China's Expanding Role in Africa

[KingJaja]

I've visited her site, but am yet to read her book. She does make some very interesting points, that are shared by many educated Africans:

1. China sees Africa as an opportunity, the West sees Africa as a charity case. Consequently, many components of Western engagement are not driven by economics, but more to satisfy post-colonial guilt. For example, the US is spending $600 million on aid to Nigeria, but this money is not likely to lead to economic growth (and significant amounts of it are likely to be embezzled or spent as consulting fees).

2. China has had a consistent policy towards Africa - (to create prosperity, build a road). While the West has oscillated from "integrated rural development", to "import substitution", to "industrial development", to "structural adjustment programs" and finally now "Millennium Development Goals".

Another book making the rounds is Dead Aid, by Dambisa Moyo. In that book, there is a chapter titled The Chinese are our friends. The book raised a storm in the development community, but it resonated with most African intellectuals.

This is not to say that the Chinese don't have their faults, but fifty years of Western development policy have not produced many tangible results. True, Governments may be corrupt and institutions may be weak, but are we going to wait for corruption to be eliminated before we build roads and power stations?

There is an economic component to the future security of the African continent, and whether we like it or not, the Chinese have a role to play (probably the most important role after Africans).

[davidbfpo]

Ten years into the Look East policy, Zimbabwe is showing itself to be a not-so-satisfied customer of Chinese investment.

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/andrew-...ny-in-zimbabwe

[KingJaja]

Chinese involvement in Zimbabwe is neither as significant or as strategic (either to the Chinese or the Zimbabweans) as Western Media would have you believe.

On the other hand, link to a debate on China's role in Africa (organised by intelligence squared).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dpp6...f=list_related

[davidbfpo]

KingJaJa,

I don't disagree with your view:

Chinese involvement in Zimbabwe is neither as significant or as strategic

From this armchair I do consider the article illustrates Chinese behaviour and the apparent absence of any response by the Zimbabwean state. Zimbabwe gets far more coverage here than many other sub-Saharan countries, even then it is sparse and the article came via a UK-Zimbabwe group.

[AdamG]

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi hailed Africa as a "golden ground" for foreign investment, and vowed to work with Chinese firms to ensure they comply with local labour laws.
"Africa is a fertile place for foreign investors and it is a golden ground for Africa to attract foreign investors, especially for infrastructure which is the blood and muscle of a country," Yang said during a visit to Namibia.

http://news.yahoo.com/china-hails-af...GVzdAM-;_ylv=3

[KingJaja]

The gist is that the Chinese have a better approach to aid than the West.

KAMPALA, Uganda — China last month sent a senior official to symbolically hand over the keys to a nine-story twin tower to house Uganda’s president and prime minister, a gift from Beijing.

The white structures with a sloping roof cost China $27 million to build. But — in a strategy that China is increasingly employing around Africa — Beijing didn’t just deliver the money and let Ugandan officials see the project through. It was built by Chinese workers in what aid watchdogs applaud as a model to help defeat the inefficiencies and cash-pocketing corruption associated with other systems of foreign aid delivery.

China has a growing economic footprint in Uganda and much of the rest of Africa, and some Ugandans natives complain of the rising number of Chinese arriving to set up shop. China’s strategic interest in this East African country has deepened at a time when Uganda hopes to become an oil producer.

But the completion of projects like a modern hospital complex has softened China’s reputation, while Beijing’s efforts to produce turn-key projects are winning fans among Ugandans tired of seeing their officials ripping off foreign aid projects with impunity. Instead of giving cash, the Chinese government prefers to pay Chinese companies to build roads and structures, bypassing local politicians, powerbrokers and construction crews, and to deliver them completed.

The China model is “more effective. It’s less prone to corruption,” said Sven Grimm, the executive director of the Center for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He said the approach also bolsters China’s economy, because “Chinese enterprises ... go out and gain international experience.”

Experts say China’s model of donating buildings and roads might help it cut the risk of aid scandals like the one that rocked the $22.6 billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the past year. The Geneva-based financier gets donations from wealthy donor nations and private sources like Bill Gates. But donors recoiled after the fund’s internal watchdog documented more than $50 million in losses due to corruption and other misuse and unauthorized spending, affecting much of Africa, including Uganda.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...10Q_story.html

[KingJaja]

These pix give one a feel for the scale of the Chinese presence in Africa.



Lagos light rail



Nairobi-Thika Road



Bui Dam - Ghana



Dangote Cement Plant, Obajana - built by Sinochem

This is just the tip of the iceberg and the scale is mind-boggling.

[Dayuhan]

Instead of giving cash, the Chinese government prefers to pay Chinese companies to build roads and structures, bypassing local politicians, powerbrokers and construction crews, and to deliver them completed.

The China model is “more effective. It’s less prone to corruption,” said Sven Grimm, the executive director of the Center for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He said the approach also bolsters China’s economy, because “Chinese enterprises ... go out and gain international experience.”

This sort of arrangement is neither new nor uniquely Chinese: it's been used by other countries in other places. The deals are often popular until the project is finished and the loan has to be paid (or whatever quid pro quo associated with the project comes due). Then the complaint is that the funding country took money out of one pocket and put it into another, and the local folks end up paying for years thereafter.

It would be interesting to look at how exactly these arrangements are structured, and how the Chinese will be taking in their return on investment. I don't expect they're giving anything away.

What amazes me is that they're able to get away with bringing in Chinese labor to the extent they do... doesn't that get a backlash from the local labor force? It's pretty much accepted here that if the Japanese, Koreans, or Chinese fund a project, the prime contractors will be from those countries and the bulk of the money will be transferred direct from the funding government to those contractors (it's essentially a way for governments to hand money overt to favored firms), but those contractors are expected to hire local labor and there would be a huge and immediate backlash if they tried to bring in workers below the supervisory level.

[KingJaja]

What amazes me is that they're able to get away with bringing in Chinese labor to the extent they do... doesn't that get a backlash from the local labor force? It's pretty much accepted here that if the Japanese, Koreans, or Chinese fund a project, the prime contractors will be from those countries and the bulk of the money will be transferred direct from the funding government to those contractors (it's essentially a way for governments to hand money overt to favored firms), but those contractors are expected to hire local labor and there would be a huge and immediate backlash if they tried to bring in workers below the supervisory level.

That isn't actually true. The ratio of African to Chinese workers for newly arrived Chinese companies is usually 50:50. For more established companies the ratio is 80:20.

Secondly, the Chinese have introduced a new method of paying for projects "use what you have to get what you want". For example, the Bui dam will be paid for from the proceeds from the export of Cocoa over a 30 year period.

Not all Chinese projects are funded this way, but this method makes it easier for poorer nations to access Chinese infrastructure funding.

(I know the Soviets used a similar method; sugar for industrial goods and the Japanese applied the same principle in dealing with the Chinese, but the West almost never does this sort of thing).

You know the West told us that the Chinese are these evil creatures. We believed the West, until the Chinese started living among us and started getting married to our daughters and sisters.

I have Chinese neighbours.