Two Chinese contractors have started building major roads in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a $7bn deal that swaps infrastructure for a share in the country’s copper and cobalt mines.
A joint venture of Sinohydro and China Railway Group has broken ground on three road projects as part of a deal that was signed 16 years ago, then radically renegotiated in February last year.
South China Morning Post reports that they’ve broken ground on a $300m project to build a 63km ring road around the capital, Kinshasa, to improve traffic flow in the fast-growing city of 17 million.
In the resource-rich southeastern province of Lualaba, the joint venture will widen and pave a 900km dirt road between the village of Mbuji Mayi and the town of Nguba.
It’s part of the N1 highway linking Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, the DRC’s mining capital.
A third scheme to get under way is an upgrade of the 230km road between Kananga and Kalamba Mbuji, which goes to the border with Angola.
It’s needed to transport mined products to Angola’s ports.
Speaking at the ring-road groundbreaking ceremony, China’s ambassador to the DRC, Zhao Bin, said the agreement was “a road to prosperity for the Congo and the Congolese people”.
“As the first project of the new phase of Sino-Congolese cooperation ‘resources for projects’, I am confident that it will become a new landmark of Kinshasa and a new symbol of Sino–Congolese cooperation in infrastructure,” he added.
The new deal
The projects follow the resolution of a dispute over an agreement reached in 2008 between the two Chinese companies and the regime of Joseph Kabila, who left office in 2019.
It saw the Chinese companies building $3bn worth of roads, railways, schools, hospitals and dams in exchange for a 68% stake in Sino Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines), a joint venture between the contractors and Congo’s state mining company, Gecamines.
It gave the Chinese access to a copper and cobalt mine in Kolwezi in the southeastern DRC.
The government of Felix Tshisekedi, which came to power last year, sought to renegotiate the deal on the grounds that the value of the mineral rights came to a great deal more than $3bn.
The Congolese side demanded an additional $17bn in investment, based on a report by the DRC state audit office.
The case was resolved when the Chinese side agreed to increase its investment to $7bn (see further reading).
A statement from Tshisekedi’s office after the groundbreaking ceremony said the Kinshasa ring road had been made possible by the renegotiated deal.
Tshisekedi has pushed for an overhaul of mining contracts he said had been “poorly negotiated” under his predecessor Joseph Kabila, and raised the issue when he visited China last year.
The DRC supplies more than 60% of China’s cobalt for use in batteries for EVs and electronics, making the African country a player in Chinese manufacturing.
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