Ota Benga Alliance For Peace, Healing and Dignity

Agence France Presse, June 9, 2007

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has decided to gradually open up state-owned companies to private partners to help boost economic growth, a top government official said Saturday.

The reform of public enterprises will help modernise the institutions and disengage the state from market activities in targetted sectors, including mines, water and electricity, hydrocarbons, transport, and telecommunications and finances.

The goal is to promote the public-private partnerships in sectors which drive the economy "in terms of contributing to the gross national product, to public finances, to foreign resources and employment," said Jeannine Mabunda, the minister of portfolio.

The state will disengage from a certain number of enterprises and proceed with "partial handovers," while excluding "any total privatisation at this stage," Mabunda said.

The steering committee for the reform of state companies, created in 2002 and supported by the World Bank, is charged with proposing the overall strategies, by sector and by company, and to assist the institutions in carrying out the reforms.

"The public enterprises must perform" and for that "competent representatives are needed," Mabunda said.

She criticised the "politicalisation" of the management of state companies during the DRC's period of political transition from 2003 until general elections last year.

During the transition, all the positions in the public institutions and companies were assigned by quotas set by the ruling parties of the former fighters during the country's five-year civil war who took part in the interim government.

Mabunda did not indicate how long it would take to institute these reforms, which must be directed by an inter-ministerial commission that is to expected to be created at a cabinet meeting next week.