Economic forum finished a few days ago. Just like everyone of the whispers that people keep hearing, the rumours have once again proven to be unfounded. No change of governing ministers in sights, especially no removal of any of the roadblocks in our way.
The people in the DRC who are directly affected by this impasse should be vocal about all of this. Yet we hear no demonstrations or protests in regards to this. AVZ also silent makes it even more stupid. Only a few journalists speaking on Twitter (the vast majority of the population would have no idea what they even type) have spread any word of our plight.
At what point does AVZ spend a mere fraction of their high legal fees on a public relations push in country? It’s a joke we have stayed quiet for all this time with no progress to be seen or found.
The President only cares about his re-election. So make him care about us by pinning this mining lisence to thousands of votes in the community of Manono and the surrounding communities who would benefit from AVZ.
It’s all a big joke. Overpaid part time management that can’t even tell us what the plan is to break this impasse. Or who is directly responsible for it all.
Economic forum finished a few days ago.
Summit on Agriculture and Agri-food: Felix Tshisekedi already in Dakar
The Head of State Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, arrived this Wednesday, January 25, 2023 in Dakar, Senegal, to participate in the 2nd edition of the Summit on Agriculture and Agri-food.
This summit will be held from January 25 to 27, 2023, under the theme “Feeding Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience”.
These meetings will be held at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center in Diamnadio.
More than 1,500 people are expected, including heads of state and government, ministers in charge of economy and finance, ministers of agriculture and related sectors, governors of central banks, as well as actors private sector, multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations, leading academics and scientists.
Afrewatch encourages the revision of the Sino-Congolese contract
The NGO African Resources Watch (Afrewatch) encourages the revision of the Sino-Congolese contract.
For this NGO, nothing works in this contract. And if nothing is done by 2034, the DRC risks ending up with public debt.
In 2007, the DRC first signed a loan contract of more than 9 billion US dollars with China.
Renegotiated in 2009, it amounts to 6 billion US dollars.
Half of this amount, namely: 3.2 billion for the creation of Sicomines and 3 billion to build the infrastructure.
5 years later, nothing is going well.
In a report dated 2021, this NGO revealed that the DRC and China have only carried out 50% of their assignments.
To date, the DRC wants to reassess this contract.
Felix Tshisekedi underlined this recently.
Because the DRC did not benefit from this contract.
“The Chinese made a lot of money and made a lot of profit from this contract,” Tshisekedi said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and quoted by Afrewatch.
"Now our need is just to rebalance things so that it becomes a win-win," he added.
Speed up the process
For this NGO, the president of the DRC and his government must accelerate the process of reviewing the Sino-Congolese contract.
For her, it is vital. Because, this will allow the DRC to also benefit instead of paying only the public debt in 2034 “, explains Richard Mukena member of Afrewatch.
For him, this reassessment will allow two things.
First, to review the clauses that disadvantage the DRC.
This is particularly the clause on the public debt.
Indeed, in this contract, if the DRC does not reach its assignments by 2034, the country will have a public debt towards China.
Secondly, according to Richard Mukena, the reassessment will lead to the respect of the remaining clauses.
“Thus, the DRC will finally be able to benefit from the infrastructures as stipulated in the contract”, explains Richard Mukena.
Because for him, at the moment, there have been disbursements from Sicomines, but unfortunately some of them not justified, because the construction of infrastructure is slow.
mediacongo
