Donors hail US rehabilitation program

A donor information meeting held in Paris on Tuesday expressed support for a US $156 million reform and rehabilitation programme presented by the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Bank announced on Wednesday. Representatives from governments of Africa, Europe, North America and numerous UN agencies agreed that current developments in the DRC presented a window of opportunity for contributing, through economic assistance, to the return of peace in the DRC. “This is the start of a process of reengagement by the international financial community in the DRC,” said Emmanuel Mbi, the World Bank’s Country Director for the DRC. The World Bank noted that donor programmes worth about US $280 million were currently underway in the country while projects amounting to some US $240 million were planned for the coming months, which would cover much of the US $156 million request from the DRC government. Donor representatives agreed on the need to address the country’s US $13 billion external debt and insisted on the need to reinforce institutional capacity in the country and to involve NGOs in the conception and management of projects. Donors also stressed the importance of promoting transparency, ensuring that foreign assistance is equitably distributed across the country and taking a regional approach in addressing some issues. The World Bank statement noted that the DRC government had taken decisive measures aimed at stabilising the economy, such as a commitment to balancing the budget, centralising public expenditure and eliminating all extra-budgetary expenses, depositing all public revenue in the Treasury’s account with the Central Bank, finalising a list of priority projects for the year, introducing a floating exchange rate and liberalising petroleum product prices. Earlier this week Belgium concluded four financial cooperation agreements worth an estimated US $17 million with the government of the DRC. Under the agreements, an estimated US $7 million will be used for the rehabilitation of roads in Kasai Orientale and Bas-Congo provinces; US $6 million will be devoted to local development projects; US $1 million will go to the Ministry of Health; and US $2.5 million is earmarked for the establishment for a special fund for the city of Kinshasa.