THE GRAND INGA WILL ENSURE THAT THE SA-DRC DREAM IS REALIZED

THE GRAND INGA WILL ENSURE THAT THE SA-DRC DREAM IS REALIZED

The Deputy Minister of Energy, Ms Thembisile Majola says the Grand Inga project currently underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will ensure that the dream of the countries’ forefathers are realised. Majola was in the DRC leading a delegation of South African businesspeople on the 7^th Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI) to that country.

According to Majola, the Treaty on the Grand Inga signed between South Africa and the DRC, will ensure that the dream of the forefathers is finally realized in this lifetime. She said history and future generations will talk of the DRC and the region before Grand Inga, and of the DRC and the region after the Grand Inga.

“This project will leapfrog all of us into the future and be the single biggest contributor to regional integration and development.  It will literally power our countries into a future where our dreams of value added products, beneficiation of our vast mineral resources and growth of our services can be realized,” she added.

Majola urged the Congolese and South African businesspeople to consider measures that will unlock the economic opportunities and advance Africa’s growth story.

In particular she alluded to specific opportunities in engineering, construction, services and financial. She said new roads; rail, ports and airports will be required so as to service the massive transportation, communication, office and living spaces that will need to be created to support the development of the biggest and most ambitious hydro-electrical scheme ever to be undertaken.

.“This will provide clean energy and enable the DRC to take its place as a giant that is endowed with all the minerals you can think of, as well as an abundance of water resources, very fertile land and the potential to feed us all. This also means, that there are over a hundred other potential hydro power sites across the DRC that can be developed by business so as to unlock the many opportunities across all sectors, including the mining sector that has a power deficit,” she explained.

The total foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Africa to the DRC, from 2006 to date, amounts to R11.5 billion. The jobs that have been created from these FDI projects are approximately 30,455.

Meanwhile South Africa Business delegation has proceeded to Lubumbashi where they will participate in the second leg of the Investment and Trade Initiative.