LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Congo: Countries
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The challenges Congo faces are enormous. Coming out of a situation of total state-collapse, basic infrastructures, social, educational and health services, political and economic institutions all have to be rebuild. If political stability reigns, the country's future does look bright, though. Last year, it achieved an impressive economic growth of around 7%, but per capita incomes remain the lowest in the world at US$120 per year. The EU has launched several initiatives to support the revival of Congo's economy. Amongst them, an Energy Partnership and a €5 billion infrastructure fund for Africa, of which Congo will receive a substantial share.
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What the people of the Congo (now Zaire) won is not clear. Under Mobutu, terror and repression became facts of daily life, civil liberties and other human rights were markedly absent. The country remains one of the poorest to be found anywhere despite its vast natural riches. Mobutu... is reputed to be one of the richest heads of state in the world.
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The London Club of private sector creditors signed a deal with Congo cancelling 80% of debts owed it by the oil-producing country. The Finance Ministry said Congo's debts to the London Club were 288 billion CFA owed [$643.6 million] before forgiveness. The cancellation is the fruit of more than a year's negotiations which began after Congo secured an International Monetary Fund programme and qualified for the Heavily Indebted Poor Country's [HIPC] debt-relief scheme last year. That led some of the Paris Club of sovereign lenders, which had already agreed to cancel 67% of its debt, to increase forgiveness to 90-100%, wiping out a huge chunk of a foreign debt mountain that stood at $5.5 billion in 2004. [15/11/07]
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Information on Congo-Brazzaville's oil, natural gas, and electricity. Has an economic, energy, and environment overview and information on political/economic factors affecting the energy sector. See ... the Energy Production/Consumption page at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/world/country/cntry_CF.html
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From 1965, for 32 years, Mobutu ruled Congo as his personal playground. He changed the name of the country to Zaire, put his face on every banknote, and hung posters of himself throughout the country. His looting of the state is now almost legendary, mythic in its grandiosity. In one example, Mobutu would summon the Concorde to Zaire from Paris so he and his family could fly out on shopping trips. This time, the looting of Congo was carried out by an African,
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Patrice Lumumba became the Congo's first prime minister after his party received a plurality of the votes in national elections. He called for the nation's economic as well as political liberation and did not shy away from contact with socialist countries. At the Independence Day ceremonies he probably managed to alienate all the attending foreign dignitaries with his speech, which read in part:
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