Democratic Republic of the Congo

C

Agriculture

Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, employs 68 percent of the working population and accounts for 46 percent of GDP. However, only 3 percent of the country’s area is under cultivation. Large areas of the Congo Basin are suitable for farming but are currently covered with forests. Cash crop production declined markedly after Mobutu nationalized foreign-owned plantations in the 1970s, and again during political disturbances in the 1990s. Much of the farmland has reverted to subsistence farming. The principal food crops are manioc, plantains, sugarcane, corn, peanuts, bananas, rice, and yams. Cash crops include palm kernels, coffee, cottonseed and cotton lint, and rubber. Chickens, goats, pigs, and sheep are raised. Cattle raising is confined to elevated regions that are free of the tsetse fly, which spreads sleeping sickness.

D

Forestry and Fishing

The DRC contains an estimated 6 percent of the world’s forests. However, timber cutting has largely been limited to the western DRC, close to the Congo River, because of the country’s poor infrastructure. Most of the trees cut are not processed in the DRC, but floated downriver and exported as logs. Almost all of the fish caught in the DRC are freshwater fish and are consumed locally. Fish caught include perch, tilapia, and eels.

E

Manufacturing

The most important manufacturing activities in the DRC are mineral processing and the production of cement and textiles. Other manufactured products include tires, shoes, cigarettes, beer, and processed food. During the 1990s, when the country experienced significant unrest, industrial activity declined substantially. In 2006 manufacturing accounted for 7 percent of GDP. Industry, which includes manufacturing, mining, and construction, provided 13 percent of employment.

F

Services

Services account for 27 percent of GDP and 19 percent of employment. The most important areas are transportation, government, communications, and banking. Tourism has never accounted for a significant sector of the economy. Before the instability of the 1990s, which virtually eliminated tourism, the DRC received only a small number of tourists, mainly from Europe. The most important tourist destinations were Kinshasa and national parks such as Virunga National Park and Garamba National Park, both in the northeast.

---

---

G

Energy

The DRC’s hydroelectric plants produce virtually all of the energy the country needs. The major hydroelectric plant is on the lower Congo River at Inga (opened in 1972). Other generating plants have been built in the southern DRC to serve mining operations. The plant at Inga alone could produce 15 times the amount of electricity needed by the DRC. In 2003 the DRC exported 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to other African nations. The small percentage of energy not produced by hydroelectric plants comes from thermal plants.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain