Vol 4 (AAC) No 5 | CHINA Liu Zhiming 31st March 2011 Chairman, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation The Tazara Railway that links Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia, to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was built under arduous conditions by thousands of African and Chinese labourers between 1970 and...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 4 | MADAGASCARCHINA Election funds? Try Hong Kong 28th February 2011 Antananarivo is looking for resource deals with Asian financiers to raise cash for an election campaign for interim leader Andry Rajoelina The transitional regime led by Andry Rajoelina is threatening to cancel oil exploration licences held by Western investors and hand them to the Hong Kong-based China International Fund....
Vol 4 (AAC) No 4 | GUINEACHINA Minding the mines 28th February 2011 President Condé called off mining contract reviews but will move to take a one-third share of all mining projects Mining investors are bracing for a long battle. On 24 January, new President Alpha Condé backtracked on promises to review mining contracts, saying that the government would instead...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 4 | NIGERIACHINA Can’t pay, won’t pay 28th February 2011 Friendly rhetoric and big promises between Beijing and Abuja do not deliver as payment problems strain ties Big deals between the Nigerian government and Chinese companies have fallen through, providing yet another chapter to the up-and-down drama between Beijing and Abuja. On 10 February,...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 4 | ZIMBABWECHINA Platinum-bottomed deals 28th February 2011 Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi wants strengthened relations with China’s ‘good brother’ Zimbabwe but conditions on the latest deals are tougher Beijing is offering its biggest financial deal yet in Zimbabwe but the cash-strapped,power-sharing government may yet turn down the investment. For all President Robert Mugabe’s enthusiasm for China,...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 4 | CHINAAFRICAOECD Opening the tent 28th February 2011 A formal study group at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development is exploring ways to take lessons from China’s development path and apply them to the fight...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 3 | CHINAAFRICA Top in trade and investment 30th January 2011 Confirming its status as Africa’s biggest trading partner, Beijing is taking on new diplomatic initiatives that may herald an eventual end to ‘non-interference’ Standing at US$114.8 billion in November 2010, China-Africa trade has bounced back faster than most of Africa’s other foreign trade since the 2008 global financial slowdown. China is...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 2 | SUDANCHINA Beijing’s balancing act 27th December 2010 Usually a supporter of territorial integrity, Beijing is making plans to adapt to the prospect of an oil-rich and independent Southern Sudan Sudan is set to split into two next year, and China – the Khartoum regime’s most important international backer – is stuck in the middle. Under the 2005...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 2 | CHINAAFRICA The next big plan 27th December 2010 Policymakers face rising expectations and criticisms of Beijing’s trade and investments in Africa Growing demand for Africa’s minerals, oil, gas and farmland will shape China’s next five-year plan (2011-2015) due to be approved in March 2011. The planning committees have to...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 2 | CHINAAFRICA How to plan the planning 27th December 2010 The ruling Communist Party makes policy and the state bureaucracy implements it but decisions on economic strategy are taking in a wider range of opinion and expertise.