The DRC’s roads, railways and airport networks are in need of extensive restoration.

One of the inevitable by-products of civil strife is the disrepair and destruction of local infrastructure, and the DRC is no exception to this rule. As they stand today, Congo’s roads, railways, and airport network are in need of extensive restoration in order to meet development requirements.

The country is vast and relies on six forms of transportation: air, rail, road, river, lake and sea. Funding restrictions preclude dealing with everything at once, so five rehabilitation projects have been given priority by the Ministry of Transport and Communications: N’djili and Lubumbashi International Airports, Matadi sea port, public transport, and the country’s railway company SNCC.

Among other deals to date, the ministry has negotiated with foreign investor companies for the resurfacing of runways at both N’djili and Lubumbashi airports. In April last year, Congo signed an agreement with the Belgian authorities for cooperation between the ports of Antwerp and Matadi, and also Brussels and Kinshasa. With one million euros being put up by the Belgian Development Corporation, the port facilities can be restored. The ministry is also considering opening SNCC up to private partners as a means of reviving the company.

HEVA MWAKASA Minister of Transport and Communications

External financial help is also being made available. In December 2003 a group of donor countries and organizations, including the African Development Bank and the Bretton Woods agencies, agreed to provide $4 billion to be used in recovery projects between 2004 and 2006. The World Bank (WB) together with the EU instigated a project to repair the road from Kinshasa to the port of Matadi (about 350km), as well as the current rehabilitation program that has started on the Kolwezi - Lubumbashi portion in the mining region. An obvious winner in terms of economic impact. Other projects are contained within the WB’s emergency multi-sector rehabilitation and reconstruction program (PMUR).

In November 2005, with the aid of the WB, the DRC government launched a comprehensive program for economic and social revival. A multimodal transport project (MTP) has been created for the transportation sector to extend over five years from 2007 through 2011. The government’s main objective is to consolidate the reunification process by rebuilding three of the country’s key trade and transport corridors. Existing state-owned companies will undergo restructuring and, where possible, partnerships with private companies will be established. Also pressing is the need to reduce the country’s present transport costs, the highest in Africa. The MTP will be the first transport project in DRC since the end of the civil war, at an expected cost of $200m spread across all transportation sub-sectors.

U.N. body MONUC Aviation is providing Congolese air-traffic control officers with specialized training to bring their skills up to international standards. There is also a domestic plan to modernize the DRC’s infrastructure by equipping the main airports with the ‘very small aperture terminal’ (VSAT) network, which will be connected to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) system, helping to enhance regional cooperation.

The DRC does not have a national airline, but other companies link the country to Europe and other African nations. The main international airport is located in Kinshasa with others in Lubumbashi, Kisangani, Goma and Gbado-lite. These centers are serviced by West and East African carriers, as well as Air France. Kenya Airways is the latest airline to fly direct to the DRC. Its Nairobi-Lubumbashi route, opened in February 2005, has proved highly popular. “The mining zone of Lubumbashi and the surrounding provinces constitute an economic center,” says Country Manager Jean Uku.