Sicomines: the IGF snatches US$7 billion from the Chinese
The renegotiation of the Sicomines joint venture resulted in an addition of $7 billion over ten years for the benefit of the DRC.
President Félix Tshisekedi declared this in his inauguration speech on January 20, 2024 at the Martyrs of Pentecost stadium.
The chief inspector of the IGF, Jules Alingete Key, held firm to an amendment of 17 billion dollars for a better rebalancing between the DRC and the Chinese Enterprise Group.
But the head of state had diplomatically tempered in the name of the eternal friendship between the DRC and China.
But in front of the world, Tshisekedi naturally demonstrated, urbi et orbi, all his gratitude to the General Inspectorate of Finance which had detected the imbalance to the disadvantage of the DRC in the adjoining Sicomines project.
Tshisekedi announced a first disbursement of $300 million from January 2024 and $400 million in April 2024... for the benefit of opening up territories in the hinterland.
The IGF therefore offered financial support which will give visibility to the Local Development Program (PDL) of 145 territories.
Each year, the DRC will benefit from these disbursements financed by the Sicomines project.
Started in June 2023, the negotiations on the revisitation of the famous barter have been marked by verbal blows and extreme positions.
But the storm eventually calmed down.
On July 10, 2023, the temperate Jules Alingete moved up a notch on the scale of ire, disconcerted by the haughty attitude of the delegates from Chinese companies, Crec, Sinohydro and Exim Bank.
That day, leaving the Palais de la Nation – the equivalent of the White House in the DRC – the head of the IGF department took offense at what he described as yellow neo-colonialism to which , according to him, the Congolese will not be able to submit.
At the end of February 2023, the report from the General Inspectorate of Finance denounced the unbalanced nature of this Chinese contract concluded during the time of Joseph Kabila, 16 years ago.
Not only did Sicomines, the joint venture created by the Chinese Enterprise Group (GEC) and Gécamines, hardly bring in “a few billion dollars” as the first minister, Matata Ponyo, boasted in May 2012 in front of the National Assembly, but above all a number of infrastructures, for which the Chinese side was entitled to draw cobalt and copper from the Katangese cooperbelt, and no doubt other undeclared related minerals, have not experienced the beginning of start of investments in infrastructure.
These include 3,000 km of railways, 31 hospitals with 150 beds and 145 health centers in each of 145 territories of the DRC.
The initial value of all the projects agreed in this barter was 6.5 before being reduced by more than half, to 3 billion dollars, following pressure from the IMF, and behind the scenes, from Western countries.
However, Jules Alingete deplores the fact that the DRC has brought into the mixed economy mining society, in addition to deposits valued at more than 50 billion dollars, a tax exemption regime which has hardly had the expected effects.
While Chinese companies have already made more than $10 billion in profits as part of this partnership, the DRC had until then only been satisfied with the small fry, infrastructure valued at $822 million, the rest overcharged , faith of the IGF.
For Jules Alingete's service, considering the contributions of each party in Sicomines, it is crystal clear that the DRC has been cheated, because its shares are established at 32% compared to 68 for the GEC.
Thus, Jules Alingete and his IGF mobilized the strategic committee engaged in negotiations with the Chinese not to waver as the DRC's demands are all well-founded.
The strategic committee includes in particular the ministers of Infrastructure, Budget, Finance, Mines, Gécamines, the Steering Agency for coordination and monitoring of the collaboration agreement signed between the DRC and private partners (APCSC), the secretariat executive of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and naturally of the IGF.
Jules Alingete held firm and succeeded in obtaining substantial financial compensation for the grievances raised in the Chinese contract. And these damages must be accompanied, firstly, by a change in the distribution of capital and profits in Sicomines.
Second, the mining joint venture must be based on a new balanced distribution of responsibilities as well as an increase in the amount of Chinese investments in infrastructure, at least double, or from $3 to $7 billion in the short term.
Third, respecting deadlines in the construction and delivery of agreed infrastructure.
Let's wait and see.
www.mediacongo.net/article-actualite-132138_sicomines_l_igf_arrache_7_milliards_us_aux_chinois.html