Luanda - Energy ministers from member states of the Western Power Corridor (Westcor) decided to step aside from the Inga III dam project and close the  Westcor company until June 2010.

The information is contained in a press release from the Angolan Ministry of Energy, sent to ANGOP on Tuesday, stressing that the stand was defended at a meeting that gathered energy ministers from the member countries of Westcor, held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, last February 19-20.

"The forum discussed DRC's proposals for the development of the project, including the withdrawal from the Inga III dam of the Westcor project, as stipulated in its establishment documents," the note reads.

According to the source, the ministers concluded that the widthdrawal from of this undertaking undermines the continuity of the project, "and therefore decided to terminate the project and the Westcor (Pty) Ltd Company until June 2010, with its headquarters based in Gaborone, Republic of Botswana.

The officials are also calling for the need for a new mandate aimed at exploring alternative schemes for generating power governed by juridical-legal statutory instruments (Memorandum of Understanding Inter-Governmental and Inter-Company), under the supervision of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which will work out the first draft for circulation among members.

It also recommended the injection of financial resources to cover the monetary necessities of the closing process. 

The meeting was chaired by Westcor's chairperson, the Angolan minister of Energy, Emanuela Bernardett Afonso Lopes.

The event highlighted the fact that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat should co-ordinate the close connection with an integrated committee, by representatives of each country and company so that to develop a framework with defined goals that will be present to the ministers and officials of the organization.

This institution was created on September 07, 2005 at a meeting attended by the general directors of electricity firms of the five countries involved in the aforementioned project.

They are BPC (Botswana), ENE-EP (Angola), ESKOM (South Africa), NamPower (Namibia) and SNEL (DR Congo).