Julien Paluku:
“the Congolese State has released the first tranche to develop the pilot SEZ of Maluku”
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The project manager of the Special Economic Zones Agency (AZES), Auguy Bolanda, and the companies "China Guangdong Provincial" (CGCD), for the civil engineering works, on the one hand, and on the other hand, " Ray Group” for electrical engineering proceeded, on Thursday, June 9, 2022, to the signing of the contracts for the servicing of basic physical infrastructure of the Maluku Pilot Special Economic Zone.
According to the communication unit of the Ministry of Industry, the signing of these two contracts marks the effectiveness and operationalization of the pilot Special Economic Zone of Maluku.
The Congolese Minister of Industry, Julien Paluku, who chaired the signing ceremony, said that the Congolese State has already released the first tranche of 20 million US dollars (USD) to develop the said ZES.
On this occasion, the Minister of Industry invited the two companies that won the contract to speed up the work on the ground, because the President of the Republic, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, will come shortly to lay the first stone marking the launch Works.
“Industry must be a factor of peace and stability"
It is in this context that the President of the Republic asked us to also install an SEZ in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
With the vote in the European Parliament putting an end to thermal engines in 2035, the Democratic Republic of Congo will have to play a very important role in the decarbonisation of the world economy, thanks to its strategic minerals which are involved in the manufacture of batteries and electric vehicles he pointed out.
www.mediacongo.net
Food for thought on the Road to Mining Manono
Frank
*Fyi, There's going to be a Lot of
on the face of Felix and his Ministers if Manono and Mpiana Mwanga don't come to fruition in the lead up to a very important Election next year, one they need to "Win-Win" if they want to keep their jobs & stay in power, Not to mention a Lot of Red Faces if this Project doesn't progress to Production asap, We need it, They need it, The whole World needs it, No Pressure
* To Remind,
‘The DRC can become an electric car champion’ – Industry minister
The DRC - which is rich in lithium, manganese, nickel and cobalt - wants to locally produce batteries for electric vehicles and develop a “green” value chain, says Julien Paluku, minister for industry.
President Félix Tshisekedi is committed to making the DRC an ‘electric car champion’, he said at the DRC-Africa Business Forum held from 24 to 25 November in Kinshasa, signing several agreements with various technical and financial partners.
These include the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (ADB), the African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) and the Australian mining group AVZ Minerals.
In addition to launching a DRC battery council, which is piloting government policy, an agreement was made to finance the growth of a local battery industry as well as develop a minerals industry.
Financial partners are ready to put up to $300m on the table, said Sidi Ould Tah, Badea’s director-general.
Aware that it is a matter of developing a whole sector, Julien Paluku, the DRC’s minister of industry and former governor of North Kivu 2007-2019), defends his country’s strategy.
We are making efforts to increase electricity production.
In Lualaba province, the Busanga power station, which is about to be inaugurated and represents an investment of more than $600m, is expected to produce 240 megawatts.
In Tanganyika province, the AVZ group plans to invest more than $1bn to create a special economic zone around the lithium industry in Manono, including constructing the Mpiana Mwanga power station, the Manono-Kalemie road and a railway.
If we hope to succeed in our bid for electric cars, we need to guarantee investors that all related projects, especially in the area of infrastructure, are up to standard and are completed.
On the continent, not enough countries manage to build a value chain.
How does the DRC intend to do it?
Our country has the means to do so because its territory contains all the raw materials needed to create electric batteries.
This is obviously the case for cobalt, as we produce around 100,000tn per year and have estimated reserves of 25m tn, but also for copper, nickel (located in the Kasai provinces near Kananga), chromium and lithium.
Although it was believed that the world’s largest lithium deposit was in Australia, at the Greenbushes mine, recent studies by AVZ Minerals have shown that it may actually be in the DRC at Manono.
The studies, which so far cover 20% of the area concerned, have already identified almost 400m tn of ore.
In addition to our national wealth, it is worth remembering that eight of the 15 countries that have the minerals required to manufacture electric batteries are in Africa.
Therefore, we are advocating a regional value chain strategy, with the DRC at the heart of the system.
It is not in any country’s interest to simply export its raw minerals outside the continent, as is mainly the case today.
We need to encourage local processing and transformation, particularly in our factories and future factories, in order to export higher value-added products.
In this way, not only are export costs reduced, but intra-African trade is also enhanced.
Food for thought on another Day where AVZ was my Best Performer
Frank
