China are winning resources and loyalties in Africa. The Chinese advance has in the span of a few years changed the pattern of Africas investment and trade, writes The World Bank press review Friday.
A secondary player on the continent until recently, China is establishing a position as Africas top commercial partner behind the US and France, overtaking Britain.
For China, Africa offers an extra dimension: a continent three times its own size, less populated than itself and stocked with many of the raw materials it needs. Crude oil from Angola, platinum from Zimbabwe, copper from Zambia, tropical timber from Congo-Brazzaville, iron ore from South Africa: all are on Chinas shopping list.
In return, the Chinese offer advantages to African governments. They bring first-hand experience of fast development, are attuned to conditions in poor countries and are unconcerned by scruples over governance standards or human rights.
In war-ruined Angola, the Chinese have leapt into one of the worlds most inhospitable investment environments, offering a 2 billion US dollar (12,4 milliarder DKR) oil-backed credit at a time when western banks and international institutions have been cautious about lending.
An agreement between Angola and the International Monetary Fund has been held up, largely because of IMF concerns about how the government manages its oil money. Similar misgivings have prevented the holding of an international donors’ conference.
-The Chinese are offering the loan as an alternative to working with the IMF, says Princeton Lyman, director of Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Up to now, the African view of Chinas fast-growing involvement has been overwhelmingly positive. China is widely regarded as a model of modernization, more responsive to African needs than western partners, able to build dams, roads and bridges more quickly and cheaply and providing consumer products better suited to African pockets.
Although Africas non-oil countries have suffered from higher import costs, the continent is also benefiting from the rise in commodity prices driven by Chinese demand.
But criticism is growing, too. Trades people from Cape Verde to Namibia complain about a Chinese invasion. In Lagos, West Africas main commercial hub, Nigerian authorities have been ejecting unlicensed Chinese market traders.
Chris Alden, an expert at the London School of Economics, says of the relationship: “African actors are beginning to see this as a mixed blessing.”
While in some countries Chinas involvement appears benign, in others its approach undercuts efforts by the African Union and western partners to make government and business more transparent and accountable. Chinese co-operation provides a lifeline to countries such as Togo, largely cut off from European aid, and comfort to pariah regimes.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
