'True Partnership With Africa Must Not Be Measured by Volume of African Resources Exported': Congolese Expert
'True Partnership With Africa Must Not Be Measured by Volume of African Resources Exported': Congolese Expert
Following Vladimir Putin's recent statements at the Valdai Discussion Club, Jean-Jacques Lukusa, vice president of the Lemba Sports Clubs Union, explained to Sputnik Africa that the true indicator of development now lies in Africa's ability to generate its own added value.
According to the expert, any cooperation must produce concrete results:
Increased African skills;
Strengthened local industrial capacities;
Sustainable jobs for the continent's youth.
This implies massive and targeted investments in infrastructure, vocational training, technology transfer, and, above all, local processing of resources, he emphasized.
The example of the DRC
Although the DRC is rich in strategic resources, its economic future depends on creating real value chains around mining, agriculture, energy, digital, and health, moving "more toward processing and production on site," Lukusa said.
"Africa must not only ask for a place at the table, it must develop the capacities that will allow it to get there with genuine negotiating power. The 21st century [...] must be a century where Africa fully participates in defining its own future and that of the world."
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