Chinese firms start work on DRC road projects under renegotiated mining deal

It comes months after companies agreed to increase infrastructure investment from US$3 billion to US$7 billion under Sicomines contract

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Work has begun on a ring road project to ease traffic congestion in the DRC capital Kinshasa as part of a minerals-for-infrastructure deal. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:00pm, 30 Jul 2024

Chinese companies have broken ground on three major road projects linking resource-rich regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with its capital Kinshasa as part of a renegotiated minerals-for-infrastructure deal.

Work began last month on a US$300 million ring road in Kinshasa – a 63km (39-mile) project connecting the southwest and southeast ring roads to ease traffic congestion in the city.

It came just a few months after Sinohydro Corporation and China Railway Group agreed to invest up to US$7 billion in infrastructure as part of a revised agreement on the Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture.

A statement from President Felix Tshisekedi’s office after the groundbreaking ceremony said the Kinshasa ring road was made possible because of the renegotiated deal.

Tshisekedi has pushed for an overhaul of mining contracts he said had been “poorly negotiated” under his predecessor Joseph Kabila, and raised the issue when he visited China last year.

President Felix Tshisekedi has pushed to renegotiate mining contracts. Photo: AP

The Chinese firms had previously agreed to invest US$3 billion in infrastructure, funded from the mine’s revenue, and another US$3 billion to develop a copper and cobalt mine, in exchange for a 68 per cent stake in the joint venture – called Sicomines – with state-owned Congolese company Gecamines.