF, a strategic plan will
be adopted for the further devel-opment of the market and financialsystem. A new electronic paymentcard was introduced last August.
One of the most significantachievements, says Mr. Kane, hasbeen the installation of a foreignexchange market. “Since the cre-
ation of the Central Bank, thecourse of our currency has de-pended on the signature of theGovernor, who fixed the courseof the ouguiya, compared to anyother foreign currency, as he liked.Since January 26, 2007, the courseof the national currency is fixedevery day on the balance betweensupply and demand.”
The Governor says the new cli-mate of freedom in Mauritania is akey element in attracting foreigninvestors. “Mauritania is a rich coun-try, with great potential wheredemocracy is taking root in com-plete reconciliation with the inter-national community, withenthusiasm and without externalinterference,” he says.
“This is shown by social peace,real political freedom and pricestability. The country has a cur-rency whose course is relativelystable and has appreciated againstthe dollar. In January 2007, whenour free currency market was putinto practice, the exchange valueof the dollar was 270 ouguiyas,now it is 250 ouguiyas. There is,thus, real economic predictabil-ity for investors.”
The transition to democracy is having a profound effect on the Mauritanian financial system, which is undergoinga process of reform led by the Central Bank
Moves to attract foreign investment
INTERVIEW: MARK BOULWARE, U.S. AMBASSADOR
“They have turned a historicpage and are rightly proud”
OUSMANE KANEGovernor of the CentralBank of Mauritania
economies,” he says.Recent statistics
are hard to come by,but the flow of FDIinto Mauritania hasbeen increasingsince 2002, and ap-proximately $1.4 bil-lion is reported tohave come into thecountr y between2003 and 2006. Thishas been channeledprincipally into theoil and mining sec-
tors, with oil and gas fields bothoffshore and onshore attract-ing major foreign companies.
The fishing sector accounts formost of the remainder, althoughthe telecommunications sectorhas also attracted a share.
But as Mr. Yaha points out,other areas of economic activ-ity are also open. “All the keysectors are ready to accommo-date investors,” he says.
MOHAMED ABDELLAHIOULD YAHAGeneral Director of DGPIP
Distributed by USA TODAY Wednesday, July 30, 2008 33MAURITANIA
CChhaannggeess are being made to create a better business environment and provide incentives for investors
MARK BOULWARE, U.S. Ambassador toMauritania
MAURITANIA_USAT 03_04.qxd 16/7/08 11:00 Página 1
The Ministry of Agriculture is helping Mauritania to grow strong. By laying solid foundations, the agricultural sector is able to grow and the nation is becoming more self-sufficient.
Diverse and strong, the sector is full of investment potential. The Ministry invites foreign investors to come and lend their expertise to the development of infrastructures and technologies in order
to help widen the markets at the regional, and even international, level.
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE BREEDINGTel: +222 525 74 63, Fax: +222 525 78 63
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
On June 20 trucks left the capitalNouakchott and headed for thesouth and southeast of Maurita-nia. Loaded with more than 500tonnes of sorghum, millet, maizeand cowpea seed, the convoy waspart of emergency measures sup-ported by the Food and Agricul-ture Organization (FOA) of theUnited Nations.
In other regions of the country,distribution of seeds was beinghandled by the Mauritanian gov-ernment with a sense of urgency—the crops needed to be plantedimmediately to be ready for therainy season.
The activity was part of an im-mediate emergency response towhat has been a particularly badyear for food security in Maurita-nia. Crops were destroyed by a dev-astating combination of droughtand then floods last season, whilesoaring food costs on world mar-
kets have delivered a second blowto a country that depends on im-ports for 70 percent of what itspeople eat. In April, the govern-ment announced a $160 millionemergency program, including thesuspension of taxes on rice im-ports, new energy subsidies andstockpiling of wheat.
Yet even under more normalcircumstances, Mauritania strug-gles to meet 30 percent of its foodrequirements from its own pro-duction. Amadou Oumar Ba, a
World Bank agriculture expert,says the problem is structural. Hetold a recent joint World Bankand government conference inNouakchott, “We need to rethinkMauritania’s whole rural policy ifwe want to get away from an emer-gency mode of management.”
Most of Mauritania is desert andonly 0.2 percent is under cultiva-tion. Radisav Pavlovic, the FAOrepresentative in the country, saysthat of the 500,000 hectares thatcan be used for agriculture, just140,000 is irrigable land, in the val-ley of the Senegal River.
“Of that, only 45,000 hectares arein some way already equipped forirrigation. But due to the decayinginfrastructure and canals not beingmaintained, only some 15,000hectares—about 11 percent—arein fact irrigated.” He says the bestway to boost agriculture on a per-manent basis is to rehabilitate andexpand irrigation systems.
The government is making ef-forts to boost production in a con-certed bid for self-sufficiency,dubbing 2008 the Year of Agricul-ture. Loans have been provided toencourage farmers to bring extraland into cultivation and to pay forfertilizer and other expenses. Newtractors and combine harvestershave been promised. The govern-ment wants to see agricultural pro-duction doubled in the nextharvests to provide for 60 percentof the country’s food needs.
President Abdullahi says he is notasking the impossible by appealingfor food self-sufficiency. Mauritaniahas “sufficient arable land and wa-ter,” he insists. “We are not makingthe most of the potential and rich-es that Allah has given us.”
ALTHOUGH MOST OFTHE COUNTRY IS DESERT,THERE IS ARABLE ANDIRRIGABLE LANDAVAILABLE
Traditionally, Mauritanians are more used to herding camels, cattle, sheep and goats than growing crops, but the country needs to grow more of its own food and rely less on imports
Mauritania is a country in the northwest of Africa, blessed with vast cultivable, irrigable grounds ideal for livestock products, and many miles
of coastline with some of the world’s richest fishing areas. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry and SONIMEX, the national society for
imports and exports, work to promote private partnership, foster strong economic growth and fight against poverty. Along these lines, the two
organizations are providing favorable conditions for partnerships and are opening doors to American investors interested in entering agreements for
the exchange of products: Mauritania’s excellent local products from its strong sectors including fishing and mining, for USA wheat.
By joining forces, poverty can be eradicated and the general well-being of the Mauritanians can be improved.
MINISTRY OF COMMERCEAND INDUSTRY
www.commerce.gov.mrSONIMEX www.sonimex.mr
AGRICULTURE
Food crisis prompts moves to bring moreland into production and raise output
Distributed by USA TODAYWednesday, July 30, 200844 MAURITANIA
WWiitthh crops wiped out by drought andfloods and food costs rising, Mauritaniamust find ways to give farming a boost
Private sector participation is es-sential if the agricultural sector isto get the extensive developmentit needs, says Correra Issagha,Minister for Agriculture and Cat-tle Breeding, before the July cab-inet re-shuffle.
The Minister insists that agri-culture and ranching both offergreat potential for investment,and is keen to stress that goodgovernance and legal reform area cornerstone of the sector'smodernization.
“We want to help create a pro-tected environment that will con-tribute to increasing productionand encourage private investors,”he says. “We have potential interms of arable land and of live-stock but we do not have the ca-pacity to exploit them profitably.We would like investors to comeand find Mauritanian privatepartners, even at the level of sim-
ple farmers who have land butlack the means to exploit it.”
50 percent of the national la-bor force works in agriculture,but the vast majority do no morethan scrape a pover-ty-stricken subsis-tence from the land.“It will be necessaryto organize them andgive them training,”says Mr. Issagha. “Weneed to work moreland and acquire newirrigation equip-ment.”
Mauritania’s rein-statement into AGOAis a positive develop-ment for the sector.Mr. Issagha hopes togo one better and attract U.S. in-vestors. “We need American ex-perience in order to developinfrastructure, to produce more
efficiently and to widen our mar-kets at the regional and interna-tional level,” he says.
The government has in place afavorable investment code that
guarantees foreign in-vestors the same rightsas Mauritanian firms,and applies to both agri-culture and ranching.There are also a num-ber of programs fi-nanced by internationalinstitutions aimed atstrengthening the agri-culture sector.
A project for the sus-tainable developmentof oases aims to extendagriculture in these ar-eas beyond date palm
crops to corn, barley and truckfarming. Key to this is water. “Weare learning how to re-feed groundwater reserves by encouraging
greater infiltration of rainwater inareas with dams, lakes or tempo-rary streams,” says Mr. Issagha.
Research laboratories have beenestablished in the northern set-tlement of Atar to observe andstudy plant diseases, develop andimprove crops and work towardsachieving greater productivity.“There is a similar program in thefield of ranching to identify a breedof goats better adapted to this aridenvironment and able to producemore milk,” the Minister says.
Other programs focus on com-munity development plans, de-creasing grazing pressure onexposed grass and supplying vet-erinary medicines to stockbreed-ers. A project for the developmentof irrigated crops intervenes inzones along the River Senegal todiversify cultivation away fromrice and extend the duration ofthe growing season.
Opportunities for the private sector
CORRERA ISSAGHAMinister of Agriculture and Cattle Breeding
MAURITANIA_USAT 03_04.qxd 16/7/08 11:00 Página 2
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
Mauritania is blessed with more than 700 kilometers of coastline and is
capable of producing hundreds of tons of raw fish. The Ministry of Fisheries
has put into effect responsible and sustainable methods for efficient fishing
and is working to develop real seaport infrastructures able to freeze,
process and package the fish. This will add value to the entire industry,
which, in turn will help fight against over-exploitation of the resources.
MINISTRY OF FISHERIES
ONISPA:
Office National d’Inspection Sanitaire des
Produits de la Pêche et de l’Aquaculture
www.peches.gov.mr
ENEMP
Ecole Nationale d'Enseignement
Maritime et des Pêches
EPBR
Etablissement Portuaire
de la Baie de Repos
IMROP
Institut Mauritanien de Recherches
Océanographiques et des Pêches
SMCP
Société Mauritanienne de
Commercialisation de Poissons
Mauritania’s 460 miles of Atlanticcoastline is home to some of therichest fisheries in the world—atrove that provides the govern-ment with between 25 percentand 30 percent of its national bud-get and represents 6 percent ofgross domestic product. Morethan 36,000 people owe theirlivelihood to the sector, whichcurrently lands around 400,000tons of fish a year.
But Mauritania’s waters, likemany others, face the threat ofover-fishing, as global fish stockscome under pressure from risingdemand.
Currently, the na-tional fleet of 130-140trawlers is matched bya similar number ofships from countriesin the EuropeanUnion, and there arealso boats from Japan,Russia and EasternEurope. Most focuson octopus, squid andother deep-waterspecies; the rest tar-get pelagic fish suchas mackerel and sardines, or shell-fish such as shrimp and lobster.
“The fishing sector is one of theessential pillars of the Mauritan-ian economy,” notes AssaneSoumaré, the Minister of Fish-eries before the July re-shuffle.“Unfortunately, the resources arecurrently being over-fished bynearly 40 percent, which, in thelong run will lead to the sector'scollapse. Although our fish re-sources are renewable, theyshould be protected.”
This means fishing less, but get-ting more value from the catch,as well as encouraging less inten-sive traditional fishing practicesthat bring a higher return to lo-cal fishermen.
There is clearly a good deal ofpotential in the sector. Currently95 percent of fishing products areexported without undergoing anysort of value-added process.
The Ministry’s objective is tocreate infrastructure, such as fish-ing harbors for unloading and aprocessing industry, to prepareexport products. About 15 medi-
um-sized processingplants currently oper-ate, mainly in the portof Nouadhibou to thenorth, and benefit fromlow labor costs. “Allthat will help us to cre-ate jobs in innumerablerelated activities suchas packing, hull-re-pairing, ship equip-ment, and so on,” saysMr. Soumaré.
In time, he hopes tomeet the standards re-
quired by U.S. harbor authoritiesfor Mauritanian ships and so es-tablish direct maritime relationswith the U.S. He believes Mauri-tania could be a good source forU.S. fish importers, particularlyof shrimp and lobster.
With this will come incentivesfor private investment, from theprovision of relevant infrastruc-ture to the creation of public/pri-vate partnerships and thedevelopment of a transparent andindependent regulatory environ-
Protectingthe wealthof the sea FFiisshhiinngg is a pillar of the economy that has to be carefully managed toavoid over-exploitation
As part of its drive to create a sustainableand high-value fisheries industry, the gov-ernment recently renegotiated a new part-nership agreement with the EuropeanUnion. The deal, which applies from Au-gust 1, 2008 to July 31, 2012, cuts the amountof fish that E.U. trawlers can harvest andnods towards industry development andconservation.
Europe has come under fire from conser-vationists for depleting West Africa’s fishstocks even as it tries to protect its own, andthe new agreement is a response to this.
"We have concluded a deal that is mutu-ally profitable for both Mauritania and the
E.U.," says Assane Soumaré, Minister ofFisheries.
A total of around $168 million is on offer.Of this, some $117 million is a fee for theright to fish in Mauritanian waters, downfrom the previous $133.5 million. This isboosted by royalties based on the size of thecatch, and $25 million in development fundsto create sustainable fisheries, up from $15.5million previously.
The E.U. quota has been cut to 275,000tons from 485,000 tons, with an extra twomonths’ break in the fishing timetable toprotect breeding resources.
The deal will cut pelagic catches by 43
percent, cephalopods by 25 percent andmixed catches by 41 percent. It also stipu-lates a reduction in the number of tuna boatsto 44 from 69, cephalopod boats to 32 from41 and pelagic boats to 17 from 25.
Other bilateral agreements are also com-ing into play. Spain has promised $3 millionin funds to help Mauritania develop its tra-ditional fishing industry as part of an aidprogram to fight poverty.
However, the deal is only part of the bat-tle for Mauritania. Many other nations fishin the country’s Atlantic waters, notably Chi-na and Russia, without making any com-mitment to encourage sustainable fishing.
ASSANE SOUMAREMinister of Fisheries
Deal gives greater protection to fish stocks
ment. Zoning rules also aim toboost the catch of pelagic species,which are under-exploited incomparison with larger speciessuch as tuna.
As well as seeking greater globalinvolvement with the fishing in-dustry, including a new accord withthe European Union, Mauritania isalso pursuing regional deals, suchas potential bilateral co-operationwith its neighbor Tunisia. Mr.Soumaré recently held talks withTunisian Minister of Agricultureand Water Resources, MohamedHabib Haddad, about the potentialfor Tunisian support in improvingfishery performance and boostingquality to international standards,
particularly in the processing of bluefish and equipping ports.
Mauritania has also signed ayear-long agreement with Sene-gal, which will assign 300 tradi-tional fishing permits toSenegalese fishermen in exchangefor 15 percent of their catch, aswell as ten industrial permits fortuna boats. In addition to tax re-turns, Mauritania will gain rightsto fish in Senegalese waters.
“The objective of all this is toenable us to protect our fish re-sources by maintaining balancewhile developing them throughintegrated, sustainable and prof-itable modern economic activity,”says Mr. Soumaré.
Distributed by USA TODAY Wednesday, July 30, 2008 5MAURITANIA
A deal with Senegal will allow bilateral access to West African coastal waters
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
Trundling across the desert, thetrains that haul iron ore from thevast mines in northern Maurita-nia to the Atlantic port of Nouad-hibou are among the longest andheaviest in the world. With up to210 wagons, pulled by three orfour 3.300 HP General Motorstank engines located at the front,and a payload of 84 tonnes, theycan extend for up to one and ahalf miles and weigh an average of22,000 tonnes.
Six trains circulate simultane-ously—three of them full and ontheir way to the coast, and threereturning empty to the miningcenters of the Zouérate region.Maintenance can be a challenge.The tracks can become buried insand, and suffer premature wearunder the enormousweight passing overthem.
The 450-mile railnetwork is owned andrun by the National In-dustrial and MiningCompany (SNIM),whose operations ac-count for much ofMauritania’s exportearnings, providingemployment for thou-sands of Mauritaniansinvolved in the min-ing industry and associated ser-vices and infrastructure. Thecompany also owns and operatesthe ship loading and storage fa-cilities near Nouadhibou that arecapable of handling vessels of upto 160,000DWT.
Last year, SNIM contributed 14percent to Mauritania's gross do-mestic product independent ofoil revenues. The company’s sharein total exports was 40 percent,and its contribution to the na-tional budget reached 14 percent.It is the largest employer in Mau-ritania after the state.
Established in 1974, SNIM is78 percent owned by the govern-ment, with the remaining 22 per-cent held by Arab financial andmining organizations.
Africa's second largest produc-er of iron ore, and the world’s sev-enth largest supplier, it is one offew remaining independent, long-term suppliers of iron ore to theEuropean steel industry. It alsosupplies Algeria, and Asian coun-tries like Pakistan and China,where rapid rates of economicgrowth have pushed up demand,taking global prices for iron ore tonew highs. Some analysts havepredicted the price could doublethis year.
The mining is carried out inhuge open pits at three main lo-
cations. Naturallyhigh-grade iron ore isextracted at Kedia andM’Haoudat, while thelow-grade magneticores from the Guelb ElRhein are turned intoconcentrates. SNIMcurrently producesnearly 12 million tonsof iron ore per year, butplans to increase out-put to 20 million tonsby 2012.
“We are now devel-oping projects which we regardas being urgent for achieving ourproduction goals for the short andmedium terms,” says MohamedAli Ould Sidi Mohamed, the firm’sChief Executive Officer.
These include rehabilitating thehandling infrastructure in Nouad-hibou, mechanizing the mainte-nance of the railway and buildinga new ore tanker harbor. All theseprojects should be operational by2011 at the latest.
The company’s latest strategicplan is also directed toward im-proving the quality of its products
and services, prospecting and de-veloping new markets. It also aimsto develop its mining research andhuman resources, and improve itsoperational efficiency.
Last year, SNIM won two ma-jor deals to export iron to China:one to supply the China Min-metals Corporation with 1.5 mil-lion tons of iron a year over thenext seven years, the other to sup-ply 1 million tons annually to Lai-wu Iron and Steel Group over afive-year period.
In January, ArcelorMittal, theworld’s largest steelmaker, an-nounced plans for a joint ventureto exploit SNIM’s El Agareb ironore deposit, which is said to con-tain more than 1.1 billion tons ofrich grade magnetite. The Lux-embourg-based company wants tomine 27.5 million tons of iron orea year at El Agareb. That would bemore than double SNIM’s currentoutput. ArcelorMittal says Mau-ritania’s strategic location makesit an ideal choice to supply its Eu-ropean steel mills.
In addition to strengthening itsprincipal activities in exploitingand marketing iron ore, SNIM al-so aims to boost its seven subsidiarycompanies operating in tourism,general services, consignment, har-bor transit and handling, buildingand civil engineering, foundry andmechanical engineering, amongothers.
It strives to be regarded as a so-cially responsible company com-mitted to its workers. “We placethe human factor at the heart ofour development policies,” saysMr. Ould Sidi Mohamed.
Employees live in two company-built towns, Zouérate and Cansa-do, close to Nouadhibou, that areequipped with schools, clinics,recreational centers and religiousfacilities. A new project is beingset up to build 1,000 houses.
SNIM also places great impor-tance on the welfare and the de-velopment of local communities.In January, it created a SNIMFoundation, which is involved inhealthcare, education and micro-finance.
Foreign investment is crucial tothe exploitation of Mauritania’smineral resources, which, in ad-dition to iron ore, include gyp-sum, copper, phosphate anddiamonds.
China’s Exim Bank is con-tributing $686 million to finance70 percent of the cost of a new290-mile railroad linking phos-phate deposits at Bofal in thesouth of the country with thecapital, Nouakchott. The linewill take three years to build,with the remainder of the costcoming from Mauritania’s Phos-phate Company.
Mauritania became an oil pro-ducing country in February2006, when it started pumpingcrude from its Chinguetti field,approximately 40 miles off itsAtlantic coastline.
Discovered in 2001, Chinguet-ti has estimated reserves of morethan 120 million barrels of oillocated deep below the seafloor.Malaysia’s national oil compa-ny, Petronas, which bought theoilfield from Australia’s Wood-side Petroleum last year, starteddrilling in February.
Exploration wells at other off-shore sites have also resulted insignificant oil and gas discover-ies. The Tiof field, operated byPetronas, may contain up to 350million barrels of oil. The Ban-da field, also operated byPetronas, has estimated gas re-serves of 3-5 trillion cubic feet(tcf ). The Pelican natural gasfield, operated by U.K.-basedDana Petroleum, may contain1-1.5 tcf.
Partners Tullow Oil and RocOil of Australia recently an-nounced a fresh find of oil andgas at Banda NW. London-based
Tullow holds interests in eightoffshore blocks.
Onshore, the vast TaoudenniBasin, a desert area of 19,000square miles that extends northto Algeria and east to Mali, isthe focus of particular interest.Exploration blocks have beenawarded to the China NationalPetroleum Company (CNPC),France’s Total and Repsol ofSpain.
Only two wells have beendrilled so far, but Total plans tostart drilling next year, and hassold stakes to Qatar Petroleumand the Algerian energy giantSonatrach. Petronas, CNCP andExxon are conducting geo-phys-ical studies and preparing seis-mic tests.
Expectations of Mauritaniabenefiting from large sustainedoil revenues anytime soon havehad to be scaled back, however.Technical problems and thecomplexity of the Chinguettifield have resulted in significantlylower output than was initiallyprojected.
Production has fallen from ahigh of 75,000 barrels per day in
2006 to an average of 15,000 bpd.Operations at two new oilfields,Tiof and Tevet, which had beenexpected to result in a substan-tial increase in oil revenues from2010, will probably be delayeduntil 2011-12.
In the light of these difficulties,the government is basing itsgrowth projections for 2008 ona “prudent hypothesis” of a grad-ual reduction in oil production,which it says should average13,000 bpd over the year.
This downward revisiondemonstrates the danger ofMauritania becoming too de-pendent on a single economicactivity. Nevertheless, hopes forfuture prospects for the indus-try remain high.
Petronas has declared its“commitment and long term as-pirations in Mauritania's oil andgas industry” and plans to drilltwo new production wells.
In June South Africa’s EnergyMinister, Buyelwa Sonjica, saidhis country was interested inbuying oil from Mauritania andwould be setting up an embassyin Nouakchott to facilitate bi-
The search forblack gold goes onOOiill mmaajjoorrss continue to seek new discoveries despitelowering of production from Chinguetti field
AAffrriiccaa’’ss sseeccoonndd llaarrggeesstt iirroonn ore producer is modernizingits installations and winning new export contracts
MINISTRY OF OIL AND MINING www.mines.gov.mr
SMH Société Mauritanienne
des Hydrocarbureswww.smh.mr
The Mauritanian Company of Hydrocarbons, SMH, and the Ministry of Oil
and Mining invite investors to join them as they explore the country’s
newly discovered resources: oil and gas. Basing operations on
transparency, development of human capital, sustainability and overall good
governance, the budding industry offers solid opportunities.
SNIM operates its own 450-mile rail network to transport iron ore from open pit mines inthe north to the Atlantic coast
Deposits of natural gas discoveredin Mauritania are officially esti-mated at 30 billion cubic meters,opening up the prospect of ex-ports, as well as domestic use.
An agreement has been signedwith Gaz de France (GDF), Eu-rope’s leading natural gas suppli-er, initiating a long-termpartnership in the developmentof the country’s energy resources.The deal involves a feasibilitystudy by GDF for a supply chain,extending from the explorationand production of natural gas, toliquefaction and export by sea topotential markets inEurope or NorthAmerica.
The French com-pany will also be look-ing into the possibilityof using gas to gen-erate electricity inMauritania, and pro-viding specializedtraining to Maurita-nians.
GDF began ex-ploring in Maurita-nia in 2005.Following agree-ments with Dana Pe-troleum of the U.K., it now ownsstakes in three offshore explo-ration blocks, with Dana re-maining the operator.
François Verdier, GDF’s Gen-eral Manager in Mauritania,points out that estimates given atthe beginning of any explorationare usually very approximate.
“Once the gas discovery ismade, it is necessary to carry
out complementarywork to really beable to announce re-liable figures interms of volume es-timate,” he says. “Forexample, if you havea figure of about 30billion cubic meters,uncertainty willprobably extendfrom 10 to 60 billioncubic meters and re-ality will be betweenthese two extremes.”
He also stressesthat the whole process, from es-tablishing a drilling program toits realization and the analysis ofthe results, can be a long one andis dependent on the availabilityof the drilling machines on the in-ternational market.
“The permits for hydrocarbonexploration are granted for athree-year renewable period,” hesays. “During these three years,
we have the contractual obliga-tion of carrying out one or twooperations, which can be eithera seismic campaign, or a struc-tural test drilling.
“Currently in the three blocksin which we are in partnership,our activities are at different ad-vancement stages. For one of thepermits we will carry out a seis-mic campaign this year.
“In another of the blocks, wewill reprocess all the seismic da-ta and interpret it for position-ing one or two drillings nextyear. For the third block, the ac-tion to be taken depends on thedecisions of our partners.”
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
Distributed by USA TODAY Wednesday, July 30, 2008 7MAURITANIASMH
National oilcompany willbe “a catalyst”
NATURAL GAS
French partner investigatespotential for LNG exports
PETROLEUM
A key link in the chain of the nation’s energy supply
SNIM, or National Society of Industry and Mining, combines its corebusiness – exploration, production, marketing and development of ironore resources – with a strong commitment to contributing towardsMauritania’s economic and social development and to helping to protect the environment through the responsible management of ournatural resources.
Siège Social B.P. 42 Nouadhibou, MauritanieTel. : +222 574 1000/ 5741002Fax : +222 574 53 96E-mail : [email protected]: www.snim.com
With its sole refinery at Nouad-hibou out of action, Mauritaniahas to import the petroleumproducts it needs at a rate ofaround 24,000 barrels per day.
Petroleum products for all im-porters and distributors arestored by MEPP, which has op-erated in Mauritania for morethan 40 years. The companyserves all seven principal pe-troleum suppliers: SMP Atlas,Somelec, Star Oil, Total,Pétrodis, Naftec and Oryx.
“We enjoy the trust peopleplace in us because of our know-how in this field, our expertiseand our impartiality,” saysAhmed Salem Kamil, MEPP’sGeneral Director.
As the only company in itsfield in Mauritania, MEPP playsa vital role in the maintenanceof the country’s energy supply.Says Mr. Kamil, “MEPP consti-tutes a very important logistictool in the chain of exploitation
of these products, and with thisensures the safety of the provi-sioning of our country.”
MEPP owns two warehouses,in Nouakchott with a capacity ofalmost 200,000 square feet, andanother in Nouadhibou for thefisheries sector. It also managesthe warehouses of the inactivestate-owned refinery. MEPP isable to make use of the refin-ery’s oil jetty, which is a majorasset because of the bay thatshelters it and allows it to re-ceive large vessels of up to 50,000tons.
In addition to the warehouseat Nouadhibou, the companymanages a new state-ownedwarehouse in Nouakchott ,which is the product of cooper-ation between Mauritania andSpain, and has a capacity of650,000 square feet.
“Over the last 40 years we havehad to restructure and adapt tothe increasing needs of the
country which today amount toabout 500,000 tons per annum,”says Mr. Kamil. “Storage capac-ity, means of provisioning fromoutside, the periodic out-of-stock conditions, all posed realproblems for the safety of thestocks and led us to conceivethe project of these new instal-lations, which function today.”
Earlier this year, the Aus-tralian company Winfield Re-sources was conditionallygranted a license to build andoperate a new stand-alone oilrefinery at Nouakchott with acapacity of 300,000 barrels perday as part of a multi-billiondollar scheme.
SMH aims to ensure thatMauritania gets the maximumbenefit from its new oil industry
State participation in the oil sec-tor is through the fledgling na-tional oil company, theMauritanian Company for Hy-drocarbons (SMH). Establishedin 2005 and supervised by theMinistry of Oil and Mining, SMHis tasked with maximizing the oilsector’s value to the country,while developing partnershipswith the international oil com-panies.
“Our aim is to defend and pre-serve national interests while act-ing as a reliable partner withinthe framework of mutually ad-vantageous collaboration,” saysAboubakr Ould Maroini, thecompany’s General Manager. “Allthings considered, our aim is tobecome a catalyst for the new oilindustry that is developing inMauritania, and to contribute tothe development of the nationaleconomy in a sus-tainable and bal-anced way.”
SMH will remaina minority partner inproduction sharingarrangements until itacquires the neces-sary skills to manageoil projects. The chal-lenge, says Mr.Maroini, is to makethe company a poleof technical excel-lence.
A production shar-ing deal signed in De-cember with the Algeriannational oil company Sonatrachfor an area in the Taoudenni Basinis the first in which SMH will par-ticipate right from the explorationphase.
“With the contracts currentlyin progress we have only partic-ipated after the oil deposits dis-covered were declared good forcommercial exploitation,” ex-plains Mr. Maroini.
“From the beginning, the con-tract with Sonatrach will enableour technical teams to take partin field activities, and to developtheir skills in geological research,seismic campaigns, drilling andso on. This is an advantage as ourAlgerian partner has a lot of ex-perience in terrain that is simi-lar to our Mauritanian basins.”
The contract exemplifies thekind of partnership that SMHwould like to establish with oth-er industrial groups in both on-shore and offshore oil activities.“We want Mauritania, throughSMH, to be able to take part inexploration and in all the otherstages in the development of anoil project,” says Mr. Maroini.
He says American oil explo-ration companies should be in-
terested in coming to Mauritaniabecause of the very favorable con-ditions in the new investmentcode. “Our oil code is being read-justed to offer more guaranteesand advantageous conditions toinvestors.
“As a potential partner of newcompanies and investors readyto start business in Mauritania,SMH for its part will strive tomake contracts more attractiveby facilitating all administrativeprocedures.”
In terms of services, Americancompanies are among the worldleaders, he observes. “We cur-rently deal with many Americanservice providers such as Hal-liburton, Weatherford, and Bak-er Hughes who participate atvarious levels in the developmentof this sector such as drilling andseismic campaigns.”
SMH is eager to develop Mau-ritania’s human capital by work-ing with partners on the transferof know-how and technologies.
“We would like todevelop relationshipswhich envisage train-ing for Mauritaniangraduates who wouldbe capable of workingin American compa-nies in Mauritania,”says Mr. Maroini.
Commenting on thefall in production dueto problems at theChinguetti oilfield, hesays lessons have beenlearned and that thereis plenty of scope forfurther exploration and
discoveries. “We should redoubleour efforts, because the oil sec-tor will gradually develop throughnew deposit discoveries that needto be exploited. The errors whichwere made in the development ofChinguetti will be avoided withthe upcoming fields.”
Mr. Maroini stresses the effortsbeing made to ensure trans-parency in the oil sector and ad-herence to standards set by theExtractive Industries Trans-parency Initiative (EITI). “ForMauritania, the decision to ad-here to the EITI is fundamentalbecause it enables the country tostart on a good basis by devel-oping a culture of transparency,”he says.
“There have been negative ef-fects in some oil-producing coun-tries where only a small minorityhas become very rich, but therehave been no benefits for the ma-jority of the population.
“From the beginning, the ad-vent of SMH was a factor incleansing the system involved inoil management. From that verymoment we decided to respondtransparently to the public’s ex-pectations by releasing all the fig-ures referring to our activity.”
ABOUBAKR OULD MAROINIGeneral Manager of SMH
FRANCOIS VERDIERGeneral Manager,Mauritania, of Gaz de France
lateral relations. The Ministry ofOil and Mines welcomes theprospect of cooperation with acountry that has plenty of expe-rience in energy and mining, andwill look to South Africa as asource of skills and technique inthis field.
Meanwhile, Mauritania hasgranted a license to Winfield Re-sources of Vancouver, Canada, tobuild, own and operate a new300,000 bpd oil refinery at thePort of Nouakchott. The $7 bil-lion contract includes construc-tion of desalination and powerplants.
Oil, like any new resource, canbecome a curse or a blessing fora country, depending on the waythe resource is managed, and howits income fosters the govern-
ment’s general budget, econom-ic growth and helps diversify thenational economy.
The Mauritanian authoritiesappear determined to get it rightfrom the start. A national hy-drocarbon revenue fund(FNRH), has been created, man-aged by the Ministry of Financeand the Central Bank of Mauri-tania (BCM), into which all gov-ernment revenues from thehydrocarbon sector are trans-ferred.
The government says manage-ment of oil revenue will remaintransparent, with annual auditsby internationally recognizedfirms published annually. Em-phasis is being put on adherenceto global standards set by the Ex-tractive Industries TransparencyInitiative (EITI). Details of all pro-duction sharing contracts signedby Mauritania are placed on theOil Ministry’s website.
A NATIONAL OIL FUNDHAS BEEN CREATED TORECEIVE ALL REVENUESFROM THE SECTOR, ANDTHE GOVERNMENT ISCOMMITTED TOTRANSPARENCY
Mauritania is pushing to develop its nascent oil and gas export capabilities through improved financing, increased transparency in public and private involvement, government fiscalreforms and the addition of various international partners, chiefly financiers, to oversee the flow of profits
Gaz de France began drilling in Mauritania, which may hold 30 billion c3, in 2005
Our World Insert is produced by United World. USA TODAY did not participate in its preparation and is not responsible for its content
Awaiting the more adventuroustraveler—a land of desert treasures
Unlike some other coastal Africandesert nations, Mauritania hasbeen historically slow to exploit itspotential as a tourist destination,leaving its near neighbors Mo-rocco and Tunisia to win the lion’sshare of the sector’s rewards.
Mauritania’s attractions are nu-merous. The Atlantic coast fea-tures nearly 500 miles of sandybeach, supporting a wide and var-ied bird population, as well as aninternationally renowned nation-al park, the Parc National du Bancd’Arguin—an ecologically diversearea of mudflats, wetlands, islandsand coastline that offers a wealthof opportunities for eco-tourism.
The desert also has its hiddentreasures. Four old stone cities,dating back to the 12th century,used to be key stopovers on the olddesert caravan routes. Known asksours, these vital trading stationswere also key centers of learningand built up extensive libraries ofunique and priceless manuscripts.
Now given UNESCO WorldHeritage status, these cities—Chinguetti and Ouadane in thenorth, Oualata and Tichitt in thesouth-east—offer visitors wind-ing streets and historic buildingswith their hidden caches of ex-traordinary works, including a10th century Koran written ongazelle skin.
Other striking attractions in-clude the Adrar—a spectacularplateau area located 200 milesnorth-east of the capital, featur-ing canyons, palm groves and theoasis town of Atar, the market cen-ter for the nomadic people ofnorthern Mauritania, which is justa day’s excursion away fromChinguetti.
Handicrafts, too, offer great po-
tential for tourism, including col-orful leatherwork, gold and sil-versmithing, copper work andwoodwork. Training is being im-proved and new technologies in-troduced to make the productsmore competitive on both nationaland international markets.
Trade-guild programs havebeen initiated with French crafts-men who visit the country to helptheir Mauritanian colleagues mas-ter new tool technologies to boostefficiency and produce exportgoods.
Mauritania’s location is abonus—just five hours by air fromParis, France, it is potentially aperfect gateway between Europe,the U.S., North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Infrastructure im-provements, such as a new airportat Néma to the east and highwaydevelopment between Nouak-
chott, the capital, and Nouadhi-bou on the Moroccan border, arealso opening up the country.
The government’s targets areambitious. Mauritania has beenattracting up to 42,000 foreign vis-itors, bringing in $42.7 million inrevenue—almost four percent ofthe annual budget—and it wantsthis to rise to 100,000 arrivals by2012.
However, there has been a ma-jor setback. Despite Maurita-nia’s status as a stable democracyand the tightening of internalsecurity, several recent terrorist-related attacks have hit visitornumbers hard and led to thecancellation of the 2008 Lisbon-Dakar road rally—a key attrac-tion.
The government believes theeffect will prove temporary andis currently looking at how to
MEDIA
Censorship has gone but it’s earlydays for a free and effective press The switch to democracy hasopened the door to pressfreedom but there needs to bewider access to news andinformation
A choice of newspapers and jour-nals is nothing new in Maurita-nia—hundreds were registeredduring the long authoritarian ruleof President Taya. However, fewappeared regularly and, althoughthe constitution guaranteed free-dom of speech and of the press, inpractice the government exercisedtight control over what was pub-lished.
State censorship ensured thattricky subjects such as slavery werenot examined in the public arena,and newspapers containing arti-cles the government deemed un-acceptable could be banned orseized. The authorities freely ex-ploited powers under Article 11 ofthe constitution enabling them totake action against any publicationdeemed to threaten national sov-ereignty, security or unity, or the ter-ritorial integrity of Mauritania, orthat were said to insult Islam orforeign heads of state.
Independent media was virtuallynon-existent. Almost the entirepress was controlled by the state,including privately owned media.Inevitably, newspapers promotedthe government’s image before pro-viding citizens with reliable infor-mation. All domestic television andradio broadcasting services werestate owned, and their coverage al-so provided a favorable view of thegovernment. Private radio broad-casting was banned.
The situation improved rapidlyafter President Taya was deposedin 2005 and there was a general re-turn to civil liberties. The transi-tional government effectivelysuspended Article 11 as part of itseffort to liberalize the press andtherefore curtail state censorship.
A supervisory body, the High Au-thority for the Press and Broad-casting (HAPA), has beenestablished to regulate the media.
International press monitor-ing organizations, such as Re-porters Without Frontiers (RWF)and IFEX, have noted significantprogress. After monitoring lastyear’s election coverage, RWFpraised “the sustained efforts ofthe public media to respect thecomplex rules of fairness and bal-ance in covering news from thedifferent presidential candidates.”
It also praised the “pragmatismand constructive spirit” of theHAPA.
RWF judges the problems ofMauritania’s press since the fall ofPresident Taya to be “less seriousbut more complicated”, citing sev-eral instances of the use of libel ac-tions and assault against the press,but also a lack of professional ethicsamong some journalists.
IFEX notes the “enormousprogress” made toward free speechand that the press is now “subject
to a legal regime that intends to fa-cilitate citizen access to news andinformation”. However, it also ob-serves that there is still a state mo-nopoly on broadcasting and thatprivate media have almost no ac-cess to information from publicauthorities. “Withholding infor-mation is still a serious handicapfor the private press in Maurita-nia,” it says.
While there is a wide variety ofprivately owned newspapers aswell as state owned print media,they are not readily available out-side the cities and are printed on-ly in Arabic and French, thusexcluding Mauritania’s blackAfrican citizens.
Agence Nouakchott d’Informa-tion (ANI) is an independent gen-eral news agency, a branch of theMauritanienne de Presse, d’Edi-tion, de Communication et d’Im-pression (MAPECI), whichpublishes the two daily newspa-pers, Nouakchott Info and AkhbarNouakchott. Chekhna Ould Nen-ni, its General Director, says it seeksto provide a reliable source of freeinformation, processed with pro-fessionalism, objectivity and speed.“These last years, there have beenno more taboos, and we can ques-tion the various political actors,”he says.
Mr. Nenni says Mauritanian me-dia currently lack the means toconvey the image of the country tothe outside world. He would liketo see a national strategy to assistthe emergence of national pressbodies equipped to reach an audi-ence beyond national borders.
“For the moment the image ofMauritania is conveyed at the in-ternational level by foreign mediavisiting the country, by press cor-respondents based here or by theservices of diplomatic missions,”he says. “The image of Mauritaniais generally incomplete, negativeor lacking neutrality.”
attract private investment intothe sector, promoting Maurita-nia as a safe country with stablepolitical institutions. Represen-tatives from the Ministry ofTourism and Handicrafts werein Paris in May to launch a week-long tourism exposition aimed
at reviving the industry and ad-vertising Mauritania’s positiveinvestment climate.
A number of regional in-vestors are moving in to helpdevelop the potential. In March,Tunisia signed a convention withMauritania to boost coopera-
tion in tourism development,specifically in the area of train-ing.
As well as grants to Mauri-tanian students, the conventionwill offer shared expertise in ho-tel management, organizationof events such as trade fairs andthe creation of a tourist devel-opment agency to manage, de-velop and market tourist resortsin Mauritania.
In addition, a memorandumof understanding has beensigned between the governmentand Al Qudra Holding, the firstprivate investment company inAbu Dhabi. Al Qudra Holdingplans to invest in a number of
large projects in Mauritania, in-cluding tourism, though it hasyet to specify the funds involved.“There is an immense potentialand we see great possibilities forits people and their beautifulcountry,” says Al Qudra HoldingChairman and Managing Di-rector Salah Salem Al Shamsi.
Mauritania is also cooperat-ing with neighboring Mali to of-fer tourists the chance to spendshort trips on either side of thecommon border and hopes toimplement a similar strategywith Senegal to the south. It isalso streamlining the process ofvisa application to smooth theway for visitors.
Mauritania’s 500 miles of coastline and dramtic desertscapes are interspersed with UNESCO World Heritage sites and areas of outstanding natural beauty
A variety ofprivately ownednewspapers arepublished.
Distributed by USA TODAYWednesday, July 30, 20088 MAURITANIA
Despite recentsetbacks,Mauritania isattractinginvestment intodevelopment of itstourism industry
The government is addressingthe problems created by thearrival of waves of ruralmigrants in Mauritania’surban centers
On the outskirts of Nouakchott,and other large cities, tens of thou-sands live in crowded, slum-likeconditions. Driven from the coun-try by successive years of droughtand bad harvests, they have be-come the urban poor, lacking inqualifications or job skills, andputting pressure on education,housing, employment, health andother services.
At the forefront of the govern-ment’s campaign to improve theirlot is the newly created Ministryof Infrastructure, Urban Planningand Housing, headed by Mo-hamed Ould Bila, minister beforethe July re-shufflel. He says pre-vious governments failed to pro-vide a long-term solution. “Thisnew Ministry will present good ur-ban planning that will cover 10-20 years and the updating of allurban regulations, which up un-til now have been flawed and in-adequate.”
The authorities are revising therules related to urban matters, in-cluding transport, sanitation, townplanning, water, electricity,tourism and access for public andprivate investors. “Strategic de-velopment plans for all the largecities will be developed on the ba-sis of a participative approach, inorder to promote progressive andcontrolled city development.”
This will help people to acquiretheir own land and build housingthrough income generating ac-tivities and trades, particularlythose relating to house construc-
tion. The government will installbasic equipment and infrastruc-ture such as schools, health cen-ters, water and electricity. SaysMr. Bilal, “We have high hopesthat international private hous-ing developers will enter our mar-ket and help us develop our largetowns and our capital city.”
Established last year, the Na-tional Agency forLand Development(Anat) has beentasked with the de-velopment and mar-keting of urban sites.Mohamed Ould Seyi-di, Anat’s General Di-rector, says itscreation reflects thepolitical will of the au-thorities to end thedisorganization thathas characterizedMauritania’s urbancenters. “This situa-tion had resulted inimpoverished dis-tricts that did notcomply with urbanstandards or thehousing code.”
The agency’s pilotproject comprises832 residential andcommercial lots forsale at public auction,and 483 lots that willbe sold to the less welloff at constructioncost prices. Financed by the WorldBank, the project is due to be com-pleted by 2012.
Mr. Seyidi says Anat is seekingpartners to develop sites for resi-dential, commercial and indus-trial uses, as well as for tourism.
Meanwhile the Mauritanian
Agency for the Development ofLabor Generating Public Works(Amextipe) is engaged in morethan 1,000 building projects, rang-ing from schools and health cen-ters to regional courts and watertowers. The agency’s portfolio al-so includes government buildings,such as official residences for re-gional governors, and one cur-
rently being completedin Nouakchott for thePrime Minister. Theagency’s financialbackers include theWorld Bank and theAfrican DevelopmentBank.
An important partof Amextipe’s missionis to help reabsorb in-to the labor force themany unemployedworkers from restruc-tured public compa-nies in addition to ruralmigrants. It does thisby undertaking publicworks generating nu-merous jobs, and bycontributing to theemergence of a na-tional private sector inthe field of buildingand engineering .
“When Amextipewas created we count-ed only 30 national pri-vate companiesoperating in this sector,
whereas now their number hasreached 600,” says Fall N’Guissali,Amextipe’s General Director. “Weare conscious that those compa-nies cannot by themselves meetall the requirements of our pro-grams, but they have a strong im-pact in terms of employment.”
LAND AND HOUSING
Seeking long-term solutionsto the problems of the cities
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Urban Plannig and Housing, in cojunction with Anat, is creating affordable housing for the less well off
MOHAMED OULD SEYIDIGeneral Manager of Anat
MOHAMED OULD BILALMinister of Infrastructure,Urban Planning andHousing
THE AUTHORITIES AREPROMOTING THECOUNTRY AS SAFE ANDSTABLE, WITH A POSITIVECLIMATE FORINVESTMENT
