Senegal’s new industrial park open for business
Forty kilometers (24 miles) from the capital, Dakar, a new industrial park has opened. Seven companies, from China, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Tunisia and one from Senegal itself, have already set up operations in the Diamniadio park, producing garments, PVC-pipes, packaging, magnetic e-cards and electric bicycles.
Forty kilometers (24 miles) from the capital, Dakar, a new industrial park has opened. Seven companies, from China, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Tunisia and one from Senegal itself, have already set up operations in the Diamniadio park, producing garments, PVC-pipes, food packaging, magnetic e-cards and electric bicycles.
The Diamniadio International Industrial Platform – its official title – is one of the first tangible outcomes of the government’s Emerging Senegal Plan, an ambitious set of initiatives “aiming at getting Senegal onto the road to development by 2035”.
Key to translating this vision into tangible action and results for the benefit of the population is a structural transformation of the economy, including a significant increase in the country’s manufacturing capacity.
Senegal has a growing population, estimated at 15 million people, more than 60% of them under the age of 25. The Emerging Senegal Plan aims to implement priority economic reforms and investment projects that will create more than half a million new jobs.
The Government of Senegal has invested some US$44m in building the Diamniadio park and establishing common services such as a cafeteria and a water recycling system. Private sector companies have invested a similar amount in setting up and equipping their factories.
By next year, 4,500 people are expected to be employed in the park and, when the second phase is complete in the next few years, it is expected that companies carrying out high labour-intensive activities in the park will generate at least 50,000 jobs.
One of the companies already established in the park is C&H Garments, a Chinese company that also operates in Ethiopia and Rwanda. Helen Hai, one of the company’s two CEOs, says her factory in the Diamniadio industrial park covers an area of about 7,500㎡, where 26 production lines have been installed.
Source: unido.org