Kinshasa, December 10th, 2025 (CPA). – An amount of over USD 130 million has been adopted by the interministerial steering committee on Wednesday in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, as the programme budget for the 2026 Work Programme and Annual Budget of a trade facilitation project in the Great Lakes region (PFCIGL), according to a statement consulted by CPA.
« Adoption on Wednesday December 10th, 2025 in Kinshasa of the 2026 Work Programme and Annual Budget of the Trade Facilitation and Integration Project in the Great Lakes Region-PFCIGL-valued at over US$130 million, by the PFCIGL Interministerial Steering Committee, and this during its 5th ordinary session and its 2nd extraordinary session; works chaired by the Minister in charge of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya, » it is read in the statement from the Ministry in charge of Foreign Trade.
According to the source, taking into account the security situation prevailing in the provinces of Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu, concrete and realistic strategies have been refined to accelerate the construction and modernisation of infrastructure to facilitate trade in the eastern part of the country, including the single-stop border posts, the ports, the cross-border markets, including that of Kasindi, and the roads. ‘The Minister in charge of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku, has insisted on the consolidation of the implementation of the Simplified Trade Regime (RECOS) launched with Burundi, a special regime that grants several facilities to small cross-border traders and the granting of subsidies to these small traders,’ the source has reported.
During these discussions, which were attended by the delegates from the Presidency of the Republic, the Prime Minister’s Office, sectorial ministries and technical services, including the Congolese Control Office (OCC), the General Direction of Customs and Excise (DGDA) and the General Direction of Migration (DGM), the PFCGIL Coordinator, Thierry Kayembe, has presented the key achievements of 2025, including the launching of works on the port of Kalundu, the single-stop border posts and the Kavimvira cross-border market, indicating that the project is financed by the World Bank. CPA/