#Kinshasa-#Brazzaville are the closest two capital cities in the world (2 miles apart). Only 1.12 percent of all imports recorded by the Republic of Congo (RC) come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The cost of crossing the #CongoRiver is the main culprit.

The average cost of a roundtrip across the river is estimated as USD $40, equivalent to between 40 and 80 percent of the average monthly income earned by Kinshasa residents. If residents traveling between #SanFrancisco and #Oakland (which are separated by a similar distance) had to pay pro rata the same level of fees as people crossing from Kinshasa to Brazzaville they would pay between $1200 and $2400 for a round trip.

The costs of formally shipping goods across the pool are also exorbitant. These high prices largely result from lack of competition in river crossing services in the form of the duopoly granted to the two national operators, #ONATRA (in the #DRC) and #CNTF (in the #RC) and their lack of investment that has limited transport capacity.

Unblocking the bottleneck through a combination of regulatory changes that increase competition and encourage investment by ending the stranglehold of ONATRA and CNTF together with customs reform and systematic implementation of single clearing and payment points for traders would yield significant economic gains for the citizens of both cities. It would also have symbolic value as a gesture of political good will, and represent a test case for trade reform, which, if successful, could later be replicated throughout both countries.

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