Zaire INDUSTRY
Room where copper is electrolyzed at the
Gécamines Luilu refinery near Kolwezi
Flow racks for the electrolyzed copper, Gécamines
Shituru refinery near Likasi
Courtesy Gécamines
The manufacturing sector accounted for an estimated 1
percent
of GDP in 1987, and 1.7 percent in 1988, down from 9
percent in
1981. The sector is concentrated in Kinshasa and the
mining area of
Shaba Region and consists largely of consumer goods, such
as food
processing, textile manufacturing, beer, cigarettes,
metalworking
and woodworking, and vehicle assembly. Manufacturing as a
whole is
hindered by many problems, including chronic
mismanagement, lack of
foreign exchange as well as long-term investment capital
(especially the reluctance of foreigners to invest because
of past
nationalization schemes), a lack of spare parts, an
inadequate
transportation system, limited access to international
markets, and
a small domestic market that largely consists of consumers
with
little expendable income. Liberalization of economic
policies in
the late 1980s, however, resulted in an increase in
production in
some fields, most notably textiles, plastics, tobacco, and
breweries.
The policy of import substitution begun between 1969
and 1972
was largely abandoned during the 1980s. The two most
important
enterprises established under the import-substitution
policy were
a General Motors vehicle assembly plant and a Continental
Grains
wheat mill, which was dependent on imported wheat.
Goodyear also
built a US$16 million tire plant in 1972. Promised rubber
plantation investments never materialized.
By 1987 both General Motors and Goodyear had sold their
enterprises to local businessmen, who were rumored to be
backed by
high government officials. General Motors and Goodyear had
had
chronic difficulties competing with cheap imports, which
were
frequently smuggled into the country or brought in exempt
from
import duties. Additionally, the proportion of raw
materials
imported for manufacturing was high. Moreover, companies
suffered
tremendous production difficulties when the
foreign-exchange crisis
of the mid-1970s hit.
Throughout the 1980s, most Zairian factories operated
at just
30 percent of installed capacity. By most accounts,
manufacturing
in the formal economy had virtually ceased by 1992 in the
wake of
general economic chaos and several waves of military-led
looting
and rioting in Kinshasa. Factories, stripped bare, were
forced to
close, leaving thousands in the capital out of work. Shops
and
restaurants also closed.
Traditionally, numerous Zairian entrepreneurs have
operated
small- (three to four employees) and medium-sized
businesses in the
informal sector in Kinshasa. Such activities have
continued,
producing a wide range of products--e.g., furniture,
clothes,
crafts, food, and even vehicles chassis. Most such
enterprises are
unlicensed, but they fill a critical need in supplying the
populace
with otherwise unavailable or unaffordable goods.
Data as of December 1993
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