Remarks By World Bank Liberia Officer-in-Charge and Senior Operations Officer, Ms. Coleen Littlejohn at the Ground-breaking Ceremony of the Redlight to Gbarnga Highway Held At Paynesville City, Montserrado County, Liberia on today, June 11, 2012

Your Excellency Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai, Vice President, Republic of Liberia;
Honorable Members of the Legislature; Honorable Samuel Kofi Woods II, Minister and other officials of the Ministry of Public Works; Representatives of the Superintendents of Montserrado, Margibi and Bong Counties; HE Attilio Pacifici, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Liberia and other members of the Diplomatic Corps; Representatives of Donor Partners of the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund;

Representative of CICO;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of the World Bank, I want to express our pleasure in being here today for this important ceremony.  This occasion also signifies our ongoing commitment to support the Liberian Government in replacing and expanding its infrastructure needs not only in transport, but also in other sectors such as energy. The needs of the country in these sector are enormous; and also the need for closer donor and government cooperation in responding to these needs.

For this the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund (LRTF) was created and brought together the support of the governments of the UK, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, the European Union in addition to that of the World Bank. An Oversight Committee chaired by the Country Manager of the World Bank and the Minister of Finance was also created to monitor the progress of the projects the Fund supports.

This project for which the ground is broken today is the fourth project to be approved by the LRTF. The actual project was prepared jointly by the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW)-Infrastructure Implementation Unit (IIU) and the World Bank, and was approved by the Bank’s Executive Board of Directors on June 7, 2011 and declared effective on October 13, 2011. Project activities will also support the deepening of policy and institutional advances in the transport sector, enhancing the capacity of sector institutions, supporting governance and accountability programs, in addition to financing the rehabilitation of this highway - that is a priority road for Liberia’s long-term development strategy.

Additional financing will also be shortly made available to scale up the project by adding the left out portion of the road from Redlight up to ELWA Junction in Paynesville City. The project will also provide support for the development of   transport plans for different transport modes (Roads, Ports, Air Transport and Railways) and developing an overall Strategic Investment plan. This plan is expected to provide a basis for future investment plans to achieve greater transport efficiency in Liberia.  The Additional Funding will be presented to the World Bank Executive Board on September 18th, 2012.

We extend our congratulations to the MoPW and the IIU for this important achievement; and our best wishes to CICO for an efficient and rapid project implementation.

Thank you.