The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, made his first presidential visit to Botswana during the DRC-Botswana business forum. This visit was an opportunity for President Tshisekedi to invite Botswana economic operators to invest in his country, which has enormous opportunities.
According to President Tshisekedi, the DRC and Botswana can build strong, prosperous and robust economies for the well-being of their people. He points out the importance of the geostrategic position of the Democratic Republic of Congo which is a market of nearly 100 million consumers with gateways to Central Africa, West Africa near the ocean. Atlantic and an opening towards the countries of East Africa which leads to the Indian Ocean.
However, the DRC, whose economy has relied on the mining sector since colonial times, is called a geological scandal because of the exploitation of raw materials in their raw state. Félix Tshisekedi declared that his vision is to change this paradigm by adopting a policy of on-site processing of the raw material.
With this in mind, President Tshisekedi proposed several assets that his country has to intensify economic relations with Botswana. In particular, he pointed to the opening of a DRC embassy in Gaborone, Botswana, with a view to strengthening relations between the two governments.
The great Inga project which can transport energy to the depths of southern Africa is also among the proposals made by President Tshisekedi. He also indicated that the DRC has large oil and gas deposits, and encouraged economic operators to overcome their fear by investing in his country, which he considers to offer considerable legal stability.
The visit of the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, to Botswana was an opportunity to strengthen economic ties between the two countries, and to give new impetus to the country’s transformation policy.