STRATEGIC MEETING WITH THE MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY OF BURUNDI ON STRENGTHENING TRADE EXCHANGE
The Congolese and Burundian Governments are committed to strengthening the implementation of the bilateral trade agreement signed in 2022 to facilitate trade between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
This commitment was made during a strategic meeting this Tuesday in Kinshasa between the Minister of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya and the Burundian Minister of Trade and Industry, Marie-Chantal Nijimbere.
These two personalities insisted on the acceleration of construction work on public infrastructure including markets, border posts and ports along their common borders, within the framework of the Trade Facilitation and Integration project in the Great Lakes region-PFCI financed by the World Bank.
It was an opportunity for the Minister of Foreign Trade to reassure the Burundian Government that the series of government measures prohibiting the temporary importation of certain products including beers and soft drinks to safeguard Congolese industries do not concern products of Burundian origin, and this, in accordance with the bilateral trade agreement which binds these two neighboring countries concluded Julien Paluku Kahongya.
For her part, the Burundian Minister of Trade and Industry welcomed this commercial cooperation and took the opportunity to officially extend the invitation to her colleague from the DRC to participate on October 31 in Bujumbura in the summit of Heads of State and Government of the member countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa - COMESA which will deal with several subjects including that of the Simplified Trade Regime - RECOS.
Note that on this occasion, Burundi requested the support of the DRC for its reintegration into AGOA, because the AGOA 2025 forum will be organized next July in Kinshasa.
