Mixed Reaction At Development Meeting to Chinas Africa Aid Push
Chinas big spending in Africa drew a mixed response at a global aid meeting in Vietnam, where many welcomed the giants new role on the continent but some voiced disquiet about its intentions.
In Hanoi where the World Bank, other development agencies and over 30 countries discussed aid issues this week a Chinese official said his country had many development lessons to share with other nations.
– Some people are saying China has done something wrong in African countries, said Xu Li of the National Development and Reform Commission.
– But I think what we are currently doing is collaborating with the local governments … I think it is a good thing for China to build the infrastructure to improve the local conditions for development, added Li.
Jim Adams, the World Banks East Asia Pacific vice president, who has years of experience dealing with African development issues, called China’s new aid drive “a welcome and very interesting development”.
– In a lot of the press the emphasis has been on a very small portion of Chinese interest. Clearly on the resource side, China is reaching out to ensure that they have the resources necessary to sustain their program, said Adams.
But he said China is also “reaching out very actively to work with African governments in providing investments and knowledge and research. And we very much welcome that”. – Because China has gone through the process of going from a low-income country to now a medium-income country … it does have some lessons, noted he.
However Kumi Naidoo, the head of the Johannesburg-based non-profit group Civicus, said that in much of Africa “there are mixed feelings about the level of intervention”.
– While many welcomed the investment, technical skills and infrastructure, they worried whether there will be a genuine commitment to local capacity building because there are also a large number of Chinese workers that are being brought in for some projects, said Naidoo
He noted that African governments are “under pressure to deliver visible, tangible development results but that people are concerned about us not getting the balance right”.
Chinese President Hu Jintao eight-nation, 12-day tour took him to Cameroon, Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and wraps up Saturday in the Seychelles.
Meanwhile, Xinhua reports that the delegates to the third international roundtable on managing for development results Thursday agreed that developing countries and donors should enhance their management of resources to gain better, verifiable development results, guided by a spirit of mutual accountability.
The delegates, over 400 government officials and experts from 40 countries, 33 aid and donor agencies and 30 non-governmental organizations and private companies, agreed that both the countries and donors need to invest more in systems and capacity for managing for results, including in such areas as national statistical systems, and sector-wide monitoring and evaluation.
The roundtable was hosted by the Vietnamese government and sponsored by several foreign organizations including the ADB and the World Bank.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
