DRC – starting to pick up

THE DRC is not just about mining.
“In Kinshasa there’s a lot of
activity on the ground and we’re
starting to see investment not
just in primary industries but
in manufacturing as well,” says
Bonnett.
“The DRC has seen investment
approaches of a couple of billion
dollars into the non-mining and
forestry sectors – in downstream
iron and steel fabrication, basic
medical supplies, gloves, syringes
and the like as well as plastics,
food and beverages and chemicals
sectors.”
In fact, says Bonnett, there’s
huge opportunity across most
sectors including infrastructure
rehabilitation because virtually
everything has to be rebuilt.
And although it’s
predominantly Frenchspeaking,
Vodacom has
done extremely well. “It’s
the gem of their African
operations out of SA.” In
2006 South African exports
to the DRC rose by 41%
to reach almost R2.5bn,
led by machinery, vehicles, plastics
products and other manufactured
goods, including food products.
But be aware of the challenges.
The business culture is very
formal and bureaucratic which can
make it difficult to get meetings
scheduled. Because of the poor
infrastructure, moving around is
a challenge and it can take a few
hours between meetings because of
problems with traffic and roads.
It’s also important to be aware
of the cost of warehousing and
office space and how much you
have to pay upfront to secure good
facilities.
On the positive side, the
mining houses in DRC are largely
Anglophone there’s no language
barrier.