Briefing

The details of the US$8 billion China Sonangol/China International Fund are becoming more apparent as subsidiary deals are signed. On 7 December, Zimbabwe's Transport and Mining Ministries signed mining and construction...

Gabon's politicians continue to question the delays in the starting-up of the Bélinga iron ore mine and its associated infrastructure works. But financing issues and constant threats of renegotiation have not...

World Bank President Robert Zoellick's plan to bring the Asian hyper-economies into the international development community is now bearing fruit. On 3 December, Zoellick told London's Financial Times that Chinese Commerce...

Aggressive investment by the China Investment Corporation, which manages nearly US$300 billion of Beijing's $2.1 trillion in foreign reserves, is leading to a boom in Africa-focused investments. In...

New Delhi made one of its most important energy and resource deals in Africa on 31 August, signing an accord with the Namibian government to allow for trade...

The latest result of the close ties between Kinshasa and Seoul was revealed on 8 September by Générose Lushiku, Congo-Kinshasa's Minister of Urbanism and Habitat, who announced that...

Oil industry officials in Accra are linking Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor's 18 September statement that Ghana had applied for a US$2 billion concessional loan from China to...

Chinese officials are discussing ways to use some of their country's $2.1 trillion in foreign reserves to finance what could be the world's biggest development aid programme, as Western economies are...

In mid-August, Nigeria's Federal High Court overturned President Umaru Yar'Adua's revoking, in January, of Seoul-based Korea National Oil Company's rights to 60% of Oil Prospecting Licences 321 and 323 in a...

Both sides are claiming victory this month in the long-running negotiations on debt relief between the Kinshasa government and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Kinshasa has won promises...

Opposition politicians in Delhi are pressing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party government for a full investigation into allegations of corrupt deals worth 25 billion rupees (US$520 million) in rice exports...

Malaysian timber conglomerate Samling, which faces accusations of illegal logging, is at the centre of a storm over the bidding by foreign companies for 25-year contracts in Liberia's timber sector. The...

A colourful Pakistani businessman, Saifee Durbar, faces extradition to France on fraud charges following the decision of the Central African Republic on 23 June to withdraw his 'honorific' title as Deputy...

More signs are emerging that China is being drawn inexorably into Africa's internal politics and is being compelled to take sides in wider geopolitical disputes. This time, the trigger was the...

Japan is to add another US$4 billion in new concessional loans to Africa over the next five years, outpacing the spending of the China-Africa Development Fund, according to Koji Yonetani, the...

China is taking advantage of the global economic crisis to restructure its mining industry. A 4 trillion renminbi (US$586 billion) stimulus plan, announced late last year, encompasses sector-specific reform measures put...

The list of countries with multibillion-dollar, Chinese-backed projects is growing longer, with Mozambique the latest country to receive a golden handshake. In late May, China Exim Bank announced US$2.3 billion in...

While China's leading dam-builder Sinohydro was busy dealing with complaints from Western non-governmental organisations about its refusal to engage with local populations, an East African NGO shut down one of Sinohydro's...

The October 2007 merger between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank, and Standard Bank, South Africa's largest, is finally showing its potential. After a lacklustre start,...

Angola has maintained its status as China's biggest trading partner in Africa - with trade volumes between the two countries reaching US$25.3 billion in 2008 - according to Beijing's Minister of...

Beijing is investing 45 billion yuan (US$6.6 bn.) in expanding its Xinhua News Agency and launching a 24-hour English language television news station. The plans envisage more cooperation with African media...

Despite a show of insouciance after December's putsch led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in Conakry, China's diplomats and business leaders are closely watching the new regime's policies,...