China Road and Bridge (CRBC) has been chosen to build Angola’s first motorway: a 1,400km-long project that will link the north and south of the country, local media reports.

Carlos dos Santos, Angola’s minister for public works, said the company, a subsidiary of China Communications, had signed a memorandum of understanding. He said feasibility studies should be finalised by the “middle or end of 2025”, after which construction would begin in 2025 or 2026.

He added that the project, which he said would cost around $2.5bn, would be procured as a public–private partnership, and that CRBC would itself invest “around $50-75m”

The minister said the road would connect the southern Angola province of Cunene with the provinces of Zaire and Cabinda in the north. It would also improve the country’s international connections with Namibia in the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the north.

The road is intended to act as an economic corridor, creating trade opportunities for businesses along its length and improving regional integration.

CRBC has a long track record in Angola. It opened its first office in the country just three years after the end of the war with UNITA in 2002.

In the two decades since, it has built or restored a range of infrastructures damaged in the war, including roads, bridges, housing, municipal buildings, ports and airports.

Once CRBC finalises the studies and projects, the two parties will decide whether the PPP should include a concession for CRBC and whether the road would be tolled.