UN grants China permission to import African ivory
The Associated PressPublished: July 16, 2008
GENEVA: A United Nations' panel has granted China permission to import elephant ivory from African government stockpiles despite opposition from some countries and environmental groups.
The standing committee overseeing the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species voted Tuesday, 9 to 3, with 2 abstentions, qualifying China for the exception needed for the onetime auction because, the panel said, China had greatly improved its enforcement of ivory rules.
The ivory trade was banned globally in 1989, but a revival of elephant populations allowed African countries to make a onetime sale a decade later to Japan, the only country that had previously won the right to import.
Last year, the UN panel authorized Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to make a second sale of 108 tons of government stocks.
A spokesman for the panel, Juan Carlos Vásquez, said after the vote Tuesday that China and Japan would bid for their share of ivory at an auction later this year. The stocks approved for sale include approximately 44 tons from Botswana, 9 tons from Namibia, 51 tons from South Africa and 4 tons from Zimbabwe.
The secretary general of the panel, Willem Wijnstekers, said it would closely supervise the sale. "We will continue monitoring the Chinese and Japanese domestic trade controls to ensure that unscrupulous traders do not take this opportunity to launder ivory from illegal origin," he said.
Two African countries, Ghana and Kenya, joined Australia in trying to block China's inclusion in the auction. Those in favor included Britain, the European Union and Japan.
Wan Ziming, a member of the Chinese delegation, said Beijing would do its best to ensure that "illegal ivory cannot enter into the legal market."
Some environmental groups objected and said their case had been strengthened by the Chinese government's acknowledgement that, over a dozen years, it lost track of 121 tons of ivory that probably was sold illegally.
China told the UN panel in 2003 that the "shortfall" - equal to the tusks from about 11,000 elephants - was accumulated from 1991 to 2002. The Associated Press obtained the document last week from the Environmental Investigation Agency, an organization based in Washington and London that was seeking to prevent China from gaining permission to trade ivory.
Allan Thornton, chairman of the group, said last week that China had left too many questions unanswered to be given the right to import. He said that the trading of ivory was "out of control."
Thornton's group said that more than 20,000 elephants a year were killed illegally in Africa and Asia for the ivory black market, and that Chinese nationals have been implicated in seizures of illegal ivory in more than 20 African nations.
Kenya stops 2 with ivory
The Kenyan wildlife service said that two Chinese women were being questioned Wednesday at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after 36 pieces of ivory were found in their possession, The Associated Press reported from Nairobi.
A spokesman for the wildlife service said the women had been booked on a flight to China.
LINK
Thursday, July 24, 2008
China Africa Trade 2008
Drawing contours of a new world order
By William Wallis
Published: January 24 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 24 2008 02:00
Chinese delegates observing the recent European Union-Africa summit must have left reassured that their own relations with the continent are the more dynamic. Try as they did, Europe's leaders were unable to quash recriminations from their African counterparts over trade, or smother controversy among their own nationals about the invitation of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader.
Ghosts from the colonial past haunted the agenda, even though the Lisbon meeting was billed as the occasion to exorcise them and move on.
By contrast, China's own Africa summit a year earlier seemed more about the future. Forty-three African heads of state turned up, 48 governments were represented and much of Beijing was adorned with billboards welcoming them.
When the Chinese sketched out the terms of their engagement, they were marking for Africa potentially the most significant shift in external relations since the end of the cold war.
The contours of a new order are still being drawn, but China's growing stake in the continent has already shaken up an old and fraying one dominated by cautious western donors and former colonial powers.
Wen Jibao, China's prime minister, forecast last month that trade between China and Africa would reach $100bn before 2010 - a more than 10-fold increase in a decade that should see China overtake the US and Europe as sub-Saharan Africa's foremost trading partner. In the first nine months of 2007, trade flows surged to $50.6bn, up 42 per cent on the same period in 2006, driven by Chinese demand for the natural resources Africa has in abundance and African imports of manufactured goods the Chinese produce at low cost.
Asian demand for African commodities has brought about a revival in the terms on which the continent trades, contributing to stronger growth. This in turn has encouraged investors from elsewhere to look at Africa with different eyes, correcting what Standard Chartered calls the "undervaluation of African assets".
As recently as 2004, nearly half of foreign direct investment (FDI) from China into Africa was concentrated in Sudan, where the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) helped develop the country's oilfields, hampering in the process US efforts to ostracise the Khartoum regime. Today, FDI from China is spreading across dozens of African countries as Chinese companies expand their search for raw materials from cotton to zinc and tens of thousands of entrepreneurs arrive in the slipstream of big state-backed deals.
China's largest acquisitions abroad have been in Africa, including the $5.5bn that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China paid for a 20.5 per cent share in South Africa's Standard bank last year. At the other end of the scale, it is possible to find Chinese foot massage parlours in Chad, doughnut hawkers in Cameroon and vegetable producers in Khartoum's market.
In total, an estimated 800 Chinese state companies are operating on the continent. They have mining operations in 13 countries and are prospecting in more. From Port Sudan to Luanda, they are building dams, oil refineries, roads and railways. By some estimates, Chinese contractors are winning 50 per cent of all new public works projects in Africa, edging out competitors with higher overheads, although concerns about quality persist.
For Africa's traditional allies in the west, which as recently as the 2005 summit of industrialised nations at Gleneagles were overhauling their own commitments to the continent, the terrain has shifted. In a matter of a few years, Chinese funding of infrastructure, trade and development in Africa has grown to rival theirs, surpassing lending by multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Beijing's willingness to extend credit without conditions - according to a principle of non-interference in the affairs of other states - has put traditional donors on the back foot. It is challenging the bureaucracy around development aid and making it harder for the west to proselytise about democracy and good governance. "China's approach to our needs is simply better adapted than the slow and sometimes patronising post-colonial approach of European investors, donor organisations and non-governmental organisations," argues Abdoulaye Wade, president of Senegal in a guest column for this report. Yet, for all the excitement and, in some quarters, alarm, it is unclear how effective China's push will be in fostering development. "The Chinese have been remarkably successful at generating expectations. There's almost a mythical sense that they are walking on water in Africa whereas in reality they are running up against many of the same difficulties," says Daniel Large, director of the Asia Africa centre at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
They are also facing fresh dilemmas of their own making. The People's Daily, mouthpiece for the Communist party, writing on the post-election crisis in Kenya last week, said democracy was not suited to Africans.This infuriated politicians and opposition groups across the continent, some of whom may one day find themselves in power. The furore underlined the risks China is taking longer term, by tying up its commercial interests so closely with those of some of Africa's most repressive regimes, notably Sudan's.
The Senegalese government meanwhile still relies on its traditional allies, led by France, to finance yawning budget deficits. While Beijing's financial muscle is hard to match, Chinese companies are facing stiffening competition from other emerging nations seeking opportunities in Africa, such as Russia, Brazil and India. Nor have they always come out on top when up against multinationals in their bid to secure control of oil. There is interest in Nigerian acreage from all over the world. Analysts believe China has had to pay above the odds to get its foot in the door.
For African governments the advantage is that they can play these suitors off against each other. More-over, there is a wariness evolving in some African countries about forming any fresh dependency on a single foreign ally. "China has an important role to play because it's providing a huge financing for our economy. But our policy is really to diversify," says Aguinaldo Jaime, deputy prime minister in Angola, the single largest recipient of Chinese loans.
There is also concern that while the direction of trade is changing, its nature, involving raw material exports and manufactured imports, is not.
"The challenge is that you could then indeed develop a relationship between China and the African continent which in reality isn't different from the relationship that developed between Africa and the former colonising powers," Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, told the FT last year.
China's part in infrastructure development could help open up the continent and make business more competitive. As their own labour costs rise, the Chinese, among others, may eventually see advantages in moving some manufacturing to Africa. In a less favourable scenario, China will contribute to reversing recent progress towards more accountable rule, its cheap imports will devastate African industry and its grandiose infrastructure projects will end up more like the white elephants of the past. The ball is largely in Africa's court.
"Of course they [the Chinese] have their mercantile interest. That is normal," says Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank. "My take on this is that it is Africa and Africans who should try to define and influence the relationship."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
LINK
By William Wallis
Published: January 24 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 24 2008 02:00
Chinese delegates observing the recent European Union-Africa summit must have left reassured that their own relations with the continent are the more dynamic. Try as they did, Europe's leaders were unable to quash recriminations from their African counterparts over trade, or smother controversy among their own nationals about the invitation of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader.
Ghosts from the colonial past haunted the agenda, even though the Lisbon meeting was billed as the occasion to exorcise them and move on.
By contrast, China's own Africa summit a year earlier seemed more about the future. Forty-three African heads of state turned up, 48 governments were represented and much of Beijing was adorned with billboards welcoming them.
When the Chinese sketched out the terms of their engagement, they were marking for Africa potentially the most significant shift in external relations since the end of the cold war.
The contours of a new order are still being drawn, but China's growing stake in the continent has already shaken up an old and fraying one dominated by cautious western donors and former colonial powers.
Wen Jibao, China's prime minister, forecast last month that trade between China and Africa would reach $100bn before 2010 - a more than 10-fold increase in a decade that should see China overtake the US and Europe as sub-Saharan Africa's foremost trading partner. In the first nine months of 2007, trade flows surged to $50.6bn, up 42 per cent on the same period in 2006, driven by Chinese demand for the natural resources Africa has in abundance and African imports of manufactured goods the Chinese produce at low cost.
Asian demand for African commodities has brought about a revival in the terms on which the continent trades, contributing to stronger growth. This in turn has encouraged investors from elsewhere to look at Africa with different eyes, correcting what Standard Chartered calls the "undervaluation of African assets".
As recently as 2004, nearly half of foreign direct investment (FDI) from China into Africa was concentrated in Sudan, where the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) helped develop the country's oilfields, hampering in the process US efforts to ostracise the Khartoum regime. Today, FDI from China is spreading across dozens of African countries as Chinese companies expand their search for raw materials from cotton to zinc and tens of thousands of entrepreneurs arrive in the slipstream of big state-backed deals.
China's largest acquisitions abroad have been in Africa, including the $5.5bn that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China paid for a 20.5 per cent share in South Africa's Standard bank last year. At the other end of the scale, it is possible to find Chinese foot massage parlours in Chad, doughnut hawkers in Cameroon and vegetable producers in Khartoum's market.
In total, an estimated 800 Chinese state companies are operating on the continent. They have mining operations in 13 countries and are prospecting in more. From Port Sudan to Luanda, they are building dams, oil refineries, roads and railways. By some estimates, Chinese contractors are winning 50 per cent of all new public works projects in Africa, edging out competitors with higher overheads, although concerns about quality persist.
For Africa's traditional allies in the west, which as recently as the 2005 summit of industrialised nations at Gleneagles were overhauling their own commitments to the continent, the terrain has shifted. In a matter of a few years, Chinese funding of infrastructure, trade and development in Africa has grown to rival theirs, surpassing lending by multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Beijing's willingness to extend credit without conditions - according to a principle of non-interference in the affairs of other states - has put traditional donors on the back foot. It is challenging the bureaucracy around development aid and making it harder for the west to proselytise about democracy and good governance. "China's approach to our needs is simply better adapted than the slow and sometimes patronising post-colonial approach of European investors, donor organisations and non-governmental organisations," argues Abdoulaye Wade, president of Senegal in a guest column for this report. Yet, for all the excitement and, in some quarters, alarm, it is unclear how effective China's push will be in fostering development. "The Chinese have been remarkably successful at generating expectations. There's almost a mythical sense that they are walking on water in Africa whereas in reality they are running up against many of the same difficulties," says Daniel Large, director of the Asia Africa centre at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
They are also facing fresh dilemmas of their own making. The People's Daily, mouthpiece for the Communist party, writing on the post-election crisis in Kenya last week, said democracy was not suited to Africans.This infuriated politicians and opposition groups across the continent, some of whom may one day find themselves in power. The furore underlined the risks China is taking longer term, by tying up its commercial interests so closely with those of some of Africa's most repressive regimes, notably Sudan's.
The Senegalese government meanwhile still relies on its traditional allies, led by France, to finance yawning budget deficits. While Beijing's financial muscle is hard to match, Chinese companies are facing stiffening competition from other emerging nations seeking opportunities in Africa, such as Russia, Brazil and India. Nor have they always come out on top when up against multinationals in their bid to secure control of oil. There is interest in Nigerian acreage from all over the world. Analysts believe China has had to pay above the odds to get its foot in the door.
For African governments the advantage is that they can play these suitors off against each other. More-over, there is a wariness evolving in some African countries about forming any fresh dependency on a single foreign ally. "China has an important role to play because it's providing a huge financing for our economy. But our policy is really to diversify," says Aguinaldo Jaime, deputy prime minister in Angola, the single largest recipient of Chinese loans.
There is also concern that while the direction of trade is changing, its nature, involving raw material exports and manufactured imports, is not.
"The challenge is that you could then indeed develop a relationship between China and the African continent which in reality isn't different from the relationship that developed between Africa and the former colonising powers," Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's president, told the FT last year.
China's part in infrastructure development could help open up the continent and make business more competitive. As their own labour costs rise, the Chinese, among others, may eventually see advantages in moving some manufacturing to Africa. In a less favourable scenario, China will contribute to reversing recent progress towards more accountable rule, its cheap imports will devastate African industry and its grandiose infrastructure projects will end up more like the white elephants of the past. The ball is largely in Africa's court.
"Of course they [the Chinese] have their mercantile interest. That is normal," says Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank. "My take on this is that it is Africa and Africans who should try to define and influence the relationship."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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China Kenya Cooperation
Jia Qinglin (L), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, shakes hands with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi April 24, 2007.
China and Kenya agreed here Tuesday to push forward the all-round growth of bilateral long-term, steady and reciprocal cooperation.
The consensus was reached at a meeting between Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.
Jia, who arrived here Monday on an official good-will visit as guest of Kenyan government, expressed appreciation for the continuous development of bilateral relations and closer consultations and cooperation in international affairs since the two countries established diplomatic ties 44 years ago.
He also expressed appreciation for Kenya's one-China policy and support for China on such issues as Tibet.
He made a four-point proposal for the further development of bilateral relations.
The first is to keep bilateral high-level contacts, push forward substantial cooperation, and continue coordination and cooperation in major international and regional affairs.
The second is to further economic and trade cooperation that requires the two sides to better carry out key cooperative projects and provide convenience for two-way investment.
The Chinese side encourages more import from Kenya and more investment in Kenya.
The third is to expand bilateral cultural, educational, health and press cooperation.
The fourth is to tackle the potentials for bilateral cooperation in tourism.
Kibaki spoke highly of the continuous development of bilateral relations which the Kenyan side pays much attention to.
He said Kenya will make concerted efforts with China to push for the sound and steady growth of bilateral cooperation in various fields including economy and trade.
He said the Kenyan side has always held that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and it will continue to abide by a one-China policy.
Jia said China will join African countries including Kenya in better implementing the achievements made during the Beijing Summit of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation, and promoting Sino-African substantial cooperation and the economic and social development of African countries.
Kibaki said Kenya will strengthen cooperation for the better implementation of the Beijing summit results.
They also exchanged views on major international and regional issues of common concern.
Jia said the Chinese side will continue to play a constructive role in the proper settlement of the Darfur issue through diplomatic efforts and the promotion of the peace process in Somalia.
Kibaki appreciated China's positive role in promoting peace and stability in the region.
After the meeting, Jia and Kibaki attended a signing ceremony for five bilateral cooperation documents including a document on bilateral economic and technical cooperation.
Kenya is the last leg of Jia's visit to four African countries, which has already taken him to Tunisia, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
Source:xinhua
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Saturday, January 5, 2008
China's massive footprint on Africa means commerce, wariness
The Associated PressPublished: September 2, 2007
DAKAR, Senegal: In the sweaty afternoon air of a West African market, shoe-seller Ousman Ka owes his job to China — or, more precisely, to Lu Hui, the wrinkle-faced Chinese man in the blue sweater vest sitting behind him.
"Before I was out of work, for about five years. Now I get by," says Ka, 29, from behind the counter of his market-stall as he pulls out blue-sequined flats for a woman's inspection.
Halfway across the continent in the copper mines of Zambia, it's a different story. Keith Mule — who maintains machinery at a Chinese-run mine — says he's making about half the salary of his counterparts at other mines in the area. Union heads say they have less negotiating power with his employer, a Chinese firm that's backed by the government. And dozens of workers died two years ago in an explosion at a nearby Chinese-owned mine.
"I am not able to live comfortably," said Mule, 52, who is supporting two daughters and his sister's son. "We are just living by chance."
From market stalls to mines, China is everywhere in Africa these days. The African continent is possibly the most visible example of how China — in many ways a developing country itself — is changing the rest of the developing world, faster than virtually anyone thought possible.
Today in Africa & Middle East
Signs of easing tension in Kenya
A voice of moderation helps transform Arab media
Israelis kill 9 in raids into Gaza
Yet the China-Africa relationship comes with both significant promise and deep unease. On a continent long dominated by Western colonial powers, China offers hope and the economic beacon of a country that has itself grown at a startling rate. But there is also the fear that once again, a world power has come to cozy up to corrupt governments and rob Africa of its resources, leaving ordinary Africans worse off than ever.
"African nations that are enthusiastic about China's arrival on the continent may wind up to discover that they have allowed in a new colonial power with an Asian face," says Adama Gaye, the Senegalese author of "China-Africa: The Dragon and the Ostrich."
Two-way trade between Africa and China surged 40 percent to US$55.5 billion (€40.6 billion) last year, up more than fivefold from 2000. That still lags behind trade between Africa and the U.S., which hit more than the US$70 billion (€51.3 billion) in 2006. But Beijing expects trade with Africa to reach US$100 billion (€73.2 billion) by 2020.
Even air routes have begun to reflect the China boom. Planes head out from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to more than 20 African cities at least once a week. By contrast, regular flights from the United States hit just eight African cities.
Much of the money is still tied to raw materials such as oil, metals, minerals and timber to feed China's vast economic machine. China — the world's second-biggest consumer of oil after the U.S. — buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil. It is also a major customer in Nigeria and Angola, with purchases only expected to grow.
Then there are the infrastructure projects to court resource-rich countries. China is rebuilding much of Angola's war-ruined infrastructure, loaning millions to the oil-rich country. With financing from China, a Hong Kong firm is spending US$300 million (€219.7 million) to rebuild an east-west railway destroyed during more than two decades of civil war. China is also funding roads, a mobile phone network, water pipelines, and hospitals.
Chinese contractors started entering the Angolan market in 2004 and have now begun to displace the Portugese and South African firms that had dominated projects there, according to a report by South Africa's Center for Chinese Studies.
Meanwhile, China's targets have grown beyond oil and coal.
China's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, Huawei Technologies Co., employs more than 2,500 people in more than 40 African countries. In 2006, Huawei reported contract sales of US$2.1 billion (€1.5 billion) in Africa. The company has won contracts in Africa with European mobile phone companies like France Telecom and African operators like Morocco Telecom.
"I don't think it boils down to a raw commodity story. It's far bigger than that now," said Nicolas Pinaud, a Paris-based economist at the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development who studies Asian investment in Africa.
The Chinese influx is trickling down to market stalls and mom-and-pop shops. There are now about 200 Chinese-run market stalls on Boulevard du General de Gaulle in Dakar, up from just a handful six years ago. Senegal's Gaye jokes that the street should be renamed Boulevard de Chairman Mao Zedong.
The merchants provide not just jobs for those like Ka, but also cheap goods. At Lu's market stall, a middle-aged man inspects a pair of white plastic loafers and says that for him, it's all about price. He says he now gets shoes for about US$2 (€1.50) instead of US$2.50 (€1.80) — a small but important difference given that he has six children to buy shoes for.
Yet the same Chinese business and cheap goods are harming the African economy elsewhere, perhaps most notably in the textile and mining industries of southern Africa.
The Chinese have built textile factories in Lesotho, Zambia and Kenya, and in South Africa 60 percent of all textiles and 89 percent of clothes now come from China, according to the country's Textile Federation. But that influx of low-priced goods is putting thousands of workers in the South African textile industry out of jobs. South Africa's textile union threatened last year to boycott sellers of Chinese products, and quotas on Chinese goods have now been put into place.
China is also mining uranium in Niger, iron and steel in South Africa and nonferrous metals in Angola, among others. It's state-owned nonferrous metals company — the owner of the mine where miner Keith Mule works — has invested more than US$300 million (€220 million) in Zambia and promised more than US$200 million (€145 million) more last year for a copper smelting facility.
But with the Chinese mines have come complaints about low pay for workers and unsafe working conditions. Coal miners in Zambia have gone on strike. Pay disputes are common and Chinese security guards have fired on protesters.
A 2005 copper mine explosion left 51 Zambian workers dead. Keith Mule was there.
"We were working and all we saw was the smoke .... I was one of the people who went there and found the bodies that were mangled and scattered all over," he said.
Since then, he said, safety procedures have improved, but he still thinks they were still better off when his mine was owned by the Zambian government. At least the government used to give out decent bonuses and spoke the same language as the workers.
Politicians have picked up on the anti-China sentiment. South African President Thabo Mbeki has complained publicly that China could end up assuming the role of Africa's former colonizers, raping the country of its raw materials for its own selfish gain.
"They are not here to develop Zambia, they're here to develop China," one Zambian legislator, Guy Scott, has complained. When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the continent earlier this year, he skipped a planned trip to Zambia's copper mining region over concerns about protests.
There has also been a backlash against Chinese oil firms, which are suffering attacks similar to those that have plagued U.S. and European multinationals on the continent for years. In Ethiopia in April, a rebel attack on a Chinese oil company compound left nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians dead.
China likes to portray its involvement in Africa as strictly business — we all make money and nobody dictates how anybody else should behave. But that policy of operating on purely business terms has raised questions about whether China will in fact hamper the progress of human rights in Africa.
For example, China is accused of protecting the brutal government of Sudan despite the genocide in Darfur because of its oil interests. The Chinese also helped construct a private palace for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who is ostracized by Western governments that accuse him of ruining his nation's economy and stifling democracy. The structure has a pagoda-style roof and is decorated with Chinese dragons.
In the end, some Africa analysts say, the continent can benefit from the Chinese, but only if African countries can do what they did not with earlier powers — band together to demand fair terms.
"Handled well, the Africans can extract a lot from this relationship," says Chris Alden, an international policy expert at the London School of Economics who has studied China-Africa relations since the early 1990s. "Whether it's balancing the West against China or requiring the Chinese to hire more African laborers ... they need to negotiate."
LINK
DAKAR, Senegal: In the sweaty afternoon air of a West African market, shoe-seller Ousman Ka owes his job to China — or, more precisely, to Lu Hui, the wrinkle-faced Chinese man in the blue sweater vest sitting behind him.
"Before I was out of work, for about five years. Now I get by," says Ka, 29, from behind the counter of his market-stall as he pulls out blue-sequined flats for a woman's inspection.
Halfway across the continent in the copper mines of Zambia, it's a different story. Keith Mule — who maintains machinery at a Chinese-run mine — says he's making about half the salary of his counterparts at other mines in the area. Union heads say they have less negotiating power with his employer, a Chinese firm that's backed by the government. And dozens of workers died two years ago in an explosion at a nearby Chinese-owned mine.
"I am not able to live comfortably," said Mule, 52, who is supporting two daughters and his sister's son. "We are just living by chance."
From market stalls to mines, China is everywhere in Africa these days. The African continent is possibly the most visible example of how China — in many ways a developing country itself — is changing the rest of the developing world, faster than virtually anyone thought possible.
Today in Africa & Middle East
Signs of easing tension in Kenya
A voice of moderation helps transform Arab media
Israelis kill 9 in raids into Gaza
Yet the China-Africa relationship comes with both significant promise and deep unease. On a continent long dominated by Western colonial powers, China offers hope and the economic beacon of a country that has itself grown at a startling rate. But there is also the fear that once again, a world power has come to cozy up to corrupt governments and rob Africa of its resources, leaving ordinary Africans worse off than ever.
"African nations that are enthusiastic about China's arrival on the continent may wind up to discover that they have allowed in a new colonial power with an Asian face," says Adama Gaye, the Senegalese author of "China-Africa: The Dragon and the Ostrich."
Two-way trade between Africa and China surged 40 percent to US$55.5 billion (€40.6 billion) last year, up more than fivefold from 2000. That still lags behind trade between Africa and the U.S., which hit more than the US$70 billion (€51.3 billion) in 2006. But Beijing expects trade with Africa to reach US$100 billion (€73.2 billion) by 2020.
Even air routes have begun to reflect the China boom. Planes head out from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to more than 20 African cities at least once a week. By contrast, regular flights from the United States hit just eight African cities.
Much of the money is still tied to raw materials such as oil, metals, minerals and timber to feed China's vast economic machine. China — the world's second-biggest consumer of oil after the U.S. — buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil. It is also a major customer in Nigeria and Angola, with purchases only expected to grow.
Then there are the infrastructure projects to court resource-rich countries. China is rebuilding much of Angola's war-ruined infrastructure, loaning millions to the oil-rich country. With financing from China, a Hong Kong firm is spending US$300 million (€219.7 million) to rebuild an east-west railway destroyed during more than two decades of civil war. China is also funding roads, a mobile phone network, water pipelines, and hospitals.
Chinese contractors started entering the Angolan market in 2004 and have now begun to displace the Portugese and South African firms that had dominated projects there, according to a report by South Africa's Center for Chinese Studies.
Meanwhile, China's targets have grown beyond oil and coal.
China's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, Huawei Technologies Co., employs more than 2,500 people in more than 40 African countries. In 2006, Huawei reported contract sales of US$2.1 billion (€1.5 billion) in Africa. The company has won contracts in Africa with European mobile phone companies like France Telecom and African operators like Morocco Telecom.
"I don't think it boils down to a raw commodity story. It's far bigger than that now," said Nicolas Pinaud, a Paris-based economist at the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development who studies Asian investment in Africa.
The Chinese influx is trickling down to market stalls and mom-and-pop shops. There are now about 200 Chinese-run market stalls on Boulevard du General de Gaulle in Dakar, up from just a handful six years ago. Senegal's Gaye jokes that the street should be renamed Boulevard de Chairman Mao Zedong.
The merchants provide not just jobs for those like Ka, but also cheap goods. At Lu's market stall, a middle-aged man inspects a pair of white plastic loafers and says that for him, it's all about price. He says he now gets shoes for about US$2 (€1.50) instead of US$2.50 (€1.80) — a small but important difference given that he has six children to buy shoes for.
Yet the same Chinese business and cheap goods are harming the African economy elsewhere, perhaps most notably in the textile and mining industries of southern Africa.
The Chinese have built textile factories in Lesotho, Zambia and Kenya, and in South Africa 60 percent of all textiles and 89 percent of clothes now come from China, according to the country's Textile Federation. But that influx of low-priced goods is putting thousands of workers in the South African textile industry out of jobs. South Africa's textile union threatened last year to boycott sellers of Chinese products, and quotas on Chinese goods have now been put into place.
China is also mining uranium in Niger, iron and steel in South Africa and nonferrous metals in Angola, among others. It's state-owned nonferrous metals company — the owner of the mine where miner Keith Mule works — has invested more than US$300 million (€220 million) in Zambia and promised more than US$200 million (€145 million) more last year for a copper smelting facility.
But with the Chinese mines have come complaints about low pay for workers and unsafe working conditions. Coal miners in Zambia have gone on strike. Pay disputes are common and Chinese security guards have fired on protesters.
A 2005 copper mine explosion left 51 Zambian workers dead. Keith Mule was there.
"We were working and all we saw was the smoke .... I was one of the people who went there and found the bodies that were mangled and scattered all over," he said.
Since then, he said, safety procedures have improved, but he still thinks they were still better off when his mine was owned by the Zambian government. At least the government used to give out decent bonuses and spoke the same language as the workers.
Politicians have picked up on the anti-China sentiment. South African President Thabo Mbeki has complained publicly that China could end up assuming the role of Africa's former colonizers, raping the country of its raw materials for its own selfish gain.
"They are not here to develop Zambia, they're here to develop China," one Zambian legislator, Guy Scott, has complained. When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the continent earlier this year, he skipped a planned trip to Zambia's copper mining region over concerns about protests.
There has also been a backlash against Chinese oil firms, which are suffering attacks similar to those that have plagued U.S. and European multinationals on the continent for years. In Ethiopia in April, a rebel attack on a Chinese oil company compound left nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians dead.
China likes to portray its involvement in Africa as strictly business — we all make money and nobody dictates how anybody else should behave. But that policy of operating on purely business terms has raised questions about whether China will in fact hamper the progress of human rights in Africa.
For example, China is accused of protecting the brutal government of Sudan despite the genocide in Darfur because of its oil interests. The Chinese also helped construct a private palace for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who is ostracized by Western governments that accuse him of ruining his nation's economy and stifling democracy. The structure has a pagoda-style roof and is decorated with Chinese dragons.
In the end, some Africa analysts say, the continent can benefit from the Chinese, but only if African countries can do what they did not with earlier powers — band together to demand fair terms.
"Handled well, the Africans can extract a lot from this relationship," says Chris Alden, an international policy expert at the London School of Economics who has studied China-Africa relations since the early 1990s. "Whether it's balancing the West against China or requiring the Chinese to hire more African laborers ... they need to negotiate."
LINK
Saturday, September 8, 2007
China in Africa: All Trade, With No Political Baggage
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By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: August 8, 2004
Correction Appended
BEIJING - A look of satisfaction played on the trade official's face as he reeled off statistics recently from a ministry report about China's booming commerce with Africa.
"Forty African countries have trade agreements with China now," said the official, Li Xiaobing, deputy director of the West Asian and African Affairs division of the Trade Ministry. "We are doing a railway project in Nigeria, a Sheraton hotel in Algeria and a mobile telephone network in Tunisia. We are all over Africa now."
For any doubters, a glance at the statistics indicates that the official's exultation is, if anything, understated. Though starting from a modest base, China's trade with the African continent reached $18.5 billion in 2003, an increase of 50 percent since 2000, and it is on track for another big increase this year.
China's push into Africa is all the more remarkable because it comes when that continent has become the virtual stepchild of the international trade system, a mere footnote - or worse, simply unmentioned in discussions of global commerce.
Beijing's fast-rising involvement with Africa grows out of China's immense and growing need for natural resources, in particular for imported oil, of which 25 percent now comes from Africa.
Lacking the economic and political ties that Western Europe has with Africa as a legacy of colonialism, and the economic power that the United States wields because of its wealth and influence in international financial institutions, China's new leadership under President Hu Jintao has pushed to forge stronger ties. Mr. Hu himself traveled to Africa in January and February, visiting Egypt, Gabon and Algeria.
China's diplomatic machine has spared no effort, making sure that African leaders do not view its interest as a passing fancy. The prime minister and vice president have also visited Africa in the last year.
Experts in African affairs say that China's choices of partners and its diplomatic philosophy, which preaches noninterference in other countries' internal affairs, may have important consequences for Africa, especially at a time when Western countries seem largely preoccupied elsewhere. At one time many African countries, whether colonies locked in liberation struggles or fledgling, often nonaligned states, viewed China as a progressive ally and counterweight to the West. But those days are gone, and increasingly, China's involvement in Africa is pure big business.
In visiting Gabon, for example, Mr. Hu was honoring the leadership of Omar Bongo, a man who has become immensely rich while ruling his country autocratically since 1967. With its tiny size and population, Gabon ranks high in China's sights for one obvious reason: it is a longstanding oil exporter open to new investments in its petroleum industry.
A diplomat from Benin expressed disappointment. "We're a socialist-Marxist state, and we've had 30 years of ties with the People's Republic of China, and yet they bypassed us to go to Gabon," the diplomat was quoted as saying by The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong daily. "This tells me that China has no friends but rather only interests."
Although Benin was long a Marxist dictatorship, for the last decade it has been one of Africa's freest democracies.
Elsewhere on the continent, China has become a vitally important partner of Africa's largest country, Sudan, at a time when the government there, a perennial abuser of human rights, has been accused by international rights groups and the United States Congress of organizing genocide.
"We started with Sudan from scratch," boasted the trade official, Mr. Li. "When we started there, they were an oil importer, and now they are an oil exporter. We've built refineries, pipelines and production."
He dismissed a question about Sudan's human rights record, saying, "We import from every source we can get oil from."
China's deputy foreign minister, Zhou Wenzhong, was even more blunt. "Business is business," he said in a recent interview. "We try to separate politics from business. Secondly, I think the internal situation in the Sudan is an internal affair, and we are not in a position to impose upon them."
Mr. Zhou went on to blame the West for many of Africa's problems, saying: "You have tried to impose a market economy and multiparty democracy on these countries, which are not ready for it. We are also against embargos, which you have tried to use against us."
This "see no evil" approach has not been cost-free.
In a report about the role of Sudan's oil industry in supporting an oppressive government in that country, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, wrote about a financing venture by the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation.
"China's first foray into the world of high finance - to open up its enormous government-owned corporations to foreign investment - was a controversial offer to sell stock in C.N.P.C. to the public on the New York Stock Exchange," the report said. "Its offer, designed to raise a record U.S. $10 billion, had to be withdrawn and refashioned because of the negative publicity suggesting that the proceeds would be used to commit further human rights abuses in Sudan, Tibet and elsewhere."
Some experts in African affairs caution that by taking a classic big-power approach to African relations, China may be compromising its long-term influence there.
"For most of the postcolonial period, France, Britain and the United States also embraced some of the most unsavory regimes in Africa," said Gerald Bender, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California.
"What China is perhaps not anticipating is how, when you embrace these terrible regimes, you eventually get tainted for it."
Correction: Aug. 11, 2004, Wednesday
An article on Sunday about China's increased trade with Africa misstated the position of a Chinese economic official who was interviewed, and mistranslated the name of his ministry. The official, Li Xiaobing, is a division chief, not a deputy director. He works for the Department of West Asian and African Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, not the Ministry of Trade.
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: August 8, 2004
Correction Appended
BEIJING - A look of satisfaction played on the trade official's face as he reeled off statistics recently from a ministry report about China's booming commerce with Africa.
"Forty African countries have trade agreements with China now," said the official, Li Xiaobing, deputy director of the West Asian and African Affairs division of the Trade Ministry. "We are doing a railway project in Nigeria, a Sheraton hotel in Algeria and a mobile telephone network in Tunisia. We are all over Africa now."
For any doubters, a glance at the statistics indicates that the official's exultation is, if anything, understated. Though starting from a modest base, China's trade with the African continent reached $18.5 billion in 2003, an increase of 50 percent since 2000, and it is on track for another big increase this year.
China's push into Africa is all the more remarkable because it comes when that continent has become the virtual stepchild of the international trade system, a mere footnote - or worse, simply unmentioned in discussions of global commerce.
Beijing's fast-rising involvement with Africa grows out of China's immense and growing need for natural resources, in particular for imported oil, of which 25 percent now comes from Africa.
Lacking the economic and political ties that Western Europe has with Africa as a legacy of colonialism, and the economic power that the United States wields because of its wealth and influence in international financial institutions, China's new leadership under President Hu Jintao has pushed to forge stronger ties. Mr. Hu himself traveled to Africa in January and February, visiting Egypt, Gabon and Algeria.
China's diplomatic machine has spared no effort, making sure that African leaders do not view its interest as a passing fancy. The prime minister and vice president have also visited Africa in the last year.
Experts in African affairs say that China's choices of partners and its diplomatic philosophy, which preaches noninterference in other countries' internal affairs, may have important consequences for Africa, especially at a time when Western countries seem largely preoccupied elsewhere. At one time many African countries, whether colonies locked in liberation struggles or fledgling, often nonaligned states, viewed China as a progressive ally and counterweight to the West. But those days are gone, and increasingly, China's involvement in Africa is pure big business.
In visiting Gabon, for example, Mr. Hu was honoring the leadership of Omar Bongo, a man who has become immensely rich while ruling his country autocratically since 1967. With its tiny size and population, Gabon ranks high in China's sights for one obvious reason: it is a longstanding oil exporter open to new investments in its petroleum industry.
A diplomat from Benin expressed disappointment. "We're a socialist-Marxist state, and we've had 30 years of ties with the People's Republic of China, and yet they bypassed us to go to Gabon," the diplomat was quoted as saying by The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong daily. "This tells me that China has no friends but rather only interests."
Although Benin was long a Marxist dictatorship, for the last decade it has been one of Africa's freest democracies.
Elsewhere on the continent, China has become a vitally important partner of Africa's largest country, Sudan, at a time when the government there, a perennial abuser of human rights, has been accused by international rights groups and the United States Congress of organizing genocide.
"We started with Sudan from scratch," boasted the trade official, Mr. Li. "When we started there, they were an oil importer, and now they are an oil exporter. We've built refineries, pipelines and production."
He dismissed a question about Sudan's human rights record, saying, "We import from every source we can get oil from."
China's deputy foreign minister, Zhou Wenzhong, was even more blunt. "Business is business," he said in a recent interview. "We try to separate politics from business. Secondly, I think the internal situation in the Sudan is an internal affair, and we are not in a position to impose upon them."
Mr. Zhou went on to blame the West for many of Africa's problems, saying: "You have tried to impose a market economy and multiparty democracy on these countries, which are not ready for it. We are also against embargos, which you have tried to use against us."
This "see no evil" approach has not been cost-free.
In a report about the role of Sudan's oil industry in supporting an oppressive government in that country, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, wrote about a financing venture by the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation.
"China's first foray into the world of high finance - to open up its enormous government-owned corporations to foreign investment - was a controversial offer to sell stock in C.N.P.C. to the public on the New York Stock Exchange," the report said. "Its offer, designed to raise a record U.S. $10 billion, had to be withdrawn and refashioned because of the negative publicity suggesting that the proceeds would be used to commit further human rights abuses in Sudan, Tibet and elsewhere."
Some experts in African affairs caution that by taking a classic big-power approach to African relations, China may be compromising its long-term influence there.
"For most of the postcolonial period, France, Britain and the United States also embraced some of the most unsavory regimes in Africa," said Gerald Bender, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California.
"What China is perhaps not anticipating is how, when you embrace these terrible regimes, you eventually get tainted for it."
Correction: Aug. 11, 2004, Wednesday
An article on Sunday about China's increased trade with Africa misstated the position of a Chinese economic official who was interviewed, and mistranslated the name of his ministry. The official, Li Xiaobing, is a division chief, not a deputy director. He works for the Department of West Asian and African Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, not the Ministry of Trade.
Africa trip boosts China's status
From: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/16/china.africa/
By CNN Senior China Analyst Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Posted: 3:14 AM EST (0814 GMT)
Wen is greeted by Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU Commission, in Addis Ababa.
Story Tools
(CNN) -- Beijing has consolidated its status as a major leader of the Third World with Premier Wen Jiabao's just-ended trip to Ethiopia.
While meeting leaders from 44 African nations that attended the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (CACF) earlier this week, Wen stressed China's willingness to help the continent despite his country's status as the world's largest developing country.
"We still have a long way to go before the goal of modernization is achieved," the state media quoted Wen as saying. "But we do offer our assistance [to Africa] with the deepest sincerity and without any political conditions."
In the past few years, Beijing has forgiven 10.5 billion yuan's ($1.27 billion) worth of debts from 31 African countries.
State and private firms have also invested in 117 new enterprises.
Wen announced in Addis Ababa that China would cut all tariffs of imports from the poorer African nations.
He said Beijing would put more resources on helping Africa train personnel particularly in agriculture, high technology, and business areas.
In his address to the CACF, the premier also decried the "rise of hegemonism" in the international scene, as well as the need for developing countries to join hands to fight for a fairer world order.
"Hegemonism" is a Chinese code word for predominant American influence, something that stands in the way of Beijing's long-standing effort to nurture a "multi-polar" global system.
Diplomatic analysts said while Beijing had made headway in relations with the U.S. and the European Union, it was at pains to boost its already formidable clout in Africa and the Third World.
The analysts said the importance of Africa had increased because of fast-industrializing China's need to ensure reliable supplies of minerals and energy.
Moreover, Africa is a battleground in the on-going struggle between Beijing and the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
The Chinese leadership is anxious to persuade the seven African countries that still recognize Taiwan to switch diplomatic recognition to the mainland.
At the CACF, Wen thanked African countries for supporting the one China policy and for helping Beijing "safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Wen returned to China early Wednesday after a long trip that also took in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
By CNN Senior China Analyst Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Posted: 3:14 AM EST (0814 GMT)
Wen is greeted by Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU Commission, in Addis Ababa.
Story Tools
(CNN) -- Beijing has consolidated its status as a major leader of the Third World with Premier Wen Jiabao's just-ended trip to Ethiopia.
While meeting leaders from 44 African nations that attended the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (CACF) earlier this week, Wen stressed China's willingness to help the continent despite his country's status as the world's largest developing country.
"We still have a long way to go before the goal of modernization is achieved," the state media quoted Wen as saying. "But we do offer our assistance [to Africa] with the deepest sincerity and without any political conditions."
In the past few years, Beijing has forgiven 10.5 billion yuan's ($1.27 billion) worth of debts from 31 African countries.
State and private firms have also invested in 117 new enterprises.
Wen announced in Addis Ababa that China would cut all tariffs of imports from the poorer African nations.
He said Beijing would put more resources on helping Africa train personnel particularly in agriculture, high technology, and business areas.
In his address to the CACF, the premier also decried the "rise of hegemonism" in the international scene, as well as the need for developing countries to join hands to fight for a fairer world order.
"Hegemonism" is a Chinese code word for predominant American influence, something that stands in the way of Beijing's long-standing effort to nurture a "multi-polar" global system.
Diplomatic analysts said while Beijing had made headway in relations with the U.S. and the European Union, it was at pains to boost its already formidable clout in Africa and the Third World.
The analysts said the importance of Africa had increased because of fast-industrializing China's need to ensure reliable supplies of minerals and energy.
Moreover, Africa is a battleground in the on-going struggle between Beijing and the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
The Chinese leadership is anxious to persuade the seven African countries that still recognize Taiwan to switch diplomatic recognition to the mainland.
At the CACF, Wen thanked African countries for supporting the one China policy and for helping Beijing "safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Wen returned to China early Wednesday after a long trip that also took in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
SECRETARY-GENERAL POINTS OUT AREAS FOR MUTUAL ASSISTANCE
From: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/sgsm9079.doc.htm
Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message to the Second Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation delivered in Addis Ababa today, 15 December 2003, by Zéphirin Diabré, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator, United Nations Development Programme:
It gives me great pleasure to greet participants in this Second Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa cooperation, and to celebrate the long and lasting friendship and cooperation between China and Africa.
Interactions between China and Africa go back many centuries, when sailing boats crossed the Indian Ocean carrying goods and fostering cultural exchanges between the two continents. In the modern era, China was a consistent supporter of the African liberation struggle, and African nations were firm friends of China in the United Nations and other multilateral fora. Today, as the presence of the Chinese Prime Minister and many African leaders at your conference so clearly demonstrates, the relationship between China and Africa remains strong.
At the Millennium Assembly in 2000, world leaders articulated a new compact of shared responsibilities to accelerate development and to eradicate poverty, enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals. For their part, through the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), African leaders have expressed a renewed resolve to rescue their continent from intermittent conflicts, environmental degradation and repressive governance, steering it towards a new era of peace, democracy and development.
In that endeavour, Africa’s friendship with China remains of vital importance. In peace and security, China has steadfastly supported Africa within the Security Council, and provided material support for MONUC and now in Liberia.
In 2000, the South Summit called attention to the need for developing countries to share effective development solutions within their borders through South-South cooperation. The same need was echoed at the Brussels Conference on Least Developed Countries in 2001, and at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
China, through its support to infrastructure development, health, education, agriculture, commercial exchanges and many other areas throughout Africa -– in countries such as Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros and Mauritius -– has remained true to its commitment to South-South cooperation. Much of China’s assistance has been on favourable terms, and has often been found particularly relevant to the needs of the recipients.
By reducing or cancelling 10.5 billion Yuan of debt in favour of 31 African countries, China is also living up to the commitments made at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development.
If the same spirit is brought to meeting other challenges -– such as ensuring food security and fighting HIV/AIDS –- China can help Africa make real steps towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
But Africa can help China too. The emerging markets of Africa offer huge investment opportunities to Chinese private sector. The vast and rich natural resources of the African soil are in need of the Chinese technology and know-how, to be exploited and transformed in a sustainable way. The proposed China-Africa Business Council will serve as an efficient forum for this type of cooperation.
Through the work of its Funds and Programmes, the United Nations will support your renewed commitment to South-South cooperation, and will spare no effort to back any initiative that may contribute decisively to the reduction of poverty.
I wish you a very fruitful conference
Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message to the Second Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation delivered in Addis Ababa today, 15 December 2003, by Zéphirin Diabré, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator, United Nations Development Programme:
It gives me great pleasure to greet participants in this Second Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa cooperation, and to celebrate the long and lasting friendship and cooperation between China and Africa.
Interactions between China and Africa go back many centuries, when sailing boats crossed the Indian Ocean carrying goods and fostering cultural exchanges between the two continents. In the modern era, China was a consistent supporter of the African liberation struggle, and African nations were firm friends of China in the United Nations and other multilateral fora. Today, as the presence of the Chinese Prime Minister and many African leaders at your conference so clearly demonstrates, the relationship between China and Africa remains strong.
At the Millennium Assembly in 2000, world leaders articulated a new compact of shared responsibilities to accelerate development and to eradicate poverty, enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals. For their part, through the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), African leaders have expressed a renewed resolve to rescue their continent from intermittent conflicts, environmental degradation and repressive governance, steering it towards a new era of peace, democracy and development.
In that endeavour, Africa’s friendship with China remains of vital importance. In peace and security, China has steadfastly supported Africa within the Security Council, and provided material support for MONUC and now in Liberia.
In 2000, the South Summit called attention to the need for developing countries to share effective development solutions within their borders through South-South cooperation. The same need was echoed at the Brussels Conference on Least Developed Countries in 2001, and at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
China, through its support to infrastructure development, health, education, agriculture, commercial exchanges and many other areas throughout Africa -– in countries such as Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros and Mauritius -– has remained true to its commitment to South-South cooperation. Much of China’s assistance has been on favourable terms, and has often been found particularly relevant to the needs of the recipients.
By reducing or cancelling 10.5 billion Yuan of debt in favour of 31 African countries, China is also living up to the commitments made at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development.
If the same spirit is brought to meeting other challenges -– such as ensuring food security and fighting HIV/AIDS –- China can help Africa make real steps towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
But Africa can help China too. The emerging markets of Africa offer huge investment opportunities to Chinese private sector. The vast and rich natural resources of the African soil are in need of the Chinese technology and know-how, to be exploited and transformed in a sustainable way. The proposed China-Africa Business Council will serve as an efficient forum for this type of cooperation.
Through the work of its Funds and Programmes, the United Nations will support your renewed commitment to South-South cooperation, and will spare no effort to back any initiative that may contribute decisively to the reduction of poverty.
I wish you a very fruitful conference
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