Diversifying the economy… Let's go on vacation!!!

Like a lot of people, I love traveling when I am on vacation. Unfortunately (for my own country), I tend to travel abroad to spend my money. One of the reasons is that I want to discover new countries whenever possible. However, the main reason is that our country is not tourists friendly! Traveling within the DRC is very expensive! It can be more expensive than travelling abroad, accommodation are not always adequate, infrastructures  are insufficient, etc. 

In addition to that we need to deal with our immigration services, even as Congolese! And yes, when you travel within the DRC you have to go through immigration and produce useless documents such as « ordre de mission ». Why should I go through the immigration at the airport when I take a flight from Kinshasa to Matadi?! What is even more ridiculous is that I can do the same trip by road and there will be no immigration to go through? So what is exactly the point of controlling us at the airport for local flights? I was once asked for my ID on the parking of the local airport in Kinshasa by a woman telling me she was from the borders police!!! What was she doing on that parking?!?! Maybe I missed something... 

I mentioned in my previous post that it was urgent for that we diversify our economy. Why can we just start with tourism!? It will create thousands of jobs and bring in desperately needed foreign currencies. 

To put this into perspective, let's use some data here. Today, tourism contribution to the DRC GDP is only 1.8% while it represents 8,9% for the South African economy! In relative terms, it is 5 times more but in absolute value it represents more than 31 billion dollars! And 31 billion dollars represents 82% of our own GDP! 

That's right, with tourism only, South Africa is generating as much as 82% of our entire economy!!!

The question is: "Why can't we be a tourism champion?". Personally, I see no reason why. We have one the most beautiful countries in the world and yes I am biased but still! We  have more national national parks than most countries with unique species, we have falls, volcanos, mountains (some with real snow- No need to go in a mall in Dubai) lacs, beaches, forrest and most importantly an amazing friendly people! 

First, if we could simplify the obtention of visa, it would be great! We are behaving like tourists are going to run away with our gorillas or our copper on their back. The difficulty for foreign (both tourists and business people) in obtaining visa is insane! We have colleagues from London asking for visas on arrival because the process to get a visa in our Embassy in London looks like Koh Lanta! 

Second, ... actually it is time to get back to work to make money for my next trip, probably abroad... 

New Year, New President, Same Challenges...

First of all, happy new year to all my readers!!!

For the first time in… hummmm for the first time ever, the DRC has witnessed a peaceful transfer of power in the country, in nearly 60 years. 

The new president is inheriting a country that could be in a better shape economically… Although last year indicators were better than the 2017 ones; there is a lot to be done. 

In 2018, the inflation rate stood @ 7% from 55% the previous year and the Congolese Franc remained stable with a depreciation of only 0,13% against the US Dollar. The Forex reserves remain very low at USD 914 million, representing only 3 weeks of imports. 

The challenges faced by the new president are enormous. Indeed, the DRC is considered as one of the most corrupted countries in the world (ranked 161 on 180 countries by Transparency International) with one of the most difficult business environment (#184/190 according to the World Bank) as well as an extremely low purchasing power with one of the poorest population in the world (#176/188 according to the UNDP).

It is also extremely urgent to diversify to economy. It has to be done and it should not be an empty slogan. The country cannot continue to remain at the mercy of the commodities prices. According to Central Bank of Congo data, mining sector contribution to the country GDP was above 63% by mid-June 2018 and unfortunately, the multiplier effect of this sector on the economy has been very low so far…

There is a lot of expectations from the new president and I imagine he won’t get any grace period. 

I wrote in this article title that the challenges remained the same but I think there will be even bigger for the new president as people's hope has rarely be so high! 

Let wish him good luck for the good of this beautiful country…

H.O.