Private sector expresses interest in infrastructure, NICT   Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Executives of hundreds of private companies which have arrived in Dakar for a two-day conference on financing the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) have expressed keen interest in its projects concerning infrastructure and the New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT). Private companies that confirmed participation in the meeting but haven't arrived in Dakar have also expressed deep interest in the two projects. Out of the thousands of interests registered by organisers of five workshops scheduled to begin Monday afternoon to facilitate contacts among investors and African project initiators, 573 relate to infrastructure while some 440 have shown interest in NICT. The organisers recall that the workshop on infrastructure covers regional and sub-regional projects covering all types of transport (air, rail, maritime, road), water supply and sanitation, while NICT concerns projects dealing with information and communications technologies. The three other workshops concerning Environment, Energy and Agriculture respectively received 276, 363 and 277 expressions of interest just hours before the opening of the workshops. On Sunday, Senegal's presidential advisor and NEPAD delegate for Africa, Cherif Salif Sy explained that a head of State would chair each workshop. However, he cautioned that "this should not lead to any ambiguity and make us lose sight of the fact that the private sector is the first and last target of this Dakar conference." The 400 official delegates (heads of State, ministers, representatives of international organisations and associations and NGOs) "are here only to listen and take note of the grievances and practical recommendations" expected by some 500,000 company directors, heads of employers' organisations and public and private project initiators. According to the latest version of the indicative programme issued to the press Sunday, Presidents Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire will chair the Infrastructure and NICT workshops. Presidents Pedro Pires of Cape Verde, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda will preside over the Agriculture, Energy and Environment workshops respectively. President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali is expected to present the theme "good governance, a precondition for private investments," while the Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi will deal with "private-public sector partnership" in plenary, Tuesday morning.   Dakar - 15/04/2002