NIGERIA – DELEGATES to talks in South Africa on the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have agreed on an urgent programme of economic reconstruction, participants said on Monday.
The talks in the luxury gambling resort of Sun City group some 350 delegates from the government, rebel groups, political parties and civic society and are due to end in mid-April.
The delegates’ thorniest tasks are ending a war which broke out in 1998, dragging in half-a-dozen African countries, setting up an interim government pending elections, and integrating rebel fighters into the army.
Commissions meeting behind closed doors on the economy and finance, humanitarian and social policies, peace and reconciliation, and political and juridical matters reported back to a plenary session on Monday on progress made over the past four days, said the team of talks facilitator Sir Ketumile Masire, a former Botswanan president.
The fifth commission, on defence and security, was due to present its interim report Tuesday.
Delegates said the economy and finance commission had made remarkable progress on the economic reconstruction plan, and that its members were working on a final report.
They have agreed on ”a diagnosis of the economy, existing constraints, targets for macro-economic policy and the fight against poverty, and strategies and methods of action”, said Emile Ngoy, an economist with the rebel Rally for Congolese Democracy.
The delegates want to see four to six percent annual growth over three years of transition on the basis of one billion dollars the first year – $3,5 billion over the three years — based 50-50 on internal receipts and foreign income.
Delicate points remaining to be settled include the future validity of contracts signed during the war. – AFP
