Botswana and the DRC strengthen their Economic ties
Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) decided on Thursday, May 11, 2023, in Gaborone, to explore trade opportunities and strengthen economic ties. It was during a Botswana-DRC business forum.
This platform will now provide entrepreneurs and investors from both countries with a framework to explore business opportunities and potential partnerships.
In this partnership, Botswana comes with its comparative advantages in agriculture, industry, eco-tourism, transport and finance services. Sectors that contribute enormously to the GDP of this country.
Note that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also has advantages in the same sectors.
During this economic forum, a presidential session was led by the two Heads of State, Felix Tshisekedi, and Masisi who want to exploit
the stable economy of Botswana and the vast resources of the DRC.
It is in this context that the Botswana Investment and Trade Center (BITC) and the National Agency for the Promotion of Investments (ANAPI) signed a memorandum of understanding to pool their efforts to increase in the sectors aforementioned.
The main areas of collaboration of this MoU include:
1° the reciprocal promotion of business opportunities and investment between the two States;
2° support for investors of one of the parties who express the desire to settle in the territories of the other party and facilitation in the accomplishment of various administrative procedures in the establishment of their investment project ;
3° the encouragement and support of trade missions or investment missions and expert visits for the purposes of investigation and identification of business opportunities;
4° the appropriate follow-up of visits and missions carried out in the State of one of the parties;
5° carrying out advocacy in favor of the economic operators of one of the parties established in the territory of the other party with the political and administrative authorities;
6° The exchange of information on the organization of various promotional activities throughout the world, business and investment opportunities in each State Party to be made available to potential investors of each Party.
Before the participants in this forum, before the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding, the Director General of the National Agency for the Promotion of Investments (ANAPI), Anthony Nkinzo Kamole, presented the various investment opportunities of the Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
He also returned to ANAPI’s mandate, namely to sell the positive image of the DRC, publicize investment opportunities in the four corners of the world, plead for the improvement of the business climate, support investors wishing to settle in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Speaking on behalf of Botswana, the CEO of BITC thanked ANAPI for approaching him to sign the partnership.
For the latter, this partnership would be mutually beneficial for both parties.
Thanks to the memorandums of understanding, ANAPI will help Botswana investors to penetrate the Congolese market. Botswana, where BITC originated, is one of the key markets that ANAPI is targeting to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The Congolese market offers huge opportunities for foreign investment including agriculture, livestock, energy; the mines ; transportation; infrastructure; tourism ; the service ; industry, etc
Several key initiatives have already been identified on which the two entities will collaborate, in particular the exchange of experiences in investment promotion, the organization of capacity building sessions for agents of both parties and the organization before the end of December 2023 of a Botswana-DRC Economic Forum.
