Present economic relations China–Democratic Republic of the Congo relations

1 present economic relations

1.1 sicomines
1.2 benefaction
1.3 building projects in drc

present economic relations

in june 2000, sino-congolese telecommunications company (china-congo telecom) set between zte , congolese government in deal worth rmb80 million in concessional finance china exim bank. in april 2009, south african telecommunications group mtn group offered buy zte s 51 percent stake in company us$200 million. of january 2010, drc has not yet been given approved destination status (ads) china due ongoing civil conflict in country.

trade between china , drc increased between 2002 , 2008. largely due massive growth in drc s exports of raw materials china. in 2007, drc exported us$304.8 million worth of cobalt. in 2008, drc exported us$1.13 billion of cobalt china. exports of copper ore , hard woods china increased greatly.

sicomines

a deal struck between sicomines, consortium of chinese companies (sinohydro , china railway engineering corporation), , congolese government in april 2008 grant mineral concessions in katanga province in exchange infrastructure investments. in deal worth us$9 billion , funded china exim bank, us$6 billion go infrastructure development , us$3 billion being invested in mining operations in katanga. 68% of project owned sicomines , remaining 32% owned congo’s mining parastatal gécamines.

the us$6 billion have been invested in total of 6,600 km of road either built or rehabilitated, 2 hospitals , 2 universities being built. mining concessions in dima (dikuluwe) , mashamba west have given sicomines access 10.6 million tons of copper , on 600,000 tons of cobalt, 6.8 million tons of copper , 427,000 tons of cobalt being confirmed deposits. mine come online @ earliest in 2013.

critics of project have alleged deal undervalues mineral deposits in katanga. international monetary fund (imf) has raised concerns deal negatively affecting drc s ability sustain debt. because deal disqualify country imf s foreign debt relief program run under auspices of world bank group’s highly indebted poor country (hipc) program, drc getting debt canceled taking on more new debts. imf has argued in order drc remain eligible , deal go through value of sicomines deal have reduced. in may 2009, congolese government agreed put on hold us$3 billion of deal while feasibility study mineral concessions finalized.

as of october 2017, sinohydro corp. , china railway construction...own 68 percent of sicomines, government of democratic republic of congo telling chinese companies stop exporting unprocessed copper , cobalt , refine metals within country , later reversing decision.

benefaction

the governor of katanga province moise katumbi, province estimates on 60 of province’s 75 processing plants, around 90%, owned chinese nationals. of these operations privately owned limited liability companies owned chinese nationals. known have poor environmental , labour relations records , have been accused, directly or indirectly, of using child labour. in 2007, 600 chinese nationals expelled katanga violating labour , environmental laws.

building projects in drc

since 1972, prc has given number of donations drc. including farm on outskirts of kinshasa, sugar refinery in kisangani, , national assembly building (at time costing us$42 million or us$186 million in 2011 dollars) built , given drc in 1970s. chinese government built 80,000 seat stadium in 1994. in 2004, prc built , donated n djili sino-congolese friendship hospital, handing on drc government in 2006. according aiddata, 2000 2011, there approximately 21 chinese official development finance projects identified in drc through various media reports.