Category: Economy
Amid Mounting Chinese Debts, “President Lungu is Running Out of Options.”
A bombshell report in Africa Confidential this reveals that Zambia has borrowed significantly more from Chinese companies than previously reported and now those Chinese creditors are not in much of a mood to negotiate or reschedule those debts.
Daily Nation’s Aggrey Mutambo on the Current State of China-Kenya Relations
The China-Kenya relationship is at a sort of inflection point right now where there is a palpable sense that the relationship has to change or else it risks deteriorating. The ballooning debt, yawning trade imbalance and the general lack of transparency ...
China-Africa 101: China’s Role in Africa’s Debt
One of the most talked-about issues in Africa-China relations today is debt. Africa is borrowing heavily from China and many observers worry that African governments do not have the capability to pay it back. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s trillion-dollar effort to connect Asia, Europe, ...
Buying a Train Ticket on Ethiopia’s New SGR Is Not as Easy You Might Imagine
Journalist Ismail Einashe tried to buy a ticket on the new Chinese-funded/built standard gauge railway (SGR) in Ethiopia to travel from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa. In nearby Kenya, buying on their SGR is a pretty straightforward transaction, as it should be. Not in Ethiopia, though, according ...
Kenya’s Appetite for Chinese Loans May Finally be Starting to Wane
During a meeting last week with Yang Jiechi, Chinese president Xi Jinping's special envoy for Africa and one of Beijing's most senior foreign policy officials, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta gave one of the first indications that the mounting pressure over his country's rising debt levels may ...
Japan Summit Provides Wake-up Call for China to Change Its Approach in Africa
An editorial today in one of South Africa's leading financial news publications, Business Daily, enthusiastically welcomed the outcome of last week's Japan-Africa summit in Yokohama. The summit, known as TICAD7, focused a lot of attention on directing Japan's vast private ...
Case Study: Chinese Agricultural Firm Uses Drones to Fight Pests in Zambia
China is playing an increasingly larger role in African agriculture. Chinese influence through business investment, training, value addition and capacity building is intensifying, and reshaping perceptions. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce is funding around twenty Agricultural Technology
Case Study: Chinese Cement Company Builds a Solid Foundation in Zambia
China’s growing economic muscle in Africa frequently raises fears of domination. However, on the ground, these companies often create jobs and try to comply with laws aimed at strengthening local stakeholdership. A case in point is the Sinoma Cement Company, a Chinese company set up in Zambia ...
Why Using a Zero-Sum Analysis to Compare Japan and China in Africa “doesn’t work”
With the Tokyo International Conference on African Development or TICAD, summit coming up this week in Yokohama, there is often a temptation to compare Tokyo's engagement strategy in Africa with that of Beijing's. Furthermore, there are often references to how the Sino-Japanese rivalry in Asia also tends ...
Podcast Transcript: Will China Come to the Rescue of South Africa’s Ailing Energy Giant Eskom?
Eric: Hello and welcome to another edition of the China in Africa podcast. I'm Eric Olander and as always I'm joined by Cobus Van Staden, senior China Africa Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, South Africa. ...