At the venue of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29, hosted by Baku, Azerbaijan, the head of the DRC Government met with the vice-president of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for Africa, Sérgio Pimenta.

The meeting focused on the results of cooperation between the two parties, with more than $550 million mobilized since 2021, and on the new opportunities opening up in key sectors such as energy, infrastructure, agri-food and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Suminwa’s office published on X the IFC’s intentions to step up support for the Congolese private sector, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, with special attention to those run by women. IFC will also lend a hand to strategic public-private partnership projects and the modernization of agriculture.

Pimenta said the two sides had agreed on establishing priorities to boost growth and create sustainable opportunities for the DRC’s economy.

The Prime Minister also advocated a more adequate valorization of her country’s natural capital, which provides important environmental and eco-systemic services at a global level.

At a high-level meeting organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB), she argued that a fair analysis could generate enormous economic and financial benefits for countries in need of it, such as the DRC.

She noted that a example, a general estimate of the carbon sequestration services of the Congo Basin indicates that it could potentially generate a value of approximately USD 55 billion per year for our Central African region.

According to estimates made in 2018, “the value of this heritage would be estimated at around 316.1 billion US dollars. Unfortunately, its contribution to GDP remains extremely low. Thus, working towards the fair valuation of this heritage seems to me very useful to support the urgent acceleration of our country”, said the Head of the Congolese Government.

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