XI GOES TO AFRICA

CHINA SEEKS TO WOO RESTIVE AFRICAN STATES

David Malingha Doya and Robert Mbakouo

Post, March 26, 2013

Chinese President Xi Jinping will set out plans for mining and infrastructure development on a trip to Africa this week, as China seeks to reassure leaders on the continent who have voiced unease about its trade relations.

During his eight-day trip Xi stops in Tanzania, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, where he will sign business co-operation deals and attend a summit of the Brics nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Annual trade between Africa and China has doubled since 2007 to more than $200 billion (R1.85 trillion) and Chinese investment stands at $20bn, according to Standard Bank.

While African nations welcome the investment and the job creation that comes with it, leaders from Botswana’s Ian Khama to Nigerian central bank chief Lamido Sanusi are asking whether the relationship has benefited Africa as much as it has China.

That is a shift in tone after officials welcomed China for taking a different strategy from the West by offering investment without demanding structural adjustments, open markets, democratic reforms or anti-corruption measures.

“There’s a belief that since Africa got a raw deal from the colonial West, then the Chinese must be Africa’s best friend,” George Ayittey, a Ghanaian economist and president of the Free Africa Foundation based in Washington, said.

(...) [article here]

CHINA AND INDIA IN AFRICA

IN RACE FOR AFRICA, INDIAN ELEPHANT RIVALS CHINESE DRAGON

Rohit Bansal

New York Daily News, March 24, 2013

Call it a deliberate clash of dates or mere coincidence, the Indian elephant and the Chinese dragon were caught courting Africa on exactly the same dates this month!

New Delhi hosted the CII-Export Import Bank Africa Conclave, an annual converge now in its 9th edition, where more than 500 projects worth some $70 billion were discussed by 900 delegates from 45 countries.

Beijing, on its part, set the stage for President Xi Jinping's visit to Africa beginning Sunday, his second overseas, hosting the Forum on Chinese Businesses in Africa and dangling lines of credit worth $20 billion. A blunt warning that investing businessmen must learn to behave followed!

The charge of the elephant remains a modest mix of development assistance (India's national budget for next fiscal assigns a modest Rs.300 crore or $54 million for Africa), lines of credit via the Export-Import Bank, and hopes that the famed Indian entrepreneurial class will manage to deliver like their predecessors have done over the decades, more often than not without state backing.

The dragon, true to form, hisses loud enough for the world to take notice, with a politico-corporate cabal led by some of the largest contingents of stationed diplomats and state-owned banks loading benign – and often fuzzy – interest regimes to sweeten the deal.

The result? Two-way trade has ballooned from about $10 billion in 2000 to almost $200 billion in 2012. Africa is now Beijing's second largest project contracting market and the fourth largest investment destination. As per data cited until April 2012, its accumulative investment in Africa had reached $15.3 billion, compared to none just over a decade ago.

India's bilateral trade with Africa has no doubt witnessed a five-fold increase in the past seven years. But it still stands at $65 billion. The target has been set now at $100 billion by 2015, against $90 billion earmarked earlier.

Despite the asymmetry between the Asian competitors, Africa isn't eating off Beijing's hand. Evidence lies in the unusual warning from the Chinese vice foreign minister to businessmen Monday.

(...) [article here]

CHINA AND AFRICA

PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINA 'BENEFITS AFRICA'

China Daily/Asia News Network

AsiaOne, Aug 05, 2012

CHINA - Partnership between China and African countries will benefit Africa's economic development, a South African official said as the US Secretary of State made what appeared to be veiled attacks on China while visiting the continent.

Hillary Clinton arrived in Senegal on Wednesday, on the first stop of an 11-day tour of Africa. It is the highest-level visit to the continent by a US official since June, when Washington issued a strategy for Africa that calls for greater access to investment between the United States and African countries.

Clinton told a university audience that the US was committed to "a model of sustainable partnership that adds value, rather than extracts it" from Africa.

Unlike other countries, the United States "will stand up for democracy and universal human rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the resources flowing," she said.

Although Clinton did not mention any country by name, her remarks were widely interpreted as a swipe at China, which eclipsed the US as Africa's biggest trading partner three years ago, reported the Guardian, a London-based newspaper.

Analysts view Clinton's visit as an attempt to compete with Sino-African cooperation, which has been growing rapidly in recent years despite continuing criticism from Western countries, which say China is practicing neocolonialism in Africa.

(...) [artículo aquí]