Luanda, Feb. 5, 2026 (Lusa) - The Angolan President said on Thursday that the Lobito Corridor's infrastructure needed to be fully rehabilitated to ensure "efficiency and competitiveness", noting that it was important for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to carry out railway rehabilitation projects.
"We consider it important to ensure that the backbone of the Lobito Corridor, its railway, road and energy infrastructure, is fully rehabilitated and interconnected to ensure efficiency and competitiveness," said João Lourenço at the opening of the High-Level Meeting on the Lobito Corridor Coordination Mechanism "Engine Room".
The Angolan President emphasised that the Lobito Corridor Coordination Mechanism aims to ensure that all initiatives promoted by multilateral institutions, bilateral partners and private investors are properly coordinated, avoiding duplication, fragmentation and parallel efforts that could diminish the collective impact.
According to João Lourenço, it is important and strategic to implement railway rehabilitation projects in the DRC, the railway and road connection to the Republic of Zambia, and the interconnection of Angola's energy transport network with the region, benefiting populations and productive activities in the two neighbouring countries.
The Lobito Corridor is a railway infrastructure that starts at the Port of Lobito in Angola, crossing the country for 1,300 kilometres to the border with the DRC, where it connects to the railway network of the Congolese mining regions, with plans to expand it to Zambia.
João Lourenço also stressed that without this effort, it would be "much more challenging" to achieve an effective development corridor for the countries that make up the Lobito Corridor.
The Angolan head of state stressed that the governments of Angola, the DRC, and Zambia had met and worked together on other occasions, in different formats, to affirm the Lobito Corridor as a strategic priority and to align their visions on governance, investment, and transit facilitation, culminating in the institutionalisation of the Lobito Corridor Facilitation Agency.
The Angolan President considered Angola's partnership with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Union, the United States, and other multilateral, bilateral, and private-sector partners to be decisive in driving this project forward.
The Angolan government and the World Bank on Thursday launched a new regional coordination mechanism to accelerate the implementation of structural projects in the Lobito Corridor, a strategic infrastructure linking the interior of the African continent to global markets.
For João Lourenço, this High-Level Meeting on the Lobito Corridor Coordination Mechanism represents a step towards consolidation "which consists of raising coordination to a more operational level, ensuring regulatory harmonisation and facilitation processes, with targets, responsibilities and regular monitoring".
According to João Lourenço, the Lobito Corridor is establishing itself as a fundamental link between the three countries, with enormous potential to boost trade, production, logistics and economic transformation throughout the region.
"By connecting the Atlantic to the productive areas of the interior, this corridor can become a real platform for the development and revitalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, contributing to regional economic integration and the facilitation of intra-African trade, with important benefits for our economies and populations," he said.
The presence of senior members of the governments of the three countries and multilateral and bilateral development partners, João Lourenço pointed out, with emphasis on the World Bank, "demonstrates that there is a common understanding that the success of the Lobito Corridor depends, above all, on clear strategic alignment and effective coordination between all stakeholders."
"Development partners play a central role in this process, whose support has been decisive not only in mobilising catalytic investments, but also in supporting structural reforms and regulatory harmonisation, which are essential for strengthening the credibility of the corridor, reducing risks, attracting private capital and ensuring that they will achieve concrete results," he stressed.
NME/ADB // ADB.
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