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Africa turns to China for financing, role model
Africa turns to China for financing, role model
By Reuters
Sunday April 15, 07:25 AM
By David McMahon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Africa is increasingly turning not just to the West, but eastward to China for financing to help its economic development, and as a role model in combating the continent's poverty.
Trade links between fast-growing economic powerhouse China and Africa have taken a leap forward since 2004, when President Hu Jintao announced a drive to strengthen relations with the continent -- the world's poorest despite being rich in energy and minerals.
"Clearly we all have a lot to learn from China," Liberian finance minister Antoinette Sayeh said at a news conference in Washington on Saturday. "China has made more progress than anywhere in the past few decades in combating poverty."
Some Western observers are wary of China's growing role in Africa, which they say helps support dubious governments, and also risks plunging some countries in the continent into another vicious circle of indebtedness.
But African nations are embracing China with open arms, and international lenders like the World Bank are talking with the Chinese about working together there.
"Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania -- these are countries that have pretty good economic management and in those, the World Bank is interested in working with Chinese partners," David Dollar, World Bank China country director said.
Dollar said the World Bank was interested in working with the Export-Import Bank of China in some African countries to help finance infrastructure projects like the construction of roads and power plants.
PERFECT PARTNERS?
China's economy, which has grown at an annual rate of close to 10 percent over the past three decades, is heavily reliant on imported natural resources to support the breakneck speed of growth in its manufacturing sector.
China's top offshore oil producer CNOOC last year paid $2.3 billion for a stake in a Nigerian oil and gas field, its largest ever overseas acquisition. Africa already supplies China with around a third of its crude oil needs.
And China said in January it would lend Africa $3 billion in preferential credit over three years and double its aid and interest-free loans. Signs are that there is more to come.
Over the next three to four years, Zambia expects Chinese firms to invest $800 million in a new economic development zone near a Chinese-operated copper mine, Zambia's finance minister Ng'andu Magande said on Saturday.
The zone will include facilities for copper processing and for the production of cables for export back to China, and likely other markets including the United States, he said.
Not all African countries are rushing headlong to take on further debt.
Liberia, for example, is still struggling with around $3.7 billion in foreign debt accumulated by past regimes. But China could play a key role in financing large scale Liberian infrastructure projects in the future, Sayeh said.
China's growing role could also point to a longer-term shift in the global pattern of trade, African officials say.
"Historically the pattern of trade has been north/south, but we think the east/west, or south-south axis can be a good complement to this," said Rama Sithanen, finance minister of Mauritius.
In 2006, trade between China and Africa reached $55.5 billion, a jump of 40 percent on the previous year.
Africa's relative openness to Chinese investment contrasts with a wary attitude in the United States, which relies heavily on China to finance its large trade deficits but has so far shown resistance to Chinese attempts to buy U.S. companies.
In 2005, CNOOC was forced to withdraw a $18.5 billion takeover bid for U.S. energy firm Unocal Corp., due to heavy opposition from lawmakers who said the deal could threaten U.S. national security and violate rules of fair trade.
Zambia's Magande said Africa had no such concerns, and that the partnership between the two nations was based on long-term mutual interests.
"It's not a military issue and it's not a political issue. It's a development issue," said Magande. "China is a good partner."
(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert and Sujata Rao) |
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发表于 2007-4-16 20:09
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