The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) wants special economic zones for its growing mining industry to encourage companies who export raw materials to transform them into finished products locally, Congalese President Joseph Kabila said at a mining conference on Wednesday.
“We need to establish special economic zones for the final users of Congolese natural resources,” Kabila said in the mining city of Kolwezi.
“The proximity to production sites, to a large labor force, to national and regional markets, could enable makers of electric cars, smartphones, plasma screens, fiber-optic cables to come” to the DR Congo, he said.
The Congalese government says its long-term goal is for the mining industry to contribute in the development and modernization of the country, which is among the poorest in the world, and says it would profit much more if metals were refined locally rather than exported raw.
However, a lack of energy and poor infrastructure in the mining region makes that goal difficult to achieve currently.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Albert Yuma, chairman of state-owned mining company Gecamines, said at the conference. “Demand creates offer, and if refineries were built, I’m sure solutions [to the lack of energy] would be found.”
Mining revenues in the DR Congo have almost tripled since last year, Congalese Minister of Finance Henri Yav Mulang said, despite being a risky investment destination where child labor and unsafe work conditions on artisanal mines have widely been reported.
The DR Congo is “the treasure trove of the world” Kabila said, adding that the “global economy and power of nations depend largely on the country’s natural resources.”
While the central African nation already produces two-thirds of global cobalt production, the president invited investors to be “audacious” and explore further.
Cobalt, a byproduct of copper or nickel, is used to make lithium-ion batteries that are found in smartphones and electric cars.
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