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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 who 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 been done to create a conducive environment and promote the positive development of the country. Numerous bilateral treaties have been 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.

Issued by the DTI