Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Ivorian parliamentarians are at work. The Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs (CAEF) of the second chamber, chaired by Koumoué Koffi Moïse, examined and then adopted at the end of the week, 08 draft laws, presented by Moussa Sanogo, Minister to the Prime Minister in charge of the Budget and the State Portfolio.

These are the draft laws relating to the law regulating the State Budget for the year 2018, rail transport between Abidjan and Ouagadougou, the functioning of the National Authority for the Regulation of Public Procurement (ANRMP), the partnership between the State of Côte d'Ivoire and the company Ivory Coast partnerships, exemption of companies under Spanish law from withholding tax on non-commercial profits, specific incentives for investments in the agricultural processing sector, a support fee to the Société ivoirienne de raffinage (SIR).

These bills were voted unanimously by the 15 members present out of the 16 in the Commission and they gave their discharge for the ratification of the said texts.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, world oil prices are experiencing a decline.

Some senators wondered whether this situation will not have a negative impact on the financial health of the Ivorian Refining Company (SIR) which benefited from a rescue plan put in place in 2017, by the Ivorian government.

In response to this concern, Moussa Sanogo, Government Commissioner acknowledged that with the fall in world oil prices, the actors of the economic game are impacted, but not in the same way.