towards the resumption of discussions between the government and the Chinese party with a view to rebalancing the Chinese contract

2023-05-21 19:20:56

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Chinese and Congolese flags. Ph. NEWS.CD

Discussions between the DRC and the Chinese party will be launched shortly with a view to achieving the rebalancing of the Chinese contract (DRC and China). The announcement was made this Friday, May 19, 2023 in the Council of Ministers by the President of the Republic Félix Tshisekedi.

In his communication, the Head of State informed the Council that the members of the government, members of his cabinet and those of civil society mandated to work on the specific points to be discussed have submitted their conclusions.

“The President of the Republic recalled that in his previous communications, he had informed the members of the Council of the alarming conclusions of the reports of several state structures on the implementation of the collaboration agreement signed between the group of Chinese companies and our country on September 17, 2007. Faced with these conclusions, he had instructed the members of the government directly concerned by this file to work jointly with his cabinet as well as civil society on the specific points to be discussed with the party China with a view to rebalancing this agreement to make it truly win-win. The President of the Republic has informed the members of the Council that this working team has submitted its conclusions, which will make it possible to launch discussions with our Chinese partners in the coming days”, reports the report of the 99th meeting of the Council of Ministers held Friday, May 19, 2023.

According to Félix Tshisekedi, the objective is to consolidate and further expand Sino-Congolese cooperation based on sound foundations guaranteeing the principles of mutual respect, fairness and transparency beneficial to both the people Congolese and the Chinese people.

“This is why he instructed the ministers concerned for the forthcoming negotiations of the amendment to the Collaboration Agreement, in this case the Minister of State, Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister of State, the Minister for the Budget, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Mines as well as his cabinet, all members of the strategic committee set up for this purpose, to agree and organize with the Chinese party as soon as possible the agenda for discussions and the final signature of the future amendment. The strategic committee will be supported in its tasks by the expertise of Gecamines, the General Inspectorate of Finance and the coordination and monitoring agency for the collaboration agreement signed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the private and private partners. the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)”, recommends Félix Tshisekedi in the said document.

Previously, the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) had denounced in a report the unbalanced nature of the “Chinese contract” by which China had undertaken in exchange for the exploitation of mineral wealth, to build infrastructures whose country strongly needed since its independence. The Chinese side had undertaken, via a consortium of Chinese companies (GEC), to build 3,500 km of roads, as many kilometers of railways, 31 hospitals with 150 beds and 145 health centres. All for an estimated value of 6.5 billion dollars and in exchange for mining concessions in the DRC and loans to the Congolese state.

In this report, the IGF highlighted significant disbursements made in favor of Chinese companies established in the DRC, but very low investments in infrastructure for the benefit of the country. She noted several cases of imbalance in this agreement described as the “contract of the century”. By way of illustration, the IGF notes what it considers to be a “modicity of infrastructure investments”

Also according to the report, Sicomines (Sino-Congolese Mining Company), the joint venture bringing together the Congolese public mining company Gécamines, and, for 68% of the capital, the firms Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group mobilized financing for 14 years. total amount of 4.471 billion dollars and only allocated 822 million dollars to the financing of infrastructure works, that is 18.38% of the total financing mobilized.

The IGF believes that there has been no serious monitoring of the investments made by the Chinese partners and of the income generated by the Sicomines joint venture. Under the Sicomines deal, Chinese investors pledged to spend three billion dollars on infrastructure projects. But the IGF is now asking China for $17 billion in additional investments to rebalance this agreement concluded with the DRC under the reign of President Joseph Kabila.

Clement MUAMBA