The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$10 million loan from the International Development Association (IDA) for the Economic Diversification Project (SEDP) in the Republic of Congo.

The project will receive a 50% co-financing from the government raising its total to US$20 million. It illustrates a new type of partnership that is increasingly redefining the relationship between the World Bank and the Government of the Congo Republic, one that focuses more on using the bank technical assistance leveraging the country financial resources to further the country’s development objectives. The objective of the Support to Economic Diversification Project is to promote private sector growth and investment in the non-oil sectors in the Republic of Congo.

The project has three main components:

1. The first component will support the public private dialogue and investment climate reforms. This component will provide technical assistance to improve public private dialogue, improve the investment climate and strengthen the institutional framework to support enterprises and investments.
2. The second component is the support to enterprise development and investment promotion. This component is aimed at supporting access to non financial and financial services.
3. The third component is the support to the reform of the railway company. This component will assist the Government in implementing a strategy to improve the operations and services of the railway company, Chemin de Fer Congo Ocean (CFCO), in a more sustainable manner through the establishment of a public private partnership whose scope will minimally entail a performance based management contract.

It is important to note that the preparation and implementation of this project is being coordinated in a joint effort with projects from other development partners namely AfDB, EU, AFD, and ONUDI.
The Economic Diversification Project will be implemented over the course of five years.