It is 10 days before the start of the African Cup of Nations 2012, and Gabon is inviting all football fans to celebrate Africa and African football with the presentation of a human pixel in the Libreville stadium “Stade de l’Amitié”. Today Gabon launched the countdown to the competition, which the country will co-host with Equatorial Guinea from 21 January to 12 February 2012. To celebrate the start of the countdown, Gabon is pulling out all the stops with the country's first human pixel at the Libreville Stade de l’Amitié. The stadium will host the final of the 28th Orange African Cup of Nations. Hundreds of local residents gave us an early taste of the atmosphere of the competition, the driving rhythm of the competition mascot's theme song, "Africa shootez ballon", a hymn to fair play and joy. After a few days’ rehearsal, volunteers in the Stade de l’Amitié, opened on 27th November, performed several colourful pieces and dances through which we saw Gabon on the African continent, the colours of the Gabonese flag or received an invitation to join the Gabonese people for this competition, which promises to be festive. With this human pixel, full of smiles and joy, Gabon is already welcoming Africa for the 2012 competition and wishes all the teams the best of luck. Join Us. Be a fan of Gabon! www.facebook.com/gaboncocan2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pso3XHPacOw Official music of the mascot, Gaguie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAxcWFY0zk The African Cup of Nations in Gabon The African Football Confederation (CAF) awarded the African Cup of Nations 2012 jointly to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea on 4 September 2006. Gabon will be home to the final and the Confederation's Congress at the end of the competition. In order to provide the best possible welcome for players and fans alike, an ambitious programme of investment in infrastructure was launched by the Government. It will give a real boost to the country's development and upgrade infrastructures from which residents will benefit in the long term: • Sports infrastructures: - The Stade de l’Amitié Sino-Gabonaise was built in Libreville with a capacity of 40,000 seats - The Franceville sports complex was renovated with a capacity of 22,000 - 6 training grounds were built in the provinces of l’Estuaire and Le Haut-Ogooué • Transport infrastructures: the main access roads and thoroughfares to sporting infrastructures have been upgraded or built • Health infrastructures: Hospitals and buildings have been renovated and modernised • Tourist infrastructures: capacities have been increased in Libreville and Franceville. The Emerging Gabon policy Gabon has entered an era of change thanks to the ambitious political reforms introduced by President Ali Bongo Ondimba since taking office in August 2009. For a long time dependent on the export of raw materials, Gabon is now determined to diversify its economy and become an emerging country by 2025 through a sustainable development strategy called Emerging Gabon. This strategy is based on three pillars: • Green Gabon, which aims to sustainably develop the incredible Gabonese ecosystem - 22 million hectares of forest, 1 million hectares of arable land, 13 national parks and 800 kilometres of coastline - through forestry, agriculture and ecotourism; • Industrial Gabon, which aims to to promote the local processing of raw materials, exports of high value-added products and the diversification of the national economy; • Service-Orientated Gabon, which aims to develop Gabonese human resources in order to become a regional leader in financial services, to develop new information technologies and to create jobs in the green economy, higher education and health sectors. Gabon has really started to see the fruits of its reform and openness policies and, in 2010, attracted more than four billion dollars of direct foreign investment through contracts with American, Asian and European companies. For more information, please visit www.presidentalibongo.com or use the contact form at www.cocom.rggov.org