1. Background

With a surface area of 2 345409Km2, a population of 84 million inhabitants, a GDP of 41.62 billion $US, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the largest country in French-speaking Africa. It possesses two thirds of Africa's tropical forests, a rich subsoil and significant hydroelectric potential.

Real GDP growth is estimated at 4.3 % for 2019, down from 5.8 % in 2018 due to the slowdown in activity in the extractive sector, which remains the driving sector of the economy, despite the decline in the prices of some raw materials (copper and cobalt). Agriculture is hampered by its low productivity, while the energy deficit limits the country's industrialization efforts. Growth has been driven by domestic demand, in particular by private investment and public consumption. Thanks to good coordination of monetary and fiscal policies, the inflation rate, which was 29.3 % in 2018, fell to 4.5 % in 2019. The low level of foreign exchange reserves (equivalent to 3.7 weeks of imports in 2019) poses a challenge to external stability. However, the risk of debt distress is considered moderate. Poverty is persistent (77.1 % of the population lives on less than USD 1.90 per day), and inequality and underemployment (86 % of the labour force according to a 2012 survey) are high. Young people have limited access to employment and socio-professional integration. The structural weakness of domestic revenue limits the adequate financing of priority programmes. The infrastructure deficit in most sectors is a major constraint to the development of economic activities.

Despite this unfavourable picture, the country has a low level of debt (13.7 % of GDP for external debt and 6.5 % for domestic debt in 2018), which constitutes an opportunity for the mobilisation of new external financing. Moreover, the normalisation of the political situation and the new willingness to reform and fight corruption are creating a climate of confidence, conducive to new private investment in the growth sectors of the economy.

In order to give greater visibility to national priorities, the National Strategic Plan for Economic and Social Development (PNSD) for the period 2019-2023 was validated by the government on 27 December 2019. With nearly 80 million hectares of arable land and more than 1,100 minerals and precious metals listed, this plan aims ultimately to make the DRC one of the richest countries on the African continent.

This ambitious programme to be fully deployed requires significant resources to finance the various projects that make it up. Thus, the Government of the DRC turned to the Consortium of investors Grand Impex Trading Ltd, to support it in achieving its objectives.

At the end of the various exchanges and the evaluation of the means and assets involved, the dynamics of a pooling of forces became apparent. The project to create a PPP investment fund between the Government of the DRC, the Grand Impex Trading Ltd Consortium and civil society has therefore taken shape.

2. Mission and Objectives

The RD Congo Investment Fund is a PPP investment fund designed to support mainly the Government of the DRC in the financing, implementation and operation of the projects of its Strategic Development Plan. The fund will also be able to support private sector economic players operating in the DRC and in Africa. The aim is to carry out a sustainable and profitable activity at the service of socio-economic development, not only of the Democratic Republic of Congo, economic actors operating in Africa and the resident populations.

The implementation of these missions is based on a number of activities:

• The setting up of a "window" for the granting of financing to the projects of the Strategic Development Plan;

• The establishment of a "window" for granting financing to private operators;
• Capacity building of local actors and partners involved in the project ;
• The "accompaniment of the different actors in the formulation of problems and needs;
• Empowerment of the different actors and partners of the project ;

• The joint construction and operation of the various works and infrastructures financed.

  In the long term, the aim will be to increase the supply of financing resources for operators and economic actors in the DRC and Africa, improve the supply of infrastructure in the country, increase the production and income of economic actors, particularly the Government of the DRC, increase the output and productivity of the various economic sectors, improve the living conditions of the population, work for development and job creation, and increase the income of the population.