DRC: Faced with Its Mining Potential, Faustin Luanga Calls for a Better-Structured Agricultural Sector
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not lack resources, but rather suffers from a lack of coherence between its ambitions and their implementation. This is the assessment of economist Faustin Luanga, who believes that the country must make better use of its agricultural potential and strengthen the skills needed for its transformation.
A Skills Deficit
Faustin Luanga notably points to the insufficient number of engineers and agronomists in relation to the scale of the country’s potential.
According to him, this weakness is an obstacle to the transformation of the agricultural sector, even though the country has vast areas of arable land and significant natural resources.
The economist refers to the presidential promise of the “revenge of the soil over the subsoil,” which was intended to reflect the ambition of making agriculture a pillar of economic development.
However, he believes that this ambition has not been accompanied by a sufficiently significant strengthening of agronomic training.
Learning from Asian Models
Drawing on his experience in Asia, Faustin Luanga compares the DRC’s trajectory with those of Japan, South Korea and the “Asian Tigers,” as well as Ethiopia.
According to him, these countries have demonstrated that development depends less on the abundance of resources than on the ability to organize, plan, and sustain efforts over time.
This experience demonstrates, in his view, the importance of investing in skills, organizing value chains, and ensuring continuity in public policies.
For the DRC, therefore, possessing considerable agricultural and mining potential is not enough: the country must also create the conditions necessary to transform that potential into wealth and jobs.
Institutional Discipline at the Heart of the Challenge
Faustin Luanga ultimately believes that the DRC faces a “problem of institutional discipline.”
Economic sovereignty, he emphasizes, is not measured solely by the possession of natural resources, but also by the State’s ability to implement what has been planned.
From this perspective, better structuring the agricultural sector, strengthening the training of agronomists, and ensuring consistent implementation of public policies appear to be essential conditions for making the “revenge of the soil over the subsoil” a reality.
Héritier Maila / Stanis Bujakera
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