Ivorians, Ivorians,
My dear compatriots,
Dear friends of the Ivory Coast,
I am very happy to see you again at the end of 2021, on the traditional message to the Nation.
Since you placed your trust in me, together, year after year, we have experienced significant progress and undeniable progress in our country.
The crucible of all this progress is peace. This peace bequeathed to us by the Father of the Nation, President Félix Houphouet-Boigny and which we must cherish as our most precious possession. This peace, we have found it, with happiness, thanks to the efforts of each one of you as well as all the living forces of the nation.
Peace and stability have been consolidated during this year 2021 with the holding of the first inclusive legislative elections in our country for twenty years.
I congratulate the party’s policies for their participation in these elections, which resulted in the establishment of a plural National Assembly, with all significant opposition.
I would like to reaffirm my attachment to constructive dialogue, which contributes to calming the social climate.
We will continue, with the Government, to bring together all the girls and all the sons of our beautiful country. You can trust me!
My dear compatriots,
On the security front, I would like to reassure you once again our Defense and Security Forces are mobilized to counter all inclinations, in particular at a time when terrorism constitutes a threat at our borders, and in the sub-region.
I congratulate our law enforcement agencies for their courage and commitment and I bow to the memory of our brave men
Soldiers who unfortunately lost their lives and I reiterate my compassion to their families and loved ones.
We will continue to strengthen our defense and security capacities, as well as investments in socio-economic infrastructure in the areas concerned, in order to combat terrorism and all other forms of threats, including illegal gold mining.
My dear compatriots,
The year 2021 was also the first year of the implementation of our “One Côte d’Ivoire Solidarity” project.
The “One Côte d’Ivoire Solidarity” project aims to consolidate our achievements over the past ten years and accelerate the transformation process structural structure of our economy.
Indeed, during these years, we have implemented important reforms, while making massive investments for the rehabilitation and extension of our economic and social infrastructure, in order to provide better conditions of life to our fellow citizens.
We will continue to invest in infrastructure to improve traffic flow in Abidjan, open up rural areas, connect all regional capitals, and make
accessible to all the county towns of our country, by paved roads.
I am delighted that the structuring projects, such as the fourth Yopougon-Plateau Bridge, the Cocody Bridge and the Indénié interchange will be completed by the end of 2022.
During the year 2022, we will continue the extension of the North highway to Bouaké, the rehabilitation of the Abidjan-San Pedro coastline, as well as the work to launch the construction of eight new interchanges in Abidjan.
In the energy sector, the difficulties we experienced in the first half of 2021 are behind us.Our goal is to electrify all localities in the country before the end of 2025. In addition, I would like to point out that around 205,000 households have benefited this year from the “Electricity ProgramFor all “thus bringing the total number of beneficiaries to around 1,230,000 households.During this year 2021, we made an important discovery of oil and gas thus, the “Whale” field, which will enter production in 2023, will increase our production of oil and gas, and to supply an adequate quantity of gas to the electricity sector.
This important discovery bodes well for our country in terms of resources for financing development projects, training our young people, job creation, and opportunities. In terms of drinking water, we have provided access to drinking water to millions of Ivorians and today, more than 80% of Ivorians living in our cities and more than 70% living in rural areas have access to drinking water.
We will continue to strengthen the national drinking water supply in order to cope with the rapid urbanization of our cities, but also to improve the quality of life in our villages. My dear compatriots,Dear brothers, dear sisters,In the education sector, the recent reforms adopted at the start of the school year, as well as the States General on Education and Literacy, whose recommendations will soon be available, will help improve the content and teaching methods of our education system.
In addition, the rehabilitation works of the Technical High Schools of Abidjan and Yopougon, of the Commercial Professional High School of Yopougon, and of the Office, Communication and Management Center (CBCG) of Cocody should be completed in 2022 in order to improve the employability of our children.
At the higher education level, the University of San Pedro made its first academic year in October 2021, and the University of Bondoukou will open in October 2022.In addition, in order to provide an adequate training environment for our young people, we have launched a construction and rehabilitation program for several university housing estates and restaurants. Thus, in 2021, we opened the university campuses of Williamsville, Port-Bouët 1 and 2, and Korhogo, as well as the university restaurants of Daloa and Korhogo.
This program will continue in 2022 with the opening of the university halls of Abobo 1 and 2, Port-Bouët 3, Vridi, as well as new university restaurants in Cocody and Abobo-Adjamé.In terms of health, the Government has implemented a major hospital reform in order to optimize access to better quality care.In this context, the rehabilitation and construction of several infrastructures were completed this year throughout the national territory.
These include, in particular, the new CHR in Aboisso, the Obstetrics Gynecology Department of the Treichville University Hospital, phase 1 of the Adjamé General Hospital, and the Daloa CHR.This vast program will continue with the objective of bringing all Ivorians, wherever they are in the country, to a well-equipped health center, and to consolidate the implementation of Universal Health Coverage (CMU).
With regard to the fight against COVID-19, our economic and health response plan, combined with the resilience of our economy, has made it possible to contain the effects of the pandemic with a positive economic growth rate of around 2% in 2020 and 6.5% in 2021.
This dynamic will continue in 2022 with a projected growth rate of around 7% and I would love to take this opportunity to salute the efforts of Prime Minister Patrick Achi and the Government. I congratulate all the players involved in the fight against this pandemicas of today, nearly 15,000,000 doses of vaccines have been received and over 7 million doses have been administered in our country.
However, COVID-19 is still present with the emergence of new variants around the world and the resurgence of positive cases in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, almost all deaths in our country concern unvaccinated people.
I therefore invite all our fellow citizens to be tested, vaccinated and to respect barrier measures. Ivorians, Ivorians,My dear compatriots, Dear brothers, dear sisters,To consolidate all these advances, we still have important challenges to overcome thus, for the year 2022; we will focus our actions on three priorities.
First, the transformation of our economy we must go even further, and faster, in transforming our country and improving the living conditions of each of its inhabitants. This is why we are going to amplify the modernization of our agriculture to increase its yields and the incomes of our producers, reduce the cost of living and accelerate the industrialization of our country by the local transformation of our raw materials as well as the population access to education, health and decent housing, at an affordable cost. In this context, I instructed the Government to launch, in January, a second Government Social Program in order to intensify and continue our poverty reduction actions.
The 2022-2024, amounting to CFAF 3,182.4 -13824, aims to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction and social inequalities, to provide lasting solutions to the problem of fragility in border areas in the North and to improve the living conditions of populations, especially the most disadvantaged.Our second priority for this year 2022 is the employment of young people and women in particular emphasis will be placed on the employment of our daughters and sons.
To do this, the private sector will be the subject of special attention and we will intensify its development through the promotion and emergence of national champions.We will set up a program to support and promote the financing the startups and our young entrepreneurs and we will work with the private sector to reduce payment delays to businesses.We will continue, as we have done in the oil and gas sector, to promote local content, in order to emerge national champions in key areas of our economy.
We will also implement the second chance school in order to retrain some unemployed graduates, to support young people without a diploma or qualification in trades aimed at rapid integration, as well as in their professional and social integration projects.At the same time, we will strengthen the development of civic service centers across the country, to always better transmit to our youth the values of good citizenship, hard work and leadership.Finally, we will further support the empowerment of our sisters and daughters, thanks to the Support Fund for Women of Côte d’Ivoire (FAFCI), initiated and implemented by the First Lady.
With a capital of 25 billion CFA francs, FAFCI has already enabled nearly 300,000 women to carry out income-generating activities and more than a million people to escape vulnerability our third priority for 2022 is good governance and the fight against corruption.After the significant progress made in all areas of the socio-economic life of our country since 2011, we must further promote the culture of good governance and transparency in the management of public affairs, for the well-being of our populations.In this regard, the actions started in 2021 have produced convincing results, and we will continue them.We must build a national conscience imbued with the values of integrity, fairness, and a high sense of responsibility in the conduct of public affairs.
It is within this framework that I have decided to establish, from 2022, a prize on good governance and the fight against corruption.This award will promote the emergence of this national consciousness which advocates respect for public funds, the search for excellence, and which places the interest of the Nation above all else.This must translate into a real change in mentality and behavior.My dear compatriots,At the end of 2021, I signed a decree of graceful remission of sentence for the benefit of nearly 2,500 prisoners who will be released.Obviously, this measure does not concern people convicted of blood crimes.
My dear compatriots,Dear brothers, dear sisters,I believe in the ability of every Ivorian and every Ivorian to appropriate the values of our Republic of Union, Discipline and Work.I believe in our optimism this optimism, which helps us to persevere, despite the difficulties, and to project ourselves into a better tomorrow.I believe in our desire to unite and preserve the considerable gains of a decade of peace, security and concord.
This Union will be our greatest success for the stability and development of our beautiful country as well as for the influence of the Ivory Coast in Africa and in the world.It is on this note of hope that I wish everyone a very happy new year 2022.Long live the Republic,Long live the Ivory Coast.May God bless our dear Ivory Coast!Thank you
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