Gabon tries to diversify
Gabon has set out a range of administrative and financial incentives to attract foreign firms into priority growth sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, mining, timber, telecommunications and tourism. This is part of the government’s drive to diversify the economy away from oil sector, where new discoveries have been largely absent over the past decade and production has remained anchored at around 250,000 bpd since 2002. Other planned business environment improvements which aim to increase the attractiveness of the country to foreign firms include an upgrade and expansion of the largely deficient port and road network, and a substantial increase in power generation capacity over the next five years.