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Monday, November 9, 2009
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, November 8, 2009 (Petroleum Africa)… “China’s involvement in Africa is sincere with no strings attached – it isn’t political,” echoed China’s Premier Wen Jiabao at the 3rd Conference of African and Chinese Entrepreneurs held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt from November 7-8. Representatives from the governmental sector as well as various industries were present in order to further build upon African/Chinese relations.
Speakers included Uganda’s Minister of State for Investment Aston Kajara; Hu Zhirong the Vice President of the China-Africa Development Fund; the CEO of South Africa-based Standard Bank, Craig Bond; and many more.
President of ZTE Corp. Hou Weigui stressed that in order for a successful collaboration between ZTE and African businesses, products must be tailored to meet the individual needs of African companies. “We want to jointly develop [businesses] with Africa,” Weigui said. He continued to note that the company has set up telecommunication training in Algeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Ghana in order to become the backbone of local networks. He said, “We have longer period development plans and the market is huge in Africa, but they need financing.”
And China is prepared to provide just that. Zhirong spoke on how the China-Africa Development Fund has committed to invest in over 20 projects in Africa with an investigation of over 30 projects currently underway. The organization is working with the Development Bank of China in order to fund the development of the Suez economic zone in Egypt and also in Nigeria to increase “capacity of local economic development.” Zhriong said, “The fund is playing its role as a bridge for more information exchange to find Chinese partners for more African investments while also recommending African projects to Chinese investors.”
For more than a decade China has been slowly infiltrating its way into the African E&P scene, traditionally home to Western majors and independents. Deals revolving around infrastructure in return for preferential rights to petroleum reserves have been the standard operating procedure. Many African governments are seen to prefer the Chinese way of business as it does not interfere with these government’s need to remain sovereign in policy while evading the West’s ever constant transparency demands. With the majority of African countries needing a boost to help develop their domestic infrastructure and lacking the funds to kick these activities off, the deals with China and Chinese firms could be seen as a win-win situation for all concerned, well except for the Western firms that is.
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