Attracting international investors and securing new trade partnerships while a country is involved in an internal armed conflict is very challenging. However, that is the task of the Congolese government and the National Investment Promotion Agency (Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements: ANAPI).
Kinshasa under Tshisekedi
Since coming to power in January 2019, President Félix Tshisekedi made it clear that bringing reliable and trustworthy international partners was imperative. On 11 July, International Commerce Minister Jean-Lucien Bussa Tongba told the local media that taxation in the country "is crushing." Thus, the government aims to cancel 14 taxes dealing with imports and exports to make the DRC more "economically competitive." The result will be an easier climate for investors to invest “more and more money [which will] allow us to diversify our economy.” the senior officer noted.
As for ANAPI, in late April, the agency held a conference in Kinshasa; local entrepreneurs were invited to discuss the climate investment of the country. ANAPI’s director, Antony Nkizo, discussed the DRC’s environmental climate, saying that there are “unhealthy investments and the absence of an entrepreneurial culture among a large number of unprepared entrepreneurs.” The head of ANAPI was quite blunt and honest in his remarks, noting, “if the DRC had a strong, dynamic and growth-oriented entrepreneurship class, the current crisis would not have had consequences for [Congolese] households.”
A month later, in May, Nkizo explained that the ANAPI brought 1,018 projects funded by international investors after two decades of existence. They are divided as follows: 448 in the service industry, 454 across different industrial sectors; 83 in agriculture; 33 in infrastructure.
June was a busy month for the DRC’s investment agencies. On 27-29 June, with assistance from the US Agency for International Development, the Congolese government organized the DRC Invest summit in Kinshasa. According to Jules Ndambu, Investment Team Lead at USAID DRC Invest, the objective of the Summit was to “bring together around the same table investors, public authorities and private sector actors to discuss how to attract investments to the Congolese economy.” Also, in June, the government organized Mining Week, a critical industry for the country. However, Kinshasa is trying to diversify its economy away from mining to other areas, like the production of electric batteries.
As for assisting Congolese entrepreneurs, Presdent Tshisekedi is attempting to "create an environment conducive to doing business by adopting regulations that help entrepreneurs start businesses, [and] hire and grow their businesses," explains the Congolese daily Actualite. This goal is one of the pillars of the President's Action Plan, which seeks to "promote the emergence of the private sector and establish the country as an investment destination of choice in Africa."
In 2021, President Tshisekedi named Jules Alingete as the head of the government’s agency to crack down on corruption and embezzlement (Inspection Générale des Finances: IGF). The agency is partnering with other governmental bodies to stop financial crimes, a chronic problem for the country which has tarnished its image abroad. (As of July 2022, four DRC companies appear in the World Bank’s list of ineligible firms)
International Reactions
How is the international community reacting to the Congolese government’s initiatives? Regarding the World Bank, in early June, the Director of Strategy and Operations for Eastern and Southern Africa, Humberto Lopez, conducted a two-day visit to the country. He reportedly met Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi, noting, “I appreciate the close partnership and collaboration between the Ministry of Finance, and more generally DRC, and would like to personally thank Minister Kazadi for his efforts to build a solid program with the World Bank that will soon total about $7 billion in grants and credits.”
Similarly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported in late June that “the DRC’s macroeconomic environment has improved since ... 2019. The authorities have adopted prudent macroeconomic policies, most visibly by halting central bank financing to the government.”
Moreover, another international company is looking to set up shop in the DRC: Canada-headquartered Tantalex Lithium. The company is fundraising to build a mine at the Manono Tailings project in southeast DRC, which contains lithium, tantalum, and tin. Production could begin in late 2024 or early 2025. In mid-June, Tantalex announced that the company’s Congolese subsidiary Tantalex SAU “effectively exercised its option to acquire an additional 27% stake in the MINOCOM SAS joint venture.”
The DRC’s legal investment framework
As for new agreements, in 2021, the Congolese government signed Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) with Rwanda, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, though they have not entered into force yet. In addition, the country has signed BITs with capital-exporting countries, like France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. It is noteworthy that Kinshasa and Kigali signed a BIT, considering they have tensions over violence in the Eastern DRC.
As for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), in May, the International media reported that the DRC reached a settlement with the controversial billionaire Dan Gertler and two of his companies worth USD2 billion. Gertler will have to pay Kinshasa this signicant amount, while Kinshasa will withdraw a claim at the ICC over two oil blocks.
There are currently no pending cases against the DRC at the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). At the same time, a search at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) did not yield any results either. There may be investment arbitration cases where the DRC is a party at other arbitration centers or ad hoc tribunals.
Conclusions
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has well-known transparency and endemic corruption problems, in addition to security problems in the eastern part of the country. With that said, Kinshasa is also seeking to fix its damaged international image but making mandatory changes at home to create a more transparent and corruption-free investment climate.
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