The CEO of the National Development Fund of Congo (FNDC), Huo Kouyin has mooted plans to invest nearly one hundred billion CFA francs to promote the cultivation and industrialization of bamboo and transform the sector into a linchpin of the country’s green economy, the company said in a statement to APA on Friday.
By Léon Charles Moukouri Au
According to the statement, an MOU to this effect was signed on January 8 in Brazzaville, between Huo Kouyin and the Congolese minister of Forest Economy, Rosalie Matondo.
“This project, worth nearly CFA100 billion will provide more than 5,000 jobs. It will therefore reduce poverty and contribute to the social and economic development of the country,” the statement said.
The FNDC intends to bring the bamboo cultivation initiative to fruition through the development of groves (bamboo plantations).
The bamboo product will be exploited and marketed in order to be valued through the establishment of factories processing it into sawn wood, feed, textiles and other finished products, it added.
Thanks to its very dense roots going over 60 centimeters deep, bamboo restores depleted soils.
Its cultivation will thus contribute to the fight against soil erosion in Congo’s districts.
LCM/te/fss/as/APA