President Wade: "Happy economic new year!!"

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade used his New Year's Eve message to the county to highlight bold economic initiatives out of the daunting climate of the last year. Noting the "off budget" expenditures that the World Bank found fault with, President Wade still claimed that Senegal was the World Bank's highest rated economy.

The president pointed to the launching of Air Teranga, a Senegalese airline, new universities at St. Louis and Kedougou, and the regional port facilities with free market zones and surface connections to Mali and elsewhere in the region. Other infrastructure lurches fitfully ahead at the turn of the year. "If I were to list these projects, it would take much time, I gave instructions to ministers to publish a table with a list of infrastructure to be carried out in 2009" he said. Of course, the World Bank in its requirements to put Senegal back on its approved list required that the country list all such major projects--necessary to get a grip on the off-budget spending and commitments...

It was a detailed speech with a certain Senegalese optimism throughout. The president didn't shy from most of the nation's problems: high gas prices, energy outages, food insecurity. But he was able to point to activities to deal with the problems, especially in the area of agriculture. Fortuitous good harvests help, too. But so do tractors from India and increasing sophistication in the country's animal husbandry... Recent riots in the hinterlands were largely ignored however...