Thirty French companies located in the DRC achieve a turnover of about 2 billion US dollars a year, according to a source quoted by RFI. Despite this figure, tricolor companies are still not very present in the field of processing industries and others. Hence, the need to promote trade between the DRC and France.

Castel and its breweries, Total and its service stations, Bolloré in transport logistics, or Orange at the end of the line and Decathlon at the end of the feet, the French presence in the DRC is both limited and discreet. The turnover they generate represents the equivalent of that of a mining company like the Chinese Tenke fungurume mining (TFM).

According to Ludovic Houssard, vice-president of the Franco-Congolese Chamber of Commerce, it is important that the new authorities put in place a suitable policy. As if to say that goodwill displayed alone is not enough, it will take concrete action to convince investors.

« In my opinion, the most important thing is legal certainty, the reform of the judicial system. Because we touch in a transversal way to all the problems. Problems of corruption, fiscal problems. Basically, many problems related to the business climate could find a solution if the justice system was more efficient and less corrupt than currently », he insisted.

Issues related to securing investments and the legal environment, higher production costs than in neighboring countries, suffocating taxes are still concerns for investors. The latter constitute real challenges for the Ilunga Ilunkamba government and the President of the Republic, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi.

Returning to this year’s theme, Ambroise Tshiyoyo, president of the Franco-Congolese Chamber of Commerce, said that the DRC, which has recovered after the wars, must rebuild its value chains and work to diversify its economy. dominated by the mining sector.

« You know, mines are easy, we pull them off the ground and we sell them. But what will bring more to our economy is diversification. And especially the installation of value chains. We can not see the DRC only as a market. It has to become an economy that brings something to the rest of the world », warns Ambroise Tshiyoyo.

Emilie MBOYO