Kinshasa, April 3rd, 2021 (CPA).- The Director General of the Congolese Control Office (OCC), Risasi Tabu wa M’simbwa, exchanged views on Wednesday March 31, with a delegation of experts from the World Bank (WB), led by his Co-Task Team Leader, Julien Galant, and the national coordinator of the PFCGL, Jean de Dieu GBEY, on the possibilities of updating the Trade Facilitation Project in the Great Lakes Region (PFCGL), learned Friday the CPA of this public establishment.
According to the source, this project aims to facilitate cross-border trade, and will effectively contribute to poverty reduction as well as to the promotion of peace in the Great Lakes Region, on the back of a WB credit from the of the order of 34,000,000 (thirty-four million) USD. The said project was launched on September 15, 2016 and should end on June 30th, 2022, after an extension of 18 (eighteen) months, following the delay in the execution of the initial program. The project includes, according to the same source, 4 (four) components namely, improvement of infrastructure in border areas; policy, procedural and capacity building reforms; performance-based management and implementation support as well as monitoring, evaluation, and communication.
As of December 15, 2020, recalls the source, the disbursement since the launch of the Project was only of the order of 56.2% for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), of which only 384,263 ((three hundred and eighty – four thousand two hundred and sixty-three) USD or 14.81% over the year 2020. With regard to the infrastructure component in particular, the current state of progress at the border posts is physically as follows: As for Ruzizi, progress is at 28.5%; in Bunangana 27.3%, Kasindi 36.5% and Goma 0.50%. The working meeting between the OCC and the WB, it will be recalled, reviewed the evolution and the state of progress of the work in the various border posts and assessed what remains to be done in order to make the operation operational Project.
