china drc deal, page-4

On the face of it this kind of deal between Congo and DRC makes a lot of sense. The end-user gets their commodities and the Congo get their much-needed infrastructure. What's more the new infrastructure should be delivered in the most cost effective manner possible and far less of the money spent will disappear into the pockets of corrupt African officials, and in bureaucratic wastage than is now the case. What the western intergovernmental agencies like the UN, the World Bank and NGO's should be very suspicious about is the lack of transparency of such deals. I would love to see more detail.

I wonder if it wasnt for Iraq and the economic meltdown in the US whether the US would in fact be in a better economic position to effectively counter block these big-money moves by China buying up large swags of Africa.