Africa

The provincial leaders who have driven China’s economic boom and commercial charge into Africa insist that history is on their side. Ancient China’s Emperors – powerful as they...

The twinning of provinces and cities in China and Africa is central to Beijing’s strategy of allowing provinces to take a lead role in trade matters. For Beijing,...

The diplomatic battles between China and Taiwan – often played out on African soil – are on hold. There is no formal truce yet because China’s strategists...

Sadako Ogata, President of the newly reorganised Japan International Cooperation Agency, says that the JICA is now the best funded national development agency in the world. Her job,...

International financial realities did not deter the 21 African delegations to the second Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference (KOAFEC), held in Seoul on 27-30 October. At the inaugural meeting two years ago,...

Asian states buy, sell and invest in Africa and their military dealings are growing too. The global arms trade is dominated by the United States, Western Europe and Russia, but...

Many European Union diplomats believe their continent’s influence is being sidelined as China boosts its investments and profile in Africa. One man in the European Commission is working to channel those...

Lingering court cases such as the murder of Judge Bernard Borrel in Djibouti, the Angolagate arms trial and the arrest of Rwanda’s Rose Kabuye cast a shadow over...

The new poor do not buy diamonds, so the big producers hope to keep their profit margins up by cutting production. A conference on 17 November organised by...

United Nations' peacekeeping faces its biggest crisis since it started some 60 years ago in Palestine. This month, over a million lives are at risk in Congo-Kinshasa as...

The leaked diaries of former French intelligence chief Yves Bertrand have enraged and amused the political establishment in Paris, which is already intrigued by the accusations of high-level...

A victory for Barack Obama in the United States Presidential elections on 4 November would be greeted with a roar of approval across Africa and the diaspora. For...

There some 300 foreign policy advisors working on Barack Obama's campaign, about 50 on Africa alone; this compares to about 50 advisors on all foreign policy for McCain’s...

Africa’s economies will lose momentum as the effects of the global credit crisis work through the international system – but the damage will be less severe than in...

After a year of the worsening credit crisis, the cost of external finance for African and other states has risen and the availability of credit is shrinking. That...

After five days of grand summitry in New York last week, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was able to announce that US$16 billion had been raised in...

The United States government's facility for ignoring the crimes of its allies in the 'Global War on Terror' is again being challenged, this time from the inside. ...

The United States Republican Party seems eager to rival the African credentials of Democratic contender Barack Obama with its international links. The Republicans’ Vice-Presidential candidate and Governor of...

The 75% increase in food prices reported by the World Bank is pushing down nutrition standards in poor countries and wreaking havoc across developing economies. The big...

Responding to their President's call, Tanzanians turned out massively on 18 February, day two of President George Walker Bush's Tanzania visit, following an anti-climax the previous night...

Washington officials had hoped that their new African military headquarters would be (where else?) in Africa. The Africa Command (Africom) would, they said, help the fight against Islamism,...

Just before President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife, Carla Bruni, set off on their African safari on 27 February to Chad, South Africa and Angola, Germany’s Bertelsmann...

The rich world's economies are sick and the looming recession in the United States has already triggered days of panic selling in Western and now Asian markets. Africa...

Fund managers are keeping one eye on the global market twitches and another on some of Africa’s rockier political systems as they try to assess news risk in...

China’s trade with Africa is to reach US$117 billion this year, according to an internal report by Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID). China will also be...

The European Union’s Africa policy is in a shambles after the diplomatic disaster of the Economic Partnership Agreements, the multilateral trade accords which so many African states have...

Seoul’s Africa summit on 27-30 October is smaller than the grand Japan-Africa, China-Africa or India-Africa events of the last five years, but it demonstrates the importance of Africa...

Seoul is using its expertise in information and communications technologies (ICT) to break into Africa’s growing high-tech market. Korea Telecom has a US$38 million contract with the Rwandan...

Accelerating China-Africa trade and diplomatic relations are the dominant topic in the Africa-Asia nexus – even if India and Japan have taken the spotlight with grand African summits...

If Asia's economic growth has offered African exporters a fast-growing and lucrative market and its hyper-economies - China and India - have become important sources of investment capital, then this time...

Chaos in Western-dominated capital and money markets has spared Africa so far. Many economists believe that Africa might be largely insulated from the first wave of damage from...

Just a day after he was elected by the Diet, Japan's new Prime Minister Taro Aso flew to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. Although he does...

Japanese companies in Africa are struggling to increase their market share against pressure from Chinese and Western firms, a new survey by the Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) has found. Some...

African states are competing to host China's special economic zones in the expectation they will bring in billions of dollars of investments and create tens of thousands of jobs -in...

Members of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa have committed themselves towards the establishment of a multinational coastguard service to patrol the largely ungoverned seas off Africa's...

Sports and politics rhymed perfectly as the organisation of the Beijing Olympics confirmed China's global rise. And the impressive harvest of medals won by China's athletes lends credibility to claims that...

SINOSURE: China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) was established in December 2001 through a merger between the People's Insurance Company of China and the insurance arms of China Exim Bank....

CHINA EXIM BANK: Established in 1994 under the Policy Banks Law, China Exim Bank is currently the third largest export credit agency in the world. China Exim Bank is tasked...

China Exim Bank and Sinosure are together expected to become the world's largest export credit agencies by 2010, according to the Export-Import Bank of the United States, just two decades after...

Tokyo's careful diplomacy ahead of the Hokkaido G8 summit the 7-9 July now faces its biggest test among African states: how can Japan explain its stance at the next round...

In many ways, the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on 28-30 May was a dry run for Tokyo's Group of 8 summit in Hokkaido...

Behind the Yokohama summit scenery, Japanese civil servants continued with their reorganisation. Key to this is the Japan International Cooperation Agency under its President, Sadako Ogata, the driving force behind the...

From now on, Japan's non-governmental organisations will operate more like British NGOs such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, which manage substantial state aid funds. Local NGOs were barely represented at...

An island at the heart of Southeast Asia and a landlocked state in the heart of Africa are an unlikely couple. Singapore has skyscrapers and strict discipline, Rwanda has its...

President S.R. Nathan: took office in 1997, and in April 2007 became the first Singaporean President to go to Africa, with state visits to South Africa, Namibia...

Washington politicians are re-evaluating the significance for United States' policy in Africa in light of China's increasing engagement with the continent. On 4 June, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee...

Japan is launching major changes in its diplomatic and development strategy this year, coinciding with Yokohama's hosting of the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) from...

Before 1998, Japanese voters would have had some difficuty in identifying any difference in Africa policy among the three main parties. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ, Minshutu) admits that even...

In a direct challenge to established Western interests and the continent's growing ties with China and Japan, India is promising to invest heavily in Africa's transport, energy and manufacturing sectors as...

India has defined Africa as part of its wider strategic interest and is concerned about nuclear rival China's encroachment on what it perceives as its'wider sphere of influence' along...

Indian Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh cut a deal with Endiama, Angola's state-owned diamond company, to facilitate the direct sale of stones to India by mid-2009. India is also...

Africans depend heavily on imported food, and the World Bank estimates that world food prices rose by 58% between March 2007 and March 2008. Moreover, several important food-exporting...

The veteran environmentalist Lester Brown asked in the mid-1990s: 'Who will feed China?' The answer is that the Chinese hope to, thanks to more fertiliser, better seeds and...

With just a month to go before the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) on 28-30 May, the Japanese hosts are busily firming proposals that will both...

After a long courtship India's biggest car manufacturers are looking for rapid expansion in African markets. Indian vehicle makers are bullish on Africa and engaged in steadily expanding their reach to...

A visit from North Korea's elite and reculsive leadership is rare for any region, especially Africa. On 18 March Kim Yong-nam, President of the Supreme People's Assembly and...

India is seeking to carve out a distinct relationship with Africa, as part of a new competition for resources and diplomatic support, Foreign Ministry officials in New Delhi have said,...

Faced with a uranium shortage at home, Indian companies are beginning to looking to African uranium producers to meet the country’s civilian and military needs, according to industry sources....

A combination of strong economic growth and institutional neglect of investment in infrastructure has created a serious problem: South Africa, the continent’s largest and most developed economy, is running...

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