Tag: Infrastructure
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Tanzania Tells China Merchants Holdings: “Take It or Leave It!”
Tanzanian President John Magufuli seems to be taking a page from Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's playbook on how to negotiate with the Chinese. Mahathir last year, if you recall, abruptly canceled a multi-billion dollar rail and oil pipeline deal with the Chinese, calling them ...
Kenya’s Newest SGR Line is Up and Running But Bad Roads Means No One Can Actually Get to the Stations
Two days after the high-profile launch of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway line between Nairobi and Naivasha, the trains are running largely empty as very few passengers can actually get to the stations due to the poor condition of the roads. Nearby ...
Three East African Countries to Introduce New Tolls to Pay Back China for Road Building Loans
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have all announced plans to begin charging toll roads on certain expressways built with Chinese financing. The proposed fees, according to UK-based infrastructure industry publication ITS, is apparently intended to generate the necessary funds to repay Chinese lenders.
Tweet of the Day: Kenyan Truckers Claim SGR is Too Costly, But That’s Shortsighted Says Expert
Dr. Zhengli Huang is a Research Associate in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield. She's an expert on China's impact on African urban development and has experience in ...
Fueled by Chinese Loans, Kenya’s National Debt Tops $57 Billion
Kenya's Treasury released new information about the country's rising debt load, announcing that it's about to reach Sh6 trillion ($57 billion.) Last week, Parliament approved a new, higher debt ceiling of Sh9 trillion ($87 billion) in part to accommodate 44 new loan requests to ...
The Optics of Gratitude in Africa
This week we interviewed Miriam Driessen for an upcoming episode of the China in Africa Podcast about her fascinating new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia. Driessen is an anthropologist and spent years interviewing the Chinese workers employed on massive ...
Sinohydro Stops Work on Zambia Hydroelectric Dam
Citing "difficulties beyond its control" (translation: they haven't been paid), China’s state-owned Sinohydro has stopped work building the 750mw Kafue Gorge hydroelectric dam in Zambia, dealing a major blow for the country's drive for energy self-sufficiency and the livelihoods of thousands of workers on the project.
Insecurity and Bribe Demands Plague Chinese Businesses in Angola
Amid one of the most serious economic crises of its history, Angola’s government is looking at every major economy for investors. Being Angola’s major creditor for over a decade, China is, naturally, one of the main targets. But Chinese investment is being plagued locally, not only by ...
Chinese Contractor Adopts Manufactured Sand in Quest for Alternative to Natural Sand
The presence of Chinese construction companies in Kenya is evident from the big projects they are handling; from roads to office complexes to shopping malls. The current government’s flagship transport project, the Standard Gauge Railway, which replaces the century-old lunatic express from the coastal city of Mombasa ...
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, ...
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 ...
Zimbabwe Gets China, India Loans to Boost Power Generation
Zimbabwe has obtained three separate loans of just over US$108,3 million from the Export-Import Bank of China and Export-Import Bank of India to be used for power generation projects and broadband expansion. Government tied a loan agreement with the Export-Import ...