Kinshasa, April 30th, 2025 (CPA) – Young Congolese entrepreneurs were encouraged on Tuesday at a conference in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to innovate in the fields of infrastructure and technology for the country’s development by the Spanish ambassador to the DRC.
‘Today, more than ever, faced with the challenges of a changing world – climate change, rapid urbanization, the need for access to basic services – it is crucial to strengthen synergies between countries and between talents. It is in this spirit that Spain wishes to deepen its cooperation with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the field of infrastructure’, said Carmen Diez Orejas, Spanish ambassador to the DRC.
According to the ambassador, Spain sees the DRC as an ideal partner, a young country rich in resources, ideas and energy. Engineering and infrastructure are not just technologies, but drivers of economic and social transformation. It has encouraged partnerships between Spanish and Congolese companies, as well as inter-university exchanges to support the training of young Congolese engineers. These initiatives include mobility programs and joint projects, such as the fruitful collaboration between the Polytechnic University of Madrid and several Congolese institutions such as INBTP in Kinshasa.
Mobility of INBTP students
Conference participants
She also announced an academic exchange programme, enabling Congolese students to discover the engineering sector in Spain. ‘A group of students from INBTP will soon be travelling to Spain to learn more about the engineering sector in my country and make contact with their Spanish colleagues,’ she said. For the ambassador, this initiative embodies the idea of ‘building together’ a shared future, both in technological and human terms.
‘I encourage you to continue learning, innovating and building bridges, both literally and figuratively, between our two countries’, she said. Ms Carmen Diez pointed out that Spain is internationally recognised for its engineering expertise, and is multiplying ambitious projects across the continents. Projects such as the AVE high-speed line linking Madrid to Barcelona and Seville, or the Riyadh metro in Saudi Arabia, are testimony to Spanish know-how. Not to mention the bridges, ports and solar power stations built by Spanish engineers in several European countries, in America such as Chile, and in Africa such as Mozambique.