Is China buying up Africa?The Chinese President omits Nigeria in his African tour.
Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a string of deals and pledged to bolster bilateral ties as he ended a trip to Africa in the Republic of Congo.
The deals include a river port in Oyo, Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso's hometown, and a sea port in Pointe-Noire that can export mineral ores shipments.
Congo is a major oil producer. China is already its biggest trading partner.
Before Congo, Mr Xi visited Tanzania and South Africa.
China has become one of Africa's major trading partners in recent years.
On Friday, Mr Xi said he wanted to raise ties with Congo "to a new and higher level".
"The future, the development of China will be an unprecedented opportunity for Africa, and Africa's development will be the same for my country," he told parliament in the capital, Brazzaville.
"We expect to work together with our African friends to seize upon historic opportunities and deepen cooperation ... in order to bring greater benefit to the Chinese and African peoples."
President Sassou Nguesso praised China, rejecting charges of neo-colonialism sometimes levelled against the Asian superpower.
During his week-long trip Mr Xi has sought to present China's relationship with Congo as a partnership of equals.
China and Congo have already launched projects worth several billion dollars, including a motorway between Brazzaville and the economic capital of Pointe-Noire.
Trade between China and Congo rose from $290m (£190m) in 2002 to $5bn last year, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
Though Congo is one of sub-Saharan Africa's top oil producers, some 70% of the country's 4.1 million people live in poverty.
Why did he not visit Nigeria supposedly the giant of Africa?
The power of the BRICs.
ReplyDelete4 nations responsible for 25% of global productivity.
Isn't it time Nigeria took over from Russia?
Just thinking aloud.
@Obinna wetin be BRICs?educate us :)
ReplyDelete@Obinna..why Russia?Naija has a huge population like China,why can't we take over from them?or even India?Russia isn't the only nationin the BRICs.nice one though.
ReplyDeleteChina is a super power in terms of global economy and the real sense of the world whether America acknowledges it or not.and yes they are courting Africa.Africa is a huge market for them.China is like a wily old fox.
ReplyDeleteThe BRICs are the biggest four of the emerging nations. These four are Brazil, Russia, India and China. Other emerging giants are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, South Africa and Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteThere are very strong economic indicators that the economies of these nations which are growing steadily at double digit figures would dominate the globe by 2020. While the proposition is true for most of these nations, it seems the two nations with wealthiest reserves of oil & gas ( Nigeria & Russia) are struggling with deep rooted corruption that makes it very difficult for these nations to take advantage of recent advancements in technology to leapfrog and perhaps overtake the developed economies.
This does not say that other emerging nations are not without corruption at all. They may have developed more effective techniques in the management of their affairs because they got to their current forms by. working hard and investing right. This cannot be said of Nigeria because our government has failed to invest rightly making it excruciatingly difficult to achieve anything meaningful through hard work.
The options available for its people is to work smart but this comes with extreme and somewhat unpredictable costs. This could be one reason why other nations fear or admire us.
Russia has very striking similarities with Nigeria, its economy is not accelerating like that of the other three hence with adequate planning and execution we may have a window of opportunity to displace it and perhaps modify the acronym to NBICS (with SouthAfrica included of course)
It amazes me that very few people have recognised that the China doesn't really belong in the BRIC designation. Also and mineral rich African Nations should be alert to the missing BRIC in the emerging economic wall. Australia.
ReplyDelete