africa and chinas courtship

Africa says big enough to cope with China courtship
By Henrique Almeida and Pascal Fletcher

9 December 2007

Source:Reuters News

LISBON (Reuters) - Africa is mature enough to cope with China's investment offensive on the continent, African leaders said Sunday, brushing aside Western concerns that the Chinese courtship ignores human rights and good governance.

The leaders, speaking to reporters at the end of a two-day summit in Lisbon of the European Union and Africa, hailed China and fellow Asian economic powerhouse India as economic partners.

"Africa defends its interests, its economic interests. China and India have become major partners for Africa," said Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who chided European investors and aid partners for being slow and bureaucratic.

The 27-member EU is Africa's largest trading partner with trade totaling more than 215 billion euros ($313 billion) last year. But China, which is importing minerals and oil from around the world to feed its expanding economy, leapt into third place in 2006 with 43 billion euros.

"The Chinese work everywhere, they don't make speeches, they work fast ... The fact is that Indian and Chinese products are much less expensive than European products," Wade said.

Many Western officials have criticized Beijing's multibillion-dollar aid, trade and investment overtures in Africa, saying its no-strings approach sidesteps necessary safeguards to maintain transparency and avoid corruption.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza said at the end of the Lisbon summit Africa was big enough to take care of itself.

"I see Africa as an independent, mature and responsible continent," said Guebuza. "Therefore, when Africa enters into negotiations and deals with other entities it does so as a mature player," he said, when asked about China's advances.

In the first 10 months of this year alone, China's total trade with Africa leaped by just over 30 percent as Chinese companies signed up contracts from Congo to Niger.

World Bank Managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that China's growing investments in Africa were welcome, but that it should do more to help fight poverty and corruption in the mineral- and oil-rich but troubled continent.

"They also need to look at the countries they are putting their resources into. How best to fight poverty and fight corruption ... so that they don't compound the problem," Okonjo-Iweala told reporters.

"The Europeans have been in Africa for a long time and I think the Chinese also have something to learn from them," the former Nigerian finance minister said.

Some analysts said the weekend's long-delayed summit between the world's largest trading bloc and its poorest continent was held as an attempt to counter China's growing influence in Africa, although EU officials insisted this was not the case.

The summit ended without agreement on the issue of trade, where most African governments are resisting intense EU pressure to sign new commercial pacts by an end of year deadline.

The two continents previously met in Egypt in 2000. Attempts to hold a follow-up summit foundered over whether to invite Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who is accused by the West of human rights abuses but has good relations with China.

Mugabes defiant attendance at the summit prompted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to stay away.