LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Abidjan
built 207 days ago
Abidjan is the largest city and former capital of Côte d'Ivoire. Abidjan, the de facto (and former) capital, is the commercial and banking center of Côte d'Ivoire. It stands in Ébrié Lagoon on several converging peninsulas and islands, connected by bridges. The city is a study in contrasts. On one hand the city is hot and humid, congested and full of street hawkers. On the other hand, Abidjan is referred to as the "Paris of West Africa" because of its parks, broad boulevards, universities, exotic fashions and museums.
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Abidjan is an attractive, largely modern city with parks and broad boulevards. Districts include Cocody, an elegant residential area to the east of the modern business district, and to the south, on Petit-Bassam Island, Treichville, with its large traditional market. Abidjan is the site of the University of Cocody (founded in 1958) and the University of Abobo-Adjamé (1957), as well as several technical colleges and libraries; the national museum here contains collections of Ivorian art. Banco National Park, a forested area, lies north of the city.
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[I]nstead of the current establishment of an RPC in Accra and a visitor satellite in Abidjan, CIC now will have two full-service visa offices in West Africa in order to better serve clients there. However, RPC Accra will retain certain regional responsibilities such as regional Immigration Control Office (ICO) and the office responsible for the Sierra Leone refugee population in Guinea. Thus, refugee undertakings for Guinea would continue to be sent to Accra along with those for the other countries of Accra’s area of responsibility. Refugee undertakings for countries in Abidjan’s territory would be sent to Abidjan.
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The regional stock exchange of Abidjan has many advantages. Its first asset is its small size, Cfa999bn (around US$1.8 bn), as of mid-November. Secondly, there isn't going to be a fierce battle to decide which already listed companies are going to be listed on the regional bourse and which not, since only one stock exchange existed before the establishment of the regional bourse : the Bourse des Valeurs d'Abidjan (BVA).
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The last of the projects in Abidjan is the electric train which the Ivory Coast Railroad Company (Cicf) promised. The development of infrastructure including a suburban train system in Abidjan is evaluated at nearly 100 billion Fcfa, and should connect the North-West to the East and the North of the town of Abidjan. This project extends 25 kilometres (16 mi) from the current railway operated by Sitarail (a subsidiary of the Bolloré group). Infrastructure works were estimated to cost 40 billions Francs,CFA financed by the State of Côte d'Ivoire, and the backers (World Bank and AFD). In addition, a BOT type concession contract for 20 to 30 years would be alloted to a private contractor for the operation of the network. This operator will undertake the acquisition and transportation of material, restoration of workshops, and installation of the operating system.
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Abidjan's pre-eminent status and the modern urban project chosen for the town cannot be separated from the fundamental characteristics of the agricultural export model of the Côte d'Ivoire in the 1960s. By giving priority to increased involvement in the global market and export-oriented agriculture, and by opening up to overseas personnel and technicians as well as to foreign capital, while favouring state intervention, Abidjan's potential for production and services was strengthened. Thus in 1975 the city accounted for 40 per cent of the country's gross capital formation, 50 per cent of household consumption of finished products, 90 per cent of value added from so-called modern trade, 80 per cent of value added from the tertiary sector, and 67 per cent of value added from manufactures. All the surveys carried out at the end of the 1970s recorded a high level of urban economic activity (in 1978, 437,500 people, i.e. 59 per cent of the adult population, were employed, including 89 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women). The high proportion of workers in waged employment (60 per cent of the economically active population in 1978) was unique in Côte d'Ivoire. By 1984, when government was blaming the broader economic climate rather than domestic crisis for the country's poor economic performance, Abidjan's structure remained characterized predominantly by so-called "modern" activities, which accounted for 58 per cent of urban jobs.
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