Kinshasa, March 16th, 2023 (CPA). – A concession contract for the treatment of containers at the Port of Matadi was signed on Wednesday between the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Qatari group Mediterranean Shipping Company SA (MSC), CPA learnt from the primacy.
« It is the continuity of the marriage that will take place between the Congolese Company of Transport and Ports (SCTP) and MSC for the modernisation of the Port of Matadi, in its container processing part, » said Martin Lukusa Tshibangu, general manager of SCTP, at the end of the ceremony presided over by the Prime Minister, Jean Michel Sama Lukonde.
« And today, we were on the part of the suspensive conditions. But the discussions will continue within the next two months to arrive at the final version, in order to be able to effectively start the work and modernise the port to face the competition that has been undermining us for several years, » he said.
« The port will be equipped. Scientific work is being done. We will significantly improve the internal operating conditions to lower prices so that the end consumer is served with the best products on the market, » added Martin Lukusa.
He suggested that internal conditions are not better, and this is driving up prices. « But with the contribution of technology, we will have the fluidity of products that will be either imported or exported, in order to serve the last consumers, » he hoped.
For his part, the president of the MSC group, Diego Aponte, stressed that through the Matadi terminal, through MSC ships, the idea is really to modernise the port of Matadi to make it a very competitive terminal, in order to lower prices, in the interest of Congolese importers and exporters.
« The first phase of investment in this project will cost 150 million euros. Work will start very soon. I think that by next summer, we will already be able to start working, » he added.
This partnership aims in particular to develop, equip and operate the terminal dedicated to the processing of containers.
