OPPORTUNITIES IN THE DRC PLENTIFUL FOR
SA BUSINESSES – DEPUTY AMBASSADOR
The
reconstruction and development of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
provides the South African businesses with unlimited opportunities to explore
in various sectors of the country’s economy. This was said by the Deputy
Ambassador of South Africa
to the DRC, Mr Andrew Maswanganye. He was speaking in Kinshasa
last night where the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) hosted a
welcome function for 25 SA businesspeople that arrived in the country earlier
yesterday for the Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI) to Kinshasa
and Lubumbashi .
The ITI is part of the dti’s Export and Investment
Promotion Strategy that focuses
on targeted high growth markets with the objective of creating investment and
export opportunities for SA companies and
of promoting South Africa
as a trade and investment destination.
“The
South African government has been working with the Congolese since the era of
former President Nelson Mandela to ensure that the country achieved political
stability that would enable economic growth and prosperity. A lot has done to
create conducive environment and promote the positive development of the
country. Numerous bilateral treaties have signed. The recent and crucial treaty
is the one we signed for the development of the Grand Inga hydro project. This
could be the biggest thing to ever happen in this region after the Marshal
Plan, and the project offers many opportunities for South African companies in
the energy sector,” said Maswanganye.
Maswanganye
added that agriculture and agro-processing were other sectors in the DRC which
were underdeveloped and presented unlimited opportunities for the South African
companies to explore.
“The
Congolese have one of the biggest arable lands in the continent which remain
under-exploited. If you talk about food production, this is where you will find
a lot of opportunities. It is said that if this country could produce food to
its fullest capacity, it can feed close to three billion people. But currently
the Congolese are importing food. Of the 70% of imports that come into this
country, the bigger portion is food products and beverages. But generally
opportunities are unlimited in the DRC. You can find opportunities everywhere,
from the provision of orange juice to the building of a bridge and anything in
between,” said Maswanganye.
The
leader of the South African delegation, Mr Yunus Hoosen, who is the Acting
Deputy Director-General of Trade and Investment at the dti, urged the SA
businesspeople to “take advantage of the partnerships and joint ventures”
provided by the Congolese economy, particularly in the agro-processing and
mining sectors. He added that the fact that there were direct flights from SA
to both of the DRC’s big cities, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, meant it would be
easy for businesspeople in the two countries to conduct their business and
further increase trade and investment between SA and the DRC.
“The
South African government is committed to supporting the industrialisation of
the DRC and is ready to contribute towards standards, technical capacity and
building the industrial capacity of the DRC,” added Hoosen.
Today
the SA delegation will attend a Trade and Investment Seminar in Kinshasa that will be
addressed by three Congolese ministers, amongst others.
Trade
relations between SA and the DRC have shown positive growth from a relatively
low base, with bilateral trade being heavily skewed in South Africa ’s
favour due to limited productive capacity on the part of the DRC’s economy. South Africa is
the DRC’s biggest supplier of foreign goods and services, providing more than
21% of the country’s total imports. In 2013, South Africa ’s exports to the DRC
amounted to R12,335bn whilst its imports from the DRC amounted to R100m.
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