By: John Pa Baimba Sesay - IA, Beijing, Chinaon
December 2, 2012.
As
we read this piece, the Chinese people must be going through some sort of
political transition, moving from one political administration to another. This
transition will see a new set of political leaders assuming the leadership
mantle of the People’s Republic of China. Despite what you may think, China is
a great country that has made great impact in world’s development. It is
a country I have appreciated in recent times, more so, when one takes a look at
the level of support they continue pouring into Africa. China’s support to
Africa has often come through the Import-Export Bank of China, which is the
world’s third largest export credit agency, with a mandate to implement state
policies in industry, foreign trade and economy, finance and foreign affairs.
The
vast majority of infrastructure financing arrangements done by China in the
African continent are reportedly financed by the China Exim Bank. The Bank has
financed over 300 projects in Africa, with infrastructure, being the core of
its undertakings. During the 2012 fifth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, on
Thursday, 19th, the first of such conference to be held
in the second decade since its formation in 2000, Hu Jintao made the strongest
case for the African continent when he asked that the continent should be given
space in world’s affairs and that since in recent years, African countries and
people, with perseverance and vision have made tremendous achievements in
promoting development, there is the need for the international community to not
only give high priority to enhancing peace and development in Africa but to
also “respect Africa’s wish, listen to its views, address its
concerns and help it meet the Millennium Development Goals at an early date.”
It
is a truism that China is the world’s largest developing country, whilst Africa
is the home to the largest number of developing nations in the world. There is
therefore the need to underscore the fact that China and Africa, together with
over one third of the world’s population, are an important force for advancing
world peace and development. It was on this basis that Hu Jintao highlighted
five points action plan for cooperation between China and Africa; that they
will open up new prospects in building a new type of China-Africa strategic
partnership. They include; opening up new prospects for the new type of
China-Africa strategic partnership, in terms of working towards strengthening
the political mutual trust between China and Africa; work towards
expanding practical cooperation between China and Africa, increasing cultural
and people-to-people exchanges ,increasing coordination and cooperation in
international affairs and working towards making FOCAC more stronger.
China’s
strategic role in Africa’s socio-economic development cannot be overstated,
given the resource importance of China in not just the Asian continent but in
world’s development. Wei Jianguo is the Secretary-General of the China
Center for International Economic Exchanges. When asked about what impressed
him most about Sino-Africa economic cooperation, by CHINA-AFRICA
of 20th December 2011 edition , (a
publication by the International Business Daily, at the Ministry of Commerce,
in the People’s Republic of China), he specifically looked at China’s
investment in Africa thus, the investment in Africa by China
has been largely on infrastructure facilities, educational training and
other large projects and that “China surpasses the United States, France
and Japan in their separate African investments…” This must be an outstanding
impression he must have got, following what China is doing in Africa. Africa,
no doubt is, economically and democratically a progressing continent, but as
written by Zheng Minyi, Africans should live up to the challenges faced by the
fast growth the continent is experiencing.
It
should be noted, that there are more than 6,000 branches of Chinese related
companies across Africa with some 2,000 investments in the continent. In Malawi
for instance, China’s first investment program in that country following the
signing of diplomatic ties years back is through the Malawi Cotton project,
with funding from the China-Africa Development Fund. CADFund was established in
2006 as the first equity investment fund in the country, primarily focusing on
investment in Africa. It has an aim of enhancing China-Africa economic
cooperation and promotes Africa’s development through direct investment. This
investment in Malawi is believed to be the largest China-related agriculture
investment in Africa. The China-Africa Development Fund is one of several ways
through which Chinese enterprises are encouraged to invest in Africa. Also,
trade between Ghana and China, according to the publication earlier referred to
reach US $ 1.27712 billion exceeding US $ 1 Billion for the first time,
according to data in 2007 and China’s imports from Ghana are
to increase by 150% and such imports include, but not limited to
rubber and cocoa.
China,
the world’s second largest economy and the largest exporter of manufactured
goods has continued to play a leading role in international trade especially
across Africa. It has significantly contributed to Africa’s economic growth.
Wen Jiabao was/is the Premier of the State Council. He once delivered a report
on the work of the government on the 5th of March 2012 at the
Great Hall of the People, at the initial stages of the Fifth Session of the 11th National
People’s Congress. He used the ceremony to speak on a number of issues, ranging
from the country’s GDP, which he said, reached 47.2 trillion Yuan, reflecting
an increase of 9.2% over the previous year, with government revenue of 10.37
trillion Yuan, to major tasks for government in 2012. This is how China has
been growing.
Sierra
Leone has been no exception to the socio-economic gains that African countries
continue to enjoy from China. From the viewpoint of trade relations and
economic and technical cooperation, to exchanges and cooperation in the fields
of culture, education and health, there have been positive ties between the two
countries. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in the early 1970s, China
has continued to be of help to Sierra Leone. The Sino-Sierra Leone cooperation
of mutual benefit started from 1984 and it has been making serious progress
since then. China’s strategic importance in Africa is huge and
critically needed at this time, that when we look at the investment potentials
in third world countries like Sierra Leone, such investments potentials should
be explored.
There
are several investment potentials in Sierra Leone, as we have today, under the
leadership of President Ernest Bai Koroma a bang in the country’s mineral
sector, with mining companies like African Minerals and London Mining making
tremendous progress in not only promoting the country’s image at the
international scene as a business friendly environment, but also helping in the
area of unemployment. The President’s Agenda for Prosperity contains a lot of
development initiatives and this is where countries like China will continue to
play an important and critical role, as always. The investment potentials in
Sierra Leone’s agriculture are among the best in West Africa, having a “diverse
climate, plentiful; rainfall, good soil and abundant land to be cultivated…” (Page
17 of LOKWE Magazine-July, 2011 Edition). There is another great
potential area in Sierra Leone and that is the fisheries and marine resource
sector. Government’s commitment to fully bring to light the potentials in
the fisheries sector could not be underestimated, especially following the
introduction of a West Africa sub regional programme on fisheries. That
said another intervention in the fisheries and marine sectors could be through
the construction of fisheries harbour complex, which practically could be of
great help to our country. But in all of this, we cannot overstate the need for
China to continue playing her traditional role of teaching people how to fish,
than giving fish to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment