"Good Congo"
For a long time we have had a running issue of making sure that everyone understands that we are in the "good congo" or at least the less conflicted congo. I have always felt that this was an important distinction, and maa itself goes to lengths to make sure that people realize that the republic of congo is not the DRC. Indeed, the horrible violence which made world headlines was in the DRC, not the rep. of congo. However, concerning the business environment the world bank sees little difference between the two, at least according to the following link.
https://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/
According to them, out of 183 states, DRC ranks 183. Alarmingly, the ROC ranks 179. Of course, i hope that nobody out there had illusions about the business environment in maa...but 4th worst isnt that far off from the first worst. Don't get me wrong, i am long maa and have been here for 18 months. I am just passing along some info. The link below gives the country study for congo.
https://www.doingbusiness.org/ExploreEconomies/?economyid=49
I dont want to be naive, but perhaps the fact that MAA has worked in the worst (DRC) and 4th worst (ROC) environments in the world for business is one of the reasons why sinohydro (an energy oriented corporation) is linking itself to MAA.
Lastly, and i cant believe i am writing this...but maybe we have to cut maa a bit of slack. Since March or so we have been told that financing is imminent, and many of us are maddened by the lack of transparency, but i think that these rankings are a bit of a reminder regarding the context they are dealing with.