The Democratic Republic of Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi is rebranding his country as an economically happening place to motivate more investors to come to the country. While taking part in the recently concluded 7th Tokyo summit on African Development in Japan, he offered that DRC is open and willing to improve business climate in the country by partnering with foreign investors. Japan, with its expertise in manufacturing and in high technology areas can be a natural investor in DRC, president pointed out. It may be noted that of late DRC is embarking on a development agenda as an anti dote to contain raging internal conflcits . The country is keen to forge tie-up with other countries and private sectors to help the local businessmen to expand their activities.
Because of the oil and other mineral reserves, DRC feels that the country can develop both upstream and down steam projects based on its resources. Like any other African country, DRC is also exporting mineral resources to other countries for value adding. Its main exports include copper, non-ferrous metals, crude oil and diamonds. It may be noted that Congo was the second largest economy in Africa and is one of the largest in terms of land mass. However, political instability and corruption had eaten into the vitals of the economy. It still continues to be a conflict prone area, further complicating the development process.
Of late, DRC has embarked on a strategy to develop agriculture and industry. It is seeking help from outside mostly for investing for value adding its natural resources not only for creating more resources to the country but also for generating more employment. Of late, Japan has promised investing in human resource development particularly training youngsters in improving their skills. This is an area, where DRC may be more interested on account of its large agricultural base. The country grows a variety of food grains, vegetables and fruits, which can be processed and exported to other countries, given that its population is skilled in such activities.
During his visit to Japan, President Tshise Kedi had met various business groups and heads of corporations in Japan. He also had a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The DRC president said, he was keen to avail concessional loans from various institutions in Japan to boost the manufacturing and processing activities in his country. Japan, on the other hand, is keen to have a strong foothold in DRC to enhance its presence in the continent.
