China asks US to join it on African projects

Unprecedented proposal foresees giant economies cooperating on finance, construction

CHINA has invited the US to cooperate in financing and building infrastructure in Africa and other parts of the developing world in an unprecedented proposal that could have sweeping implications for the future of international development aid.

Chinese officials first approached Washington last year to discuss working together on a $12-billion (R128-billion) dam project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, US officials said, and the talks gathered momentum at the annual China-US summit in Beijing last month.

The putative partnership is challenging: a bid for what could be the world’s largest hydropower complex in one of its least developed countries. The World Bank has funded a report to evaluate the project, but proposals for the Inga-3 dam have been discussed for years without resolution.

The Chinese initiative signals a possible change of approach by Beijing because it indicates a desire to recalibrate its links with Africa. It comes also as the White House seeks to step up US engagement in the region and is this week hosting the first-ever US-Africa summit.

China has faced mounting accusations in the West and in parts of Africa over its engagement strategy with the region. It has been accused of pursuing a “chequebook” policy, lending money to states largely to benefit its own construction groups’ activities across the continent.

China appeared to embrace a more multilateral approach this year when it launched a $2-billion fund with the African Development Bank, but that is a fraction of its bilateral deals.

US officials said a partnership

It signals a possible change of approach by Beijing

with China on Inga-3 or another dam would be a breakthrough at a time when military rivalry between the two countries in Asia is growing.

They said, however, that parts of US President Barack Obama’s administration, the US Congress and the multilateral financial institutions were wary of US involvement.

Backers in the US government maintained that the US and the World Bank had paid too little attention to infrastructure projects in Africa. However, collaboration with China would be controversial against the back- drop of China’s record in Africa of a lack of transparency in its business dealings.

US officials said no decision had been taken.

The DRC’s ambitious hydropower plans, which supporters argued would benefit economies across sub-Saharan Africa, will be discussed on the margins of the summit in Washington.

The Inga-3 project is part of a bigger endeavour to tap the hydropower potential of the Congo River, the second-largest in the world by volume. The broader Grand Inga plan is designed to generate 40 000MW, which would be twice the size of the Three Gorges Dam in China.

Although the river’s hydropower potential has been discussed for decades, it has been given impetus by an agreement last year between the DRC and South Africa to buy much of its energy.

Three consortiums, from China, Spain and South Korea, have indicated that they intend to bid for the Inga-3 project. The World Bank has approved a $70-million grant to the DRC to conduct a technical evaluation.

Analysts said that ambitious multibillion-dollar projects in the DRC had a history of complications, as well as a tendency to ignite geostrategic rivalries. Moreover, interference by members of DRC President Joseph Kabila’s administration in commercial contracts has been the practice, although improvements in the investment climate have taken place recently. —