Sino-Africa Relations

This report is against this background that the China-Africa Summit of November 2006 and China’s renewed interest in Africa have to be understood. China is essentially interested in natural resources and raw materials and offers investments in roads, railways and infrastructure. The deals concluded during the China-Africa summit are worth US$ 1,9 billion and include an aluminium plant in Egypt; a highway in Nigeria; a rural telephone network in Ghana; a copper project in Zambia and a ferrochrome smelter in South Africa.The proposal to undertake a study on Chinese investments in Africa from a labour perspective emerged during a workshop of trade union leaders and union educators in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2006.

It is well known that since China began to embrace capitalism in the late 1970s, its economy has, for the most part, raced forward at breakneck speed. Last year, China's economy ranked second in the world, behind only the United States. In order to keep up the frantic pace of economic growth to which it has become accustomed, the formerly isolationist nation has begun to spread its wings. And largely driven by an intense need for more sources of energy, China has been using some of its vast holdings of foreign currency to invest in new opportunities abroad.

The many problems associated with Chinese companies in Africa should not be seen in isolation from the broader challenge of dealing with the consequences of neoliberal globalisation, which places economic growth above all social considerations.

A lifetime would have to be spent to really assess exactly what parts of the actual technological package are the most crucial, as this is an ever-evolving process. The challenge for Africa is to operationalise technologies in the absence of much of the necessary flanking support (policies, prices, infrastructure, agricultural credit etc). But what are these actual technologies? Sometimes it is hard to assess as to whether the technologies are Chinese developed or imported – but this should not matter. The crucial question is – what has worked for China that could be applicable to Africa?

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus. March 9, 2007 Over the last five years, Angola has lost to graft as much as $4 billion in oil revenues -- equivalent to 10% of its GDP. As a result of…