China's Foreign Minister completes African trip

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi completed his six-nation tour of Africa. On the trip he ‘strengthened coordination with governments of those African states on implementing the agreements reached at the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting’, he told Chinese reporters on his return. More

The Foreign Minister began his six-nation tour of Africa and the Middle East in Kenya with a pledge of a $7m grant to help fund infrastructure development. More

Deng Hingbo, the Chinese ambassador, felt the Minister’s visit was ‘fruitful’.More
However, there were fears that the planned major port development at Lamu could have damaging effects on the local environment. More

In a sign of the growing importance of China-Kenya economic links, Standard Chartered Kenya reached an agreement with Chinese card provider China Unionpay to give Chinese cardholders in Kenya access to their money.More

In Nigeria Foreign Minister Yang met with his Nigerian counterpart Ojo Maduekwe to discuss further investment in power transmission and generation and in oil exports. China is also helping to repair the rail system and develop communication satellites for Nigeria. Chinese and Nigerian officials held discussions about China increasing investment in the West African country’s electricity and oil industries.More

In Sierre Leone he met with President Ernest Bai Koroma who thanked China for providing ‘selfless assistance which contributed to the economic and social development in the country’. More

In Algeria President Bouteflika said Algeria was‘willing to enhance coordination and cooperation with China on international affairs’ and work with China to boost strategic cooperation. More

In Morocco the Foreign Minister published an article in the Moroccan newspaper ‘Le Matin’calling for the strengthening of the Sino-African relationship. More

Morocco’s Prime Minister stressed his willing ness to ‘push forward’ relations with China, and the Chinese Minister said he ‘values the implementation of the follow-up actions of the fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and is willing to work together with Morocco and other FOCAC member countries to fulfill the tasks’. More

The Minister concluded his tour in Saudi Arabia. In the interview he gave Chinese journalists on his return, he said he was ‘looking forward to meeting with foreign ministers of Arab states and chief of the Arab League at the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum slated for June in China’. He stressed that ‘China is willing to work with Arab states to step up communication and coordination’.He also mentioned climate change as an issue discussed with the countries visited, and said China was ‘willing to closely cooperate with these countries to push international climate change negotiations toward the right direction’. More

At the same time China's Minister of Commerce Chen Deming was visiting Ethiopia where he extended RMB172 million [$25 milllion] of preferential loans as well as RMB 50 million in aid, which doesn't have to be repaid, More

He also signed a RMB 100 million ($14,645,576.89) grant agreement on economic and technical cooperation with the African Union Commission. The grant will be used for implementing the project of the Conference Center of the African Union, which is being constructed in Addis Ababa by the Chinese government.
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The AU Commission’s Deputy Chairperson Mr Erastus Mwencha said the AU Commission is willing to play a bigger role in implementing the eight new measures and enhance dialogue between Africa and China.
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The Minister also took the opportunity to appeal to African leaders to guarantee the safety of Chinese workers involved in the exploration of oil and other minerals in the continent from acts of terrorism. More

The Chinese Commerce Minister also visited Mozambique, where he and Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang signed two agreements, the first of which grants Mozambique an interest-free credit of US$14.7 million for additional financing of work to build the National Stadium. The Minister stressed that China intends to continue aiding Mozambique and encouraging Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in the country. More

The Minister later attended the swearing-in of the country’s new President Armando Guebuza. More

INDIA’S VICE-PRESIDENT ALSO TOURS AFRICA

India’s Vice President Hamid Ansari was also on tour, visiting Zambia, Malawi and Botswana.
India’s role in Africa will be powered by the private sector and would generate local employment instead of importing workforce, he told reporters. More

Ansari stressed India’s role in providing assistance in areas such as training of personnel, contribution to agricultural development, training for specialized jobs, and upgrading developmental assistance. He also made a particular mention of the signature role being played by the Indian community in all three countries. He reiterated that the India-Africa Summit of July 2008 had chalked out a path for incrementally moving towards targets set through its deliberations. More

Mineral exploration was another area in which he expressed India’s special interest. More

In Botswana Ansari held talks with his counterpart Momfati Merafhe before announcing a grant of $8 million for projects in the social sector as well as a $20 million line of credit for development of infrastructure projects. More

The two governments later signed agreements on agriculture and education. More

Over 80 Indian firms are operating in Botswana, and play a particularly important role in the country’s diamond industry. More

Ansari praised the role of Indian businesses in his address at the Indian Community Reception. More

Continuing to Malawi - the next Chair of the SAU - the Vice-President announced a line of credit of $50 million as well as $5 million in grants for earthquake relief and projects in the social sector. Three agreements were signed, for foreign office consultations, cooperation in agriculture and small enterprises.
Malawian leaders also expressed a wish for Indian private companies to help build up the inland port of Nsanje, and in the possibility of joint exploration of potential uranium sites. More

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao may also visit Malawi later this year for the inauguration of Malawi’s Chinese-built Parliament building in Lilongwe. More

India’s Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor was also in Mozambique for the inauguration of President Guebuza, who expressed a wish to impart ‘greater vigour and momentum to the close and cooperative relations between India and Mozambique’ in his second term of office. Since 2002, India has extended five lines of credit totalling $115 million for projects in rural electrification, water management and Information Technology. "Mozambique greatly values the S&T park and research incubator financed under a Line of Credit and to be completed in two years. Capacity building support in several sectors is underway and the Pan African e-network project has been commissione” acording to an official statement. More

Meanwhile in Lagos, Nigeria’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa and his Indian counterpart, Mr. Anand Sharma witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for trade and investment partnership between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce. The deal is expected to generate trade worth $1 billion. More

Nigeria-India trade has already reached $10 billion. And Nigeria’s vice-president is confident this will increase, especially given the boost to business confidence from the peace agreement in the Delta region. More

In further attempts to promote India’s African profile in competititon with China, India is planning to assist African countries with developing national savings schemes. More

About 100 captains of South African business and industry have expressed interest in participating in an global business meet being planned by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry on the periphery of the Commonwealth Games 2010, to be hosted in Delhi in October. More

According to a recent poll 40% of Chinese see India as the biggest security threat after the USA. More

ENVIRONMENT

The group of four emerging economies – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – that played a major role in arriving at the Copenhagen Accord – will meet in Delhi on January 24 to discuss issues before endorsing the agreement on climate change arrived at in the Danish Capital last month.
The ministerial level meeting is likely to draft a collective response to a communication from the United Nations Secretary-General asking these countries to work quickly and diligently to get all other Parties of the conference to sign the Accord by January 31. More

A top Chinese climate official confirmed that climate ministers from four emerging economies will meet in India this month, to help chart a roadmap toward a legally binding global climate change agreement in Mexico City this year.
While the official downplayed the scheduled conference on Jan 24-25 as an "ordinary event" among China's international climate engagements, the government's top-ranking advisors said the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) are likely to coordinate their follow-up actions required in the Copenhagen Accord achieved by 190 economies in December. More

America sees a diminished role for the United Nations in trying to stop global warming after the "chaotic" Copenhagen climate change summit, an Obama administration official said. More

‘I am more convinced than ever that when historians look back at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, they will say that the most important thing to happen was not the Great Recession, but China’s Green Leap Forward. The Beijing leadership clearly understands that the E.T. — Energy Technology — revolution is both a necessity and an opportunity, and they do not intend to miss it’ says influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. More

Economy

2010 is a critical year for wellbeing and growth across the public and private sectors, according to Standard Chartered. The bank’s Global Focus report provides detailed outlook and forecasts for the world’s major economies and key emerging markets and regions, including Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Among the key predictions are: global growth is likely to be 2.7% in 2010, compared with an estimated 1.9% contraction in 2009; Asia is likely to grow by 7% in 2010, compared with an estimated 4.5% growth in 2009 while China and India are expected to grow by 10% and 7.5%, respectively, compared with 8.5% and 6.8% in 2009. More

China surpassed Germany as the world's top exporter. More

China continues to attract criticism from Europe and the US for refusing to allow the Yuan to appreciate, thus giving its exports a price advantage seen by others as unfair. More

But there are fears that China’s economy may be overheating. ‘Some experts fear that too much of the stimulus money was put into unprofitable projects and bad loans that will be exposed in a few years. In that view, China’s 2009 boom, in which automakers sold nearly 14 million cars and trucks, and housing prices doubled, is really a sign of an overheated economy at risk of serious recession down the road’. More

However there were signs that China’s central bank was beginning to rein in the excessive credit boom. More

This led the Wall Street Journal to conclude that a revaluation of the yuan may be more likely than investors had assumed. More

Censorship

Hu Shuli, founder of Chinese news magazine Caijing, is editing a new weekly after her resignation amid claims of censorship. More

Liu Jianqiang is one of China’s pioneering environmental journalists. A former senior investigative reporter at Southern Weekend, China's most influential investigative newspaper he provided front-line and in-depth coverage of China's burgeoning environmental movement. Some of Liu's most influential articles include his 2004 expose on the controversial Tiger Leaping Gorge dams in Yunnan province and 2005 article on the Summer Palace lake reconstruction. He has also serves as columnist and associate editor for chinadialogue.net. In an interview during a US visit, he discusses his investigative stories on the ecological impact and displacement of people by China’s hydroelectric projects, special interest groups harming China’s environment and the constant struggle against censorship. More

China told companies to cooperate with state control of the Internet on Thursday, showing no sign of giving ground on censorship after U.S. Internet giant Google threatened to quit the country. More

Eralier, Google’s stance had been welcomed by Chunese internet activists. More

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* Stephen Marks is research associate and project coordinator with Fahamu's China in Africa Project.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.