Vol 52 No 2 | CONGO-KINSHASA Kabila moves the goalposts 21st January 2011 President Joseph Kabila has virtually ensured his re-election on 27 November by getting Parliament to eliminate the inconvenience of a second electoral round (AC Vol 52 No 1). Gove...
Vol 52 No 1 | CONGO-KINSHASA Kabila again 7th January 2011 If, despite some legal hurdles, the elections are held, President Joseph Kabila is likely to win another five years in power Congo’s approaching elections are already entangled by lawyers. The main opposition party, Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), supported by several local no...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 12 | CONGO-KINSHASASOUTH KOREA Water and copper under the bridge 5th October 2011 South Korean company Samsung C&T has become a collateral victim of the dispute between Belgian company George Forrest International and Congo-Kinshasa’s state mining compan...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 11 | CONGO-KINSHASASOUTH KOREA Fire sale 15th September 2011 Ahead of national polls scheduled for 28 November, the Kinshasa government has decided to sell off state assets to a Hong Hong-based company for a fraction of their value.
Vol 4 (AAC) No 9 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Shifting foundation 13th July 2011 The terms of the mines-for-infrastructure contract are flexible, which is good because they’re up for negotiation again The Congolese authorities have signalled yet another revision to the historic US$6 billion mines-for-infrastructure deal between the government and a Chinese consortium. China Rail...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Old debts and new deals 15th April 2011 Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal will decide this month whether FG Hemisphere, a United States-based vulture fund, is entitled to seize US$100 million from payments due to the...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Surveying Sicomines 31st March 2011 The Congolese authorities are having trouble holding their Chinese partners to account while new barter deals and contracts pile up Concerns are rising over the opacity of the US$6 billion Sicomines deal between the Congolese government and a group of Chinese companies. Congolese civil society groups and opposi...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA All roads lead to Beijing 31st March 2011 Chinese construction companies are not just carrying out Beijing-backed projects, they are also winning contracts from international donors. The first phases of telecommunications ...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 1 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA The price of debt forgiveness 18th November 2010 Kinshasa may have to rethink its deals with China if it wants debt write-offs from Western creditors European powers are blocking billions of dollars of debt relief to President Joseph Kabila’s government until it agrees to revise some of its trade and financing deals with China. ...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 1 | CONGO-KINSHASASOUTH KOREA Hyperactive relations 18th November 2010 South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak is due in Kinshasa in early 2011 to reciprocate Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s visit to Seoul in March. This month, the Korean Internation...