The Prime Minister indicated that the objective of this meeting was to draw the attention of all participants to take measures aimed at improving trade with the DRC, and especially the eastern part of this country, which can become at the same time a source of supply for Burundi, and an outlet for the export of Burundian products.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said that the promotion and diversification of exports is a concern for the government of Burundi. He noted, however, that these exchanges are hampered by the persistence of certain obstacles linked to the multiplicity of control measures, which are put in place and which slow down the normal flow of trade.
Various studies and other strategy documents developed show that the challenges encountered in promoting exports are mainly related to problems of access to finance, lack of packaging for manufactured products, insufficient energy, administrative slowness, non-compliance with standards as well as the multiplicity of tariff and non-tariff barriers which inflate costs, which costs are passed on to consumers for whom the products become less accessible.
As a remedy to these obstacles, the Prime Minister indicated that Burundi plans to build several infrastructures at the various border posts, to facilitate trade with the DRC, through the development of small cross-border trade within the framework of the Trade Facilitation and Integration Project in the Great Lakes Region (PFCIGL).
Considering the geographical position of Burundi in relation to the DRC, Prime Minister Gervais NDIRAKOBUCA said that Burundi has enormous potential that could enable it to develop trade between Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.
The Prime Minister recalled that among the elements which hinder the development of trade on the borders of Burundi with the DRC, there is the lack of suitable infrastructure, which means that cross-border trade is dominated by the informal sector, thus leading to the persistence of fraud.
He asked the Management Unit of this project to work tirelessly to enable its full implementation in all its components, and within the allotted time, to meet this challenge of lack of infrastructure, concluded Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca.
2024-08-14 08:51:57