RESTITUTION OF THE REPORT OF THE STUDY COMMISSIONED BY THE BIT FOR UNICONGO

As part of the ILO's missions to its governmental, employer and worker constituents, the ILO, represented by Mr. Lassina Traoré, expert in charge of employer activities at the Regional Office in Yaoundé, commissioned a study of the informal sector in Congo to CERAPE, a research firm based in Brazzaville.

The purpose of this study was to better knowledge of the informalwith a view to setting up the basis for a public/private partnership approach aimed at promote the migration of units from the informal economy to the formal economy and to strengthen Unicongo's capacity to develop a competitive service offer in favor of the actors of the informal economy, likely to migrate to the formal economy.

The restitution workshop of this study took place on 27 November 2018 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Brazzaville, in the presence of the Minister of SMEs, Handicrafts and the formal sector, Ms. Adelaide Mougany, who sponsored the opening ceremony. A about twenty representatives of companies members of the Union participated in itwithout forgetting the participation of representatives of the World Bank, the Delegation of the European Union in Congo and the UNDP.

The presentation of the study report reviewed the characteristics of the informaland its economic and social importancethe existence of the existence of real and potential bridges between the informal and the formal. The fruitful exchanges that followed this presentation focused mainly on measures likely to promote the migration from the informal to the formal sectorThe fruitful discussions that followed this presentation focused on measures that could promote the migration from the informal to the formal sector, particularly in terms of taxation, legal, administrative, training and information.

The President of Unicongo, Mr. Christian Barros, has listed the actions carried out by Unicongo in favor of very small enterprisesthrough the financial support of the Union to the Association Pointe-Noire Industries (APNI) and to the CEFA, whose trained young people will also be very useful to SMEs.

The final report will be enriched by the consultant with the observations and amendments made by the workshop participants. It will serve as a a base document for the definition of Unicongo's strategy in favor of migration from the informal to the formal sector.