UAE's Rakeen launches first Africa venture in Congo
By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates-based property developer Rakeen launched its first real estate venture in Africa on Tuesday with construction projects valued at $540 million in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rakeen Congo Ltd will build a 4,000 square metre, 310 room luxury hotel, a conference centre, and a 23 floor residential tower in the Congolese capital Kinshasa. Construction is due to be finished by mid 2010.
Rakeen, promoted by the government of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), part of the oil-exporting UAE federation, has projects underway or planned in the UAE, Iran and Georgia and in December formed a joint venture with a company in India to enter the Asian country's booming domestic real estate sector.
After meeting with Congo's President Joseph Kabila on Tuesday, Ras Al Khaimah's Crown Prince Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, the emirate's deputy ruler, said he was weighing up the possibilities of investing also in the industrial sector of the vast central African nation.
"We are looking for a strong partnership. We are not here for just one area, we are here to study all areas. I hope that more cooperation will be announced soon," he said.
RAK Minerals and Metals Congo, operated by Ras Al Khaimah's investment authority, is already involved in copper and cobalt exploration in Katanga province -- Congo's mineral heartland.
The former Belgian colony is still recovering from decades of mismanagement, corruption and a 1998-2003 war which triggered a humanitarian catastrophe in which an estimated 5.4 million people died, mainly through hunger and disease.
Following 2006 elections that confirmed Kabila in office, interest in Congo's once mighty mining sector has boomed again.
But development has been hampered by crumbling infrastructure, forcing the government to seek out new investment partners to help rebuild.
Earlier this year, Congo agreed a $9 billion loan and investment package with China to build thousands of kilometres of roads and railways and help rehabilitate mining infrastructure in exchange for copper and cobalt concessions.
But just as Chinese investment has grown rapidly in the world's poorest continent, so too have business ventures by Arab investors. Big companies from the Middle East and North Africa have been pouring billions of dollars into African projects ranging from waterfront resorts in Cape Town to phone networks in Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
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