09 September 2009
The UK will double its funding for road-building in the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve access to some of the world’s most remote regions, UK Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas announced today.
The DRC has one of the least developed roads networks in the world – 95% of its 152,400 km of roads are effectively just paths, making it difficult to get food, medicine and trade routes open. Only one out of ten of the provincial capitals are easily accessible by road.
This severely hampers development prospects and has been cited as a reason the country is so poor. Of the 60 million citizens, around 45 million live on less than 50p a day. One in seven children die before their fifth birthday, and every day nearly 100 Congolese mothers die in childbirth.
During his visit to the country, Gareth Thomas announced DFID would double its funding for road building programmes from £38 million to £76 million. He said:
“With an area the size of western Europe, it only has 2,000 km of paved roads, compared with 398,000 km in the UK.
“By doubling the amount of UKaid for the DRC’s road building project, ordinary citizens and businesses will get better access not only to medical care and schools, and also to export markets, which will help lift the country out of poverty.
“With the global economic crisis hitting developing countries like the DRC hardest, and 45 million people living on less than 50 pence a day, new roads will bring much-needed new development opportunities for the people of DRC, and help them live in peace and stability.”
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