Economic Integration in the Lower Congo Region : Opening the Kinshasa-Brazzaville Bottleneck

Brulhart, Marius ; Hoppe, Mombert

关键词: ACCIDENTS;    ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS;    ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES;    AIRPORT;    ARBITRAGE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5909
RP-ID  :  WPS5909

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This working paper assesses cross-bordereconomic integration in the Lower Congo region. It focuseson the Kinshasa-Brazzaville conurbation, which is projectedto become Africa's largest urban area by 2025, and isalready serving as the gateway to large hinterlands. Despitetheir size and proximity, formal economic exchanges betweenthe two cities are extremely limited. The volume of recordedpassenger travel between Kinshasa and Brazzavillecorresponds to about one-fifth of the volume of trafficbetween East and West Berlin during the time of the BerlinWall, and formal trade volumes are derisorily small. As aconsequence, the authors find evidence of statisticallysignificant differences in retail prices, indicatingunexploited scope for cross-river arbitrage. Through asurvey of firms, they find that local traders perceivesubstantial scope for increasing cross-border economicactivity if cross-river trade costs were reduced. Trade inlocally produced goods and by small firms would especiallybenefit from such reductions. Existing high trade costsmainly result from a lack of competition in cross-rivertransport services, which are dominated by a duopoly ofstate-controlled operators. High administrative bordercosts, exacerbated by the presence of multiple governmentagencies at the border, act as a further obstacle.Liberalization of cross-river transport and customs reformcould yield large economic benefits for local producers and consumers.