The World Bank unveiled its new Africa strategy on Thursday, which, among other things, would seek to close an infrastructure backlog estimated at $93-billion, which is seen as a major constraint to investment, growth and employment.

The Bank currently calculates that the gap between infrastructure needs and investment is expanding by $48-billion yearly and requires government, development financiers and the private sector to work in tandem if it is to be overcome. Many of the programmes would also have to be crossborder in nature.

The focus on infrastructure would be backed by the World Bank's own financial resources, but it would also seek to leverage instruments such as public-private partnerships.

Unveiling the strategy via a continent-wide video conference broadcast from Paris, vice-president for the Africa region Obiageli Ezekwesili argued that the continent had an unprecedented opportunity to transform itself, much as Asia did three decades ago.

It had emerged as a more credible investment destination, having sustained economic growth rates of 5% for the decade preceeding the global economic crisis, and had also recovered strongly since the pullback associated with that crisis.

While Africa's growth was currently being supported by strong demand for commodities, the plan would seek to foster diversification and would also home in on creating jobs for the 7-million to 10-million young Africans entering the labour force yearly.

For instance, the Bank was studying impediments to the development of light manufacturing across a number of African countries, and was also looking to transfer key lessons in this regard from countries such as Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

But Ezekwesili argued that there was also an immediate opportunity to rescale agricultural production to supply the continent's own needs, as well as the needs of others, particularly as food and agricultural input prices surged.

She noted that Africa had more than 50% of the globe's remaining arable land and argued that there was also a big opportunity for the continent to move up the agroprocessing value chain.

The strategy, which had been canvassed directly with 1 400 African government officials and civil society actors, as well as a wider grouping through Web-based interactions, was officially approved by the Bank's board on Tuesday.

Besides a focus on boosting competitiveness and employment, the policy was also designed to address 'vulnerability and resilience'. The Bank planned to assist client governments to insulate citizens from potential health, natural disaster, food, conflict and climate-change related shocks.

But Ezekwesili stressed that the strategy's foundation was premised on improved governance and public sector capacity, both of which remain weak across Africa.

The Institution would invest heavily in boosting Africa's statistical capacity to improve performance visibility and facilitate performance monitoring.

The ten-year vision of the strategy is for the continent to double its share of world trade to 8% and for at least 20 countries to improve per-capita income by 50%, which would require per-capita gross domestic product to grow at a rate of between 3% and 4% a year. It also envisaged a 12 percentage point decline in the poverty rate.