Following suit:
China’s President Xi Jinping with President Cyril Ramaphosa, Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe, middle row left, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, middle row second left, and other leaders at the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in Beijing on Monday.
President Xi Jinping told African leaders on Monday that China’s investments on the continent had “no political strings attached”, pledging $60bn in new development financing, even as Beijing is increasingly criticised over its debt-heavy projects abroad.
Xi offered the funding at the start of a two-day China-Africa summit that focused on his cherished Belt and Road initiative. The money, to be spent over the next three years, comes on top of $60bn Beijing offered the continent in 2015.
The enormous Belt and Road scheme is aimed at improving Chinese access to foreign markets and resources, and boosting Beijing’s influence abroad. China has poured billions in loans for roads, railways, ports and other major infrastructure projects in Asia and Africa. But critics warn that the Chinese leader’s pet project is burying some countries under enormous debt.
“China’s co-operation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development,” Xi said. But he admitted there was a need to look at the commercial viability of projects and ensure lower investment risks, and make co-operation “more sustainable”.
Xi said Belt and Road “is not a scheme to form an exclusive club or bloc against others”.
Xi announced $60bn for eight initiatives at the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac), ranging from industrial promotion and infrastructure construction to scholarships for young Africans.
He added that Africa’s leastdeveloped, heavily indebted and poor countries would be exempt from debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese loans due to mature by the end of 2018.
A study by the Center for Global Development, a US think-tank, found “serious concerns” about the sustainability of sovereign debt in eight Asian, European and African countries receiving Belt and Road funds.
But President Cyril Ramaphosa defended China’s involvement on the continent, saying Focac “refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa, as our detractors would have us believe”.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned against “a new version of colonialism” in August, as he cancelled $22bn in Chinese-backed infrastructure projects.
The AU chair, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, also rallied behind China’s involvement in Africa.
Nations across Africa are hoping that China’s enthusiasm for infrastructure investment will help promote industrialisation on the continent.
NATIONS ARE HOPING CHINA’S ENTHUSIASM FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT WILL HELP PROMOTE INDUSTRIALISATION