 |
2
November 2007 |
|
| Headlines
from the launch issue. Want to see more? Email nadia@africa-confidential.com
for a free sample copy
| ||
Big oil, high stakes Luanda is Beijing's closest ally in Africa but mystery surrounds the role of Chinese companies in rebuilding the country Beijing may try to stay out of African politics but the rivalries among Angola's elite leave its diplomats little choice. The latest row over China's US$6 billion credit line to the Luanda government pitted two former intelligence chiefs against each other: General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias 'Kopelipa', the former security advisor to President José Eduardo dos Santos, and General Fernando Garcia Miala, the long-time military intelligence director. Kopelipa is ahead on all counts. With continuing support from Dos Santos, Kopelipa controls the government's management of all China's credit lines. Miala has been dismissed from the army and was sentenced on 20 September to four years in gaol for insubordination after he had questioned Kopelipa's competence and honesty in managing the China credit line. The battle may not be over. Kopelipa has other enemies in the security elite. |
CHINA'S BANKS Last month, two of China's leading state banks
moved into Africa's two biggest economies: the Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China has bought a 20% stake in Africa's biggest
bank, South Africa's Standard Bank, and the China Development
Bank (CDB) has launched a partnership with Nigeria's United Bank
of Africa. Together with CDB's 3% stake in Britain's Barclays
Bank, this opens up an array of new financing channels in Africa.
Aside from the utility of the acquisitions, they will boost Beijing's
credentials as an economic power in Africa, outside its usual
domain of securing strategic minerals. | |
| ANGOLA-CHINA China's Nova Luanda The China International Fund (CIF) appears to be the construction arm of Beiya International Development Ltd, the parent company of China Angola Oil Stock Holding Ltd, which trades Angolan oil. Its relationship to the Chinese government has never been made clear. Beiya's Chairman, Xu Jinghua, announced in March that Hangxiao Steel of Shanghai had secured a US$4.4 billion contract with CIF to build a massive residential development in Angola. The company's share price surged and government regulators investigated. | NIGERIA-ASIA New order, new deals Asian companies face new rules and new relationships in Africa's most prolific but politically complex oil producer Reforms in Nigeria's oil sector, promised by Minister of State for Oil Odein Ajumogobia, will mean that some of the multibillion dollar deals with Asian companies will be reviewed (Africa Confidential Vol 48 Nos 16 & 18). Privately, officials say the review will include a consideration of some of the relationships that President Olusegun Obasanjo's government had cultivated. Officials are reassessing several agreements, including one financing deal for infrastructure previously hailed as indicative of the greater commitment to infrastructure development offered by Chinese companies. | |
| CHINA-CHAD The battle for Ndjamena President Déby left Beijing with a clutch of deals after he had ditched Taipei - 'for the survival of Chad' Losing Chad has been a big setback for Taiwan's plans in Africa. Chad had resumed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997. Merchandise trade had not been important for either country: total trade in 2006 was US$57.3 million, down from $82.6 mn. in 2005. | TAIWAN-AFRICA With friends like these... As China's commercial ties with Africa deepen, so Taiwan's diplomatic links to the continent look ever more precarious As it loses the diplomatic and commercial competition with Beijing, the Taiwan government is casting around for new friends and a new strategy in Africa. Painfully aware of its unequal struggle with Beijing, Taipei is courting African support to help in its struggle to join the United Nations. | |
| SUDAN-ASIA Shifting sands Khartoum's côterie of Asian investors worry about a return to the North-South war China is trying to strengthen its diplomatic and commercial relations with Sudan despite the international opprobrium that those relations have attracted. Meanwhile, Khartoum's ruling National Congress (NC, aka National Islamic Front) is seeking new partners to reduce its economic dependence on China. | REGIONAL REPORTS SOUTH AFRICA/INDIA Hands across the water CONGO-KINSHASA/CHINA La grande bouffe AFRICA-ASIA COMMENTARY Charting Africa's Chinese future by Dr Chris Alden | WHO'S WHO: Ban Ki-moon, Li Ruogu, Zhong Jianhua and Kamalesh Sharma |