TECHNOLOGY
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M ining is Guinea ’ s leading economic force with the large-scale extraction of bauxite and gold responsible for around 13 % of its GDP . However , according to the Human Development Index Guinea , is ranked 175th of 189 countries and among Africa ’ s poorest . Mining operations require machinery and skills that are not locally available , which means at present jobs in the industry for indigenous people often have low remuneration . While mining is a key contributor to GDP , more investment in infrastructure is required to develop the industry and in turn foster local development . Currently , the mining sector ’ s ability to contribute to local wealth is hampered by the lack of financial instruments to support access to domestic finance for project sponsors .
Speaking in April at Guinea ’ s Symposium of Mines in Conakry , Abdoulaye Magassouba , Guinea ’ s Minister of Mines & Geology , urged the need for continued investment in the mining sector . “ We have gone through a series of reforms in the last eight years . And we ’ ve reached a point where we ’ re completing most of these and tackling problems like Ebola . We ’ re getting an important amount of direct investment in the mining sector now . The biggest challenge for us is to accelerate approaches to making businesses sustainable in these regions where you have a lot of poverty . Given that mining cannot absorb all the unemployment , we need to
JULY 2019