EA business delegation for Kinshasa tour

Arusha. A high-powered delegation of business people from the East African Community (EAC) region is set to travel to Kinshasa in May.

The delegation will explore more trade and investment opportunities in DR Congo which has just joined the bloc.

This is an initiative of the East African Business Council (EABC) which spearheaded the country’s entry into the Community.

“We will look at the trade and investment opportunities,” Mr John Bosco Kalisa, EABC executive director, said here yesterday.

The delegation will be made up of private sector representatives from the existing six partner states in the bloc.

He added that the EABC-led team will be in DRC “to forge formidable and strong business ties with our counterparts there.”

Besides the capital Kinshasa, the team will also visit eastern DRC, which has enjoyed business ties with the EAC for years.

“We are stepping in the right direction to fast-track and deepen our relationship with our counterparts in the DRC,” Mr Kalisa told The Citizen.

Focal areas of priority include agribusiness, mining, manufacturing, banking, construction and the telecommunication sector.

EABC is also reaching out to the tourism industry players to have some tour and air travel operators included in the trip slated for mid May.

Two years ago, EABC commissioned a series of studies on the potential of the resource-rich DRC for expanded trade by the EAC.

One of them indicated that the EAC exports to the giant country of nearly 100 million people amounted to USD855.4 million in 2018.

It is estimated that only 11 percent of DRC’s total imports originated from East Africa and 35 percent were from China alone.

Addressing the media here on Tuesday, the EAC secretary general, Dr Peter Mathuki hinted at the business expeditions to the seventh member of the bloc.

DRC potential includes the vast land not fully used for agriculture, the economic bedrock of the entire eastern Africa.

The country is the world’s biggest producer of cobalt, a major component in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles.

DRC is also the main producer of copper in Africa and major producer of gold, diamonds, uranium, coltan, oil and other precious minerals.

Dr Mathuki said he was keen to see DRC joining the framework of the Common External Tariff (CET) that other EAC partner states enjoy.

This is an arrangement where any goods produced within EA enjoy a tariff regime that can be sold within the region at zero percent tariff.

DRC signed the Treaty of Accession to the EAC in Nairobi last week in the presence of the EAC Chair, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya

Mr Kenyatta said there was a mechanism for the speedy integration of the new member to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.