RDC: Les récentes déclarations du Premier Ministre Augustin Matata Ponyo sur le Secteur Minier
18 mars 2014: "Une forte augmentation de la production minière stimulera la croissance économique en République démocratique du Congo à environ 9,5% cette année. La production minière est pratiquement en train d'exploser et il est prévu que en 2014 nous verrons une production beaucoup plus élevée qu'en 2013. Pour 2014, nous prévoyons une croissance économique d'environ 9,5% ... parmi les plus élevés sur le continent."
Notons que la production de cuivre a atteint un record de 942.000 tonnes - ce qui a fait de la RDC le plus grand producteur en Afrique.
Source: Reuters
2. "La République démocratique du Congo, le plus grand producteur de cuivre de l'Afrique, doit diversifier son économie étant donné que les prix du cuivre connaissent une chute libre!Cette situation est préoccupante et le gouvernement doit réagir en envisageant des mesures de soutien. Notre économie reste très dépendante des ressources naturelles, ce qui l'affaiblit.La diversification est nécessaire, notamment en exploitant des parcs agro-industriels."
Notons que les prix du cuivre pour livraison dans trois mois ont chuté 11% cette année à 6,541.25 $ par tonne métrique à Londres. Ces signes de ralentissement son dus a la préoccupation de réduction de la demande par la Chine, la plus grand de consommatrice des metaux du monde.
Source: Bloomberg
3."La République Démocratique du Congo vise à doubler les recettes fiscales de l'exploitation minière à 25% du budget national en 2016, de 14,5% à l'heure actuelle. L'exploitation des ressources naturelles est la clé de notre ambition de devenir un pays émergent à l'horizon 2030."
Source: Reuters
Congo PM says economy to boom in 2014, reassures investors
http://news.yahoo.com/congo-pm-says-economy-boom-2014-reassures-investors-152602383.html;_ylt=AwrSyCNoiTNTZ3UAr9HQtDMD
By Peter Jones
March 18, 2014 11:26 AM
.View photo
A worker walks near the Congolese state mining company Gecamines' copper concentrator at its Kambove …By Peter Jones
KINSHASA (Reuters) - A sharp increase in mining production will drive economic growth in Democratic Republic of Congo to around 9.5 percent this year, one of the highest rates in Africa, Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo said in an interview.
Congo, a country the size of Western Europe in the heart of Africa, has rich reserves of gold, diamonds, copper, cassiterite and coltan but development of its resources has been hampered by poor infrastructure, corruption and decades of conflict.
Ponyo, a technocrat who took over as prime minister in April 2012, is credited with taming inflation, curbing government debt and boosting economic growth on the back of a mining bonanza.
Congo's roughly $20 billion economy grew by 8.5 percent last year, according to the IMF, as copper production hit a record 942,000 tonnes - making it the largest producer in Africa.
"Mining production is practically exploding and it's forecast that in 2014 we'll see much higher production than in 2013," Ponyo told Reuters. "For 2014, we predict economic growth of around 9.5 percent ... among the highest on the continent."
His forecast topped the IMF's estimate that Congo's economy would grow by 8.7 percent this year. Despite robust growth in recent years, most of Congo's 65 million people live in poverty.
Ponyo said Congo's growth and low inflation - 1.1 percent in 2013 according to the IMF - made it a special case in Africa.
Mining makes up around 30 percent of Congo's economy, the government says.
Production boomed last year as a number of expansion projects came on line - including at Glencore Xstrata's Kamoto Copper Company (KCC). Freeport McMoRan is also ramping up output at its giant Tenke Fungurume Mine in the southeastern copper-rich province of Katanga.
The prime minister sought to allay investors' concerns over proposed new mining and oil codes, due to be approved during a new parliamentary session that began on Saturday.
The government has held talks with investors over a mining code would raise the state's stake in new projects to 10-15 percent and triple royalties to 6 percent. Ponyo said he would take onboard the opinions of major international companies.
"We are obliged to take their observations into account, while preserving the interests of Congo," he said in the interview on Saturday.
LACK OF ELECTRICITY HAMPERS MINERS
Ponyo has said the government's recent success in pacifying some armed groups in eastern Congo - where millions have died from violence, hunger and disease in the past two decades - has helped attract mining investors.
Congo's soil is estimated to hold trillions of dollars in minerals but a lack of infrastructure has bedeviled its development. The giant country has just 2,000 km (1,250 miles) of paved roads and miners in complain production has been limited by a lack of electricity.
In a January letter to President Joseph Kabila, seen by Reuters, Ponyo set out plans to ration energy to mining companies and called for a suspension of expansion plans.
"The energy deficit is putting a brake on the development of the mining sector and consequently of the country," Ponyo said. "The government is working to find durable solutions."
The most important of these is a long-delayed expansion of the giant hydroelectric power station at Inga, 250 km (156 miles) southwest of Kinshasa on the Congo River.
Three consortiums are bidding for the contract to build Inga III and sell the power it generates. The project was made more attractive last year when South Africa signed a deal to purchase half of the 4,800 MW produced by the new power station.
Ponyo said the government was keen for construction to begin before the World Bank's estimated start date of 2016: "It's up to us to work with the World Bank and other partners to explore possibilities to shorten the timeframe."
The World Bank is expected to approve $73 million of financing for the project on March 20 but progress has been slow in deciding on a private partner to contribute the majority of the estimated $12 billion construction costs.
Anti-corruption campaigner Transparency International ranked Congo 154 of 177 countries on its 2013 corruption index, an improvement from its position of 160 the previous year.
Ponyo said his government was working on ways to slash tax avoidance, smuggling and graft. The government will pay public servants via banks, replacing cash payments that allowed senior officials to pilfer salaries, Ponyo said.
Speculation has been rife since October, when President Joseph Kabila said he would form a national unity government, that Ponyo would be replaced as premier but he said he had no information on any reshuffle. "Since October, the government has continued to work with the same intensity," he said.
The government is moving towards privileging Congo's franc over the U.S. dollar, widely used due to the instability of the national currency. Certain taxes were now paid in francs but there were no plans to legislate against the dollar, Ponyo said.
"It's a process that we have initiated that will go little by little so everyone can adjust to it," he said.
_______________________________________________________
Congo Prime Minister Urges Diversification as Copper Slumps
By Michael J. Kavanagh, Blomberg Mar 26, 2014
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s largest copper producer, must diversify its economy as copper prices fall, Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo said.
Copper futures for delivery in three months have dropped 11 percent this year to $6,541.25 per metric ton by 10:59 a.m. in London today, as signs of slowing economic growth fuel concern of reduced demand in China, the world’s biggest metals consumer.
“This situation is worrying and the government must react by considering supportive measures,” Matata said in an e-mailed statement after a meeting with his ministers of economy, finance and mines in Goma, capital of North Kivu province in eastern Congo, on March 24.
Congo produced 943,000 tons of copper last year and exported 869,000 tons, according to the Federation des Entreprises du Congo, the nation’s main business group. Mining revenue, which comes mainly from copper and cobalt, made up 14.5 percent of the country’s 2013 budget, Matata said March 24.
“Our economy remains extremely dependent on natural resources, which weakens it,” Matata said. “Diversification is necessary, notably by exploiting agro-industrial parks.”
Congo is pushing a $5.7 billion plan to develop its agriculture industry. The country, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country by landmass, uses only about 10 percent of its more than 80 million hectares (198 million acres) of arable land, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The government has yet to pass a revision to a 2011 law requiring agriculture projects to be majority owned by Congolese nationals, which has hampered new investments in the industry.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Kavanagh in Kinshasa at mkavanagh9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net Tony Barrett
__________________________________________________________
Congo's mining tax increase plan rattles investors
http://news.yahoo.com/congos-mining-tax-increase-plan-rattles-investors-150415490.html
By By Peter Jones
11 hours ago
.View photo
Machinery is seen at the Congolese state mining company Gecamines' copper plant in Kambove, in the …By Peter Jones
GOMA Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo aims to double tax revenues from minerals but investors warned that an overhaul of the mining code could remove incentives to invest there.
Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo told a mining conference in the eastern city of Goma that the government intends to increase tax revenues from mining to 25 percent of the national budget by 2016, from 14.5 percent at present.
“Exploitation of natural resources is key to our ambition of becoming an emerging market country by 2030,” he said.
Congo produced a record 943,000 tons of copper last year, making it Africa's largest producer and driving economic growth of 8.5 percent. Mismanagement, corruption and two decades of violence in eastern Congo have hampered development of other minerals, including diamonds, gold, cassiterite and coltan.
Mining executives warned the government’s ongoing revision of the 2002 mining code risked deterring much-needed investment.
“We need a mining code that is sufficiently incentivising,” said Louis Watum, general manager of Randgold’s giant Kibali mine in Congo's remote northeastern Orientale Province, which poured its first gold in September.
Investors needed to be compensated for infrastructure problems in Congo which drove returns on projects to below levels in neighbouring resource-rich countries, he said.
The government had hoped to unveil a new code at the mining conference. However, negotiations with the private sector have stalled over the government's push to raise royalties on minerals like copper and shorten stability clauses guaranteeing no changes to tax terms on projects. [ID:nL6N0LV35R]
“Differences persist regarding tax, customs and foreign exchange,” said Simon Tuma-Waku, vice-president of the chamber of mines at the Federation of Congolese Businesses.
LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE
Randgold's Watum said that, before undertaking a project, the company usually insists on reserves of 3 million ounces of gold ore, a 20 percent rate of return on investment, as well as political stability in the host country.
“Because of the challenges we face in Congo, reserves need to be at least 5 million ounces of gold,” he said. “Orientale Province is just not economically viable as a location due to its lack of infrastructure.”
Kibali has an estimated 11 million ounces of gold, he said.
Mining companies are drawn to invest mostly in Congo's copper-rich southeastern province of Katanga, but even there they face an energy deficit of around 300 MW. Congo intends to build a huge 4,800 MW hydropower station at Inga on the Congo River but progress in finding a private partner has been slow.
Philippe Muteba, the director of Canadian gold company Banro’s Twangiza Mining project, said lack of reliable energy was also a problem in the eastern province of South Kivu.
“We are forced to purchase 1.2 million litres of gasoline each month to power a 4.5 megawatt generator,” Muteba said.
Banro is one of only two miners in Congo’s troubled North and South Kivu provinces. Canada's Alphamin subsidiary Mining and Processing Congo (MPC) is exploring across five permits at the Bisié tin mine in North Kivu.
North Kivu was the setting of a 20-month long insurrection by the M23 rebel, which was finally quelled by Congolese forces in November thanks to the intervention of U.N. peacekeepers.
“Peace is a necessity to allow for business,” Ponyo said. “I want Congo to be a centre that diffuses peace and wealth.”
Ponyo's office said in statement on Wednesday that a recent slump in copper prices, amid an economic slowdown in China, was a reminder of the need to diversify the economy. LME copper prices have lost about 10 percent this year, trading at $6,565 per tonne on Wednesday.