China’s Xi Pledges $60 Billion for Africa Development Over Three Years
China’s trade with Africa grew to $222 billion last year, making it the continent’s top trade partner for the sixth straight year
By PATRICK MCGROARTY
Updated Dec. 4, 2015 9:08 a.m. ET
JOHANNESBURG—China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday pledged $60 billion in financing for development across Africa, aiming to reaffirm his country’s commitment to the continent despite the economic turmoil caused by slowing growth of the world’s second-largest economy.
Mr. Xi told dozens of African leaders at a summit in Johannesburg the funds would be invested in 10 projects over three years. The Chinese leader didn’t specify which of Africa’s more than 50 countries would receive the aid.
“These plans are aimed at addressing three issues holding back Africa’s development,” Mr. Xi said to warm applause from the presidents and prime ministers of Africa’s largest economies. “Namely inadequate infrastructure…professional and skilled personnel, and funding.”
Friday’s pledges represent nearly a doubling of the three-year, $30 billion funding package that China announced in 2012, said Kai Xue, a Beijing-based lawyer who advises Chinese businesses operating in Africa.
China’s broader trade relationship with Africa has grown even more rapidly, to $222 billion last year—a record that made China the continent’s top trade partner for the sixth straight year. As a result, many African countries have forged deep diplomatic ties with Beijing and praised China’s authoritarian model of economic development.
“It’s clear from China’s experience that it is indeed possible to modernize and develop rapidly,” said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairwoman of the African Union commission and a potential successor to South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, her ex-husband.
China’s love affair with Africa has been tested this year as slower economic growth in the Asian giant pushed down prices for the oil, copper and iron ore that countries such as Angola, Zambia and South Africa rely on to drive their own economies.
In each of those countries and in other large economies such as Nigeria, growth and currency values have plummeted to their lowest point in years. China’s Ministry of Commerce said in November that Chinese investment in Africa dropped 40% in the first six months of this year.
As China pushes its economy toward a model that prioritizes domestic consumption over the resource-intensive construction and manufacturing that buoyed African resource producers, officials here will have to work harder to hold Beijing’s interest, Mr. Xue warned.
“If Africa because of low mineral prices and unreliable host governments becomes unappealing, there are other places for these funds to be diverted to,” Mr. Xue said.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-xi-pledges-60-billion-for-africa-development-over-three-years-1449224028
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/china-pledges-60-billion-to-african-development/2015/12/04/1760285e-9a94-11e5-aca6-1ae3be6f06d2_story.html
Received on Fri Dec 04 2015 - 12:56:33 EST