WINDHOEK – Democratic Republic of Congo’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi, is expected to arrive in Windhoek today on a working visit, the Namibian presidency announced late yesterday.
Spokesperson for the Namibian presidency Dr Alfredo Hengari said in a statement that President Tshisekedi, who won the DRC presidential election in December 2018, will undertake a one-day working visit to Namibia.
His host, Namibian President Hage Geingob, is also chairperson of the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc).
“The working visit, the first to Namibia by President Tshisekedi since his inauguration as President of the DRC on 24 January 2019, is a follow-up to the bilateral meeting the two leaders held on 10 February 2019 on the margins of the recent 32nd Ordinary Summit of the African Union held in Addis Ababa,” Hengari said.
President Tshisekedi’s ascendance to power, from former president Joseph Kabila, was DRC’s first peaceful transfer of power since the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
Having had a hand in ensuring a peaceful electoral environment in DRC as Sadc chairperson, President Geingob said he now hopes to see that country – arguably Africa’s richest in natural resources – soar to new heights of prosperity.
“I have renewed hope and confidence in the ability of the DRC to play its meaningful role in the development of the Sadc region, and Africa at large,” he was quoted as saying.
“It is why the working visit of President Tshisekedi to Namibia marks a crucial step forward in consolidating bilateral relations between our two countries, with the key objective of opening up vast opportunities for [people-to-people] interactions and business-business exchanges in the interest of shared prosperity for our two countries.”
In 2017, the DRC exported $7.23 billion worth of goods, while imports stood at $4.64 billion, resulting in a positive trade balance of $2.59 billion. In 2017 the GDP of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was $37.6 billion and its GDP per capita was $887.
The government of DRC in 2012 donated a 25-hectare piece of land, equivalent to 25 standard football fields, to the Namibian government for the construction of a Namibia trade and industrial park in Lubumbashi, the second largest city in DRC.
Construction of the park started in 2016.
President Tshisekedi is scheduled to leave Namibia tomorrow, February 27.