World
Big Boost for Small Firms
  ·  2024-09-18  ·   Source: NO.38 SEPTEMBER 19, 2024
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan (2025-27), adopted at the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), states that China will implement an African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) empowerment initiative, which includes financing support for African SMEs, 50 matchmaking activities and 1,000 training opportunities for African business managers.

Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, Minister of SMEs, Handicrafts and the Informal Sector of the Republic of the Congo, shared her opinions on how China-Africa cooperation will benefit the development of SMEs in her country. Edited excerpts of her remarks follow: 

Today, small and medium-sized businesses, and even very small businesses, in the Congo account for almost 98 percent of the national economy, and therefore of national businesses.

These SMEs account for over 80 percent of the wage bill and the majority of units are informal. Today, the government has taken strong measures to facilitate the creation of low-cost businesses, and support foreign companies that want to enter into joint ventures and invest in the Congo. The majority of SMEs in the Congo today are in the agri-food, mining and timber sectors.

There are also a lot of companies active in the services sector, providing a wide range of services to individuals and communities. And today, we really want to emphasize the development and strengthening of companies involved in the transformation of raw materials and agricultural processing.

African countries are making efforts to produce in agriculture. But we still need to process and export them in compliance with the quality standards demanded by our partners. And for this, the partnership and today's (September 5) announcements by Chinese President Xi Jinping that China will launch an African SMEs empowerment initiative reassure us enormously, because we see that SMEs are at the heart of the cooperation between China and Africa.

So, work to develop these SMEs will follow and, above all, we will work to remove one of the major barriers to the development of SMEs, which is access to financing.

As you know, the partnership agreements between China and the Congo go back many years. We have 60 years of cooperation. So, these agreements have evolved a great deal. Today, Chinese companies wishing to invest in the Congo have access to a series of tax exemptions set out in the agreements that have been signed. But beyond that, we have set up a policy of installation in special economic zones, so that companies and SMEs can be exempt from all tax charges when they enter our country.

We have also put in place a policy of young ventures, a win-win partnership between Chinese and Congolese companies. So Chinese companies that choose to partner with Congolese entrepreneurs also have access to these facilities. We ourselves, as the ministry in charge of SMEs and handicrafts, help Chinese companies in setting up businesses, and we also help Congolese companies with non-financial and financial support, so that they can get up to speed for signing a partnership with a Chinese company.

For example, if a Congolese company in the food industry wants to sign a contract with a Chinese partner who will contribute 50 percent of the investment, we can finance the Congolese side so that it can contribute the 50 percent of the investment. So, we've really put in place some very attractive policies. And in the Congo, you can find skilled labor.

We also have Chinese-speaking workers. We have Chinese language schools. So, in the Congo, we've really done everything to ensure that entrepreneurs who decide to invest in the Congo find a favorable financial environment.

The article was first published in ChinAfrica magazine 

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

Comments to dingying@cicgamericas.com  

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