The planned China-Congo Industrial City is now estimated to cost $12 billion, up from previous projections. The new figure was announced on Oct. 23, 2025, during a ceremony in Kinshasa chaired by Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, which also saw the signing of a collaboration agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Sino-Congo Special Economic Development Zone (SCSZ) consortium.
The industrial city is part of the broader Kinshasa Urban Expansion Project, a major $50 billion development plan to build a new city spanning 43,000 hectares in Maluku, about 60 kilometers east of central Kinshasa.
Originally expected to cover 7,500 hectares, the Industrial City—which could generate over 150,000 direct and indirect jobs—will now see that area apply only to phase one, according to the Prime Minister’s office and the Strategic Oversight Committee for the Kinshasa Urban Expansion Project (CSSPEVK). Details on a second phase have not yet been released.
Official information indicates that the first phase will include eight industrial parks covering the construction materials, agri-food, textiles, chemical and metallurgical, forest products, electronics and high-tech, mechanical and electrical manufacturing, and recycling sectors.
The parks will host about 1,200 factories over 5,000 hectares, along with a 2,000-hectare commercial district and a 500-hectare residential zone for workers. The cost of this first phase was initially estimated at $8 billion, according to the Belgian daily L’Écho. The terms of the agreement with SCSZ has not been made public, but officials describe it as “the second of its kind after the Sicomines deal.”
Signed in 2008, the Sicomines agreement linked the DRC with a Chinese consortium comprising Crec, Sinohydro, and Zhejiang Huayou in a minerals-for-infrastructure exchange, often dubbed the “contract of the century.” The new agreement involves a different Chinese consortium, led by China State Construction Engineering.
If the SCSZ deal follows the same model as Sicomines, analysts warn it could face similar governance and transparency issues. In July 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the DRC to strengthen transparency and accountability mechanisms in managing the Sicomines convention.
Whether the DRC has learned from that experience may become clearer in the coming weeks. The signing of the SCSZ convention nonetheless marks a decisive step toward implementing the China–Congo Industrial City project.
Pierre Mukoko
