Frank Timis
Two iron-hungry Chinese companies have thrown in their lot with one of the mining industry's more colourful figures. Vasile Frank Timis, a London-based, Romanian-Australian businessman, is the chairman of African Minerals, the mining company with rights to what may be one of Africa's largest iron ore deposits.
Tags: Chinese, Vasile Frank Timis, Romanian-Australian, Greek, Nicolae Ceausescu, Sierra Leone
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/453/Frank-Timis

Liu Zhenmin
The cultivation of ties with the African Union is a lynchpin of China's courtship of the continent. To this end, China has built a new conference centre at the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and stepped up its financial and institutional support. At the AU summit in July, Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin put in an appearance, meeting with AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping of Gabon. Liu promised further support for the AU's activities.
Tags: China, Ethiopia, Liu Zhenmin, Jean Ping, Gabon, India, Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Yang Jiechi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/452/Liu-Zhenmin

Mswati III
Of Taiwan's four African allies, the staunchest has been Swaziland. At independence from Britain in 1968, King Sobhuza II declared allegiance to Taipei. Despite China's rise in the intervening decades, the kingdom has never wavered. Sobhuza II's son and successor, Mswati III, was crowned in 1986 at the age of 18 and has followed the same path. He regularly speaks up for Taiwan at the annual UN General Assembly meetings.
Tags: Taiwan, Swaziland, Britain, Sobhuza II, China, Mswati III, South Korean
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/451/Mswati-III

Lee Yi Shyan
Singapore is making a renewed effort to boost its African trade. It falls to the Minister of Trade and Industry (MTI), Lee Yi Shyan, to make that happen. In July, the Minister presided over the first Africa-Singapore Business Forum, attended by emissaries from 17 African countries.
Tags: Singapore, Shabbir Hassanbhai, Nigeria, China, India, United States, Lee Hsien Loong
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/450/Lee-Yi-Shyan

A Mugabe shakedown at the Shanghai Expo
Seeking hard cash and a platform for his disavowals of the West, President Robert Mugabe flew to Shanghai's spectacular trade expo, where on 11 August he thanked Beijing for being an 'all-weather' friend. Zimbabwe faces an economic slowdown - mainly because of rows in the ruling coalition - after last year's brief investment and growth filip.
Tags: Robert Mugabe, Zhang, Baoshun, Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Jiang Zengwei
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/449/A-Mugabe-shakedown-at-the-Shanghai-Expo

Luanda's oil lifeline
Economic relations between Luanda and Beijing are getting even closer as Angola struggles with mounting debts while China becomes more dependent on Angolan oil. In mid-August, Finance Minister Carlos Alberto Lopes submitted a revised 2010 budget to Parliament with smaller spending targets, reduced growth predictions (from 9.7% to 6.7%) and warnings about debt rising by US$3.2 billion to $31.5 bn.
Tags: Carlos Alberto Lopes, Saudi Arabia, José Eduardo dos Santos, Brazil, Portugal, Li Ruogu, South Korea, Xie Yajing, Carlos Maria Feijó, Exalgina Gambôa, Futungo de Belas, Empresa Nacional de Ferro de Angola, Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda, Conselho de Coordenação dos Direitos Humanos
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/448/Luanda's-oil-lifeline

Beijing offers an iron bailout
A record US$100 million signature bonus for Andry Rajoelina's regime from Chinese investors will not be enough to compensate for the loss of aid funds as Western governments try to sanction the regime.
Tags: Andry Rajoelina, Marc Ravalomanana, Guinea, Didier Ratsiraka, Albert, Zafy, Mamy Ratovomalala, Haute Autorité de la Transition, Assemblée Nationale, Banque Centrale
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/447/Beijing-offers-an-iron-bailout

Vietnam's two-way trade
More so than China or India, Vietnam has much in common with Africa's developing countries. Hanoi is also showing itself to be keener on learning from African experiences than its larger Asian neighbours.
Tags: China, India, Kenya, Truong Vinh Trong, Morocco, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Madagascar, Sudan, Tunisia, South Africa, Office Chérifien des Phosphates
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/446/Vietnam's-two-way-trade

Hanoi's great leap forward
The startling growth of its economy in the three decades after its war with the United States means Vietnam's strategies are of huge interest to many African states, war-torn or otherwise. In the past decade, Vietnam's economic growth has averaged over 6% a year - Africa's has been just over 5% - but its agricultural and manufacturing economy is far more diversified than its African counterparts.
Tags: United States, French, Ho Chi Minh, Comoros, Liberia, Malawi, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South, Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Seychelles, Nguyen Tan Dung, Doan Xuan Hung, Nguyen Minh Triet, Tunisia, Guinean, Chad, Namibia, Central Africa Republic
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/445/Hanoi's-great-leap-forward

Coalition of the controllers
Journalists and activists, pointing to the lack of press freedom and weak civil society in China, argue that Beijing's engagement will only encourage the same in Africa.
Tags: China, Zimbabwean, Robert Mugabe, Zambia, Taiwan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/444/Coalition-of-the-controllers

Beijing beams its messages
Beijing's 20-26 July seminar for developing countries on the topic of 'actively guiding' public opinion and creating a 'sound national image' is its latest response to the tide of Western criticism of China's commercial deals in Africa.
Tags: Soilihi Mohamed Soilihi, Senegal, Moustapha Guirassy, Li Changchun, Wang Guoqing, Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye, Lu Shaye, Egypt, Kenya, Niger, Office de Radiodiffusion et Télécommunication des Comores, Maison de la Radio et de la Télévision Nationale, Le Soleil, People's Daily, Agence de Presse Sénégalaise,, Radiodiffusion Télévision Sénégalaise, Excaf, Agence de Presse Africaine, Le Quotidien, People's Daily
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/443/Beijing-beams-its-messages

Scepticism grows over STX houses
Members of Ghana's opposition are demanding more due diligence on the government's US$1.5 billion housing deal.
Tags: John Atta Mills, , John Mahama, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Doh Tae-ho, Alban Bagbin, Bernard Asamoah, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, Park Young-june, Paul Appiah-Ofori, James Kwabena Bomfeh
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/442/Scepticism-grows-over-STX-houses

El Gadhafi guns for Seoul's spy
An espionage row is holding up progress on a US$438 million project.
Tags: Britain, Italy, Israel, North Korea, Frank LaRue, Lee Sang-deuk, Lee Myung-bak, persona non grata
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/438/El-Gadhafi-guns-for-Seoul's-spy

A golden child in Zuma's family
The business empire of Khulubuse Zuma, a favourite nephew of President Jacob Zuma, is growing at breakneck speed and strengthened by a raft of opaque deals with Chinese and South Korean companies. Hardly known before his uncle took over the presidency in May 2009, Khulubuse Zuma has sealed several multimillion-dollar deals in mining and transport over the past few months. Rapidly growing joint ventures with China and South Korea are part of Khulubuse's strategy to see his empire reach the US$10 billion mark over the next decade.
Tags: Khulubuse Zuma, Jacob Zuma, Chinese, South Korean, South Korea, Nam Sang-tae, Mpumelelo Tshume, BEE beneficiaries, Robert Gumede, Kenny Lattimore, Sandile Zungu, Futhi Mtoba, Duduzile Zuma, Gupta, India, Ajay, Atul, Tony, Lazarus Zim, Tokyo Sexwale, Duduzane, Brazil, Russia, Congo-Kinshasa, Joseph Kabila, Ireland, Michael Hulley, Nelson Mandela, Zondwa Mandela, New Age
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/437/A-golden-child-in-Zuma's-family

Oil - after independence
China's oil interests in Sudan will come under heavy scrutiny again as Khartoum and Juba start negotiations on sharing oil revenues after the independence referendum due in January 2011. Backed by Darfur lobbyists and divestiture campaigners, the United States government has put pressure on US-based Chinese companies to respect the sanctions in place against the Sudan government since 1997. In June, Washington told the US-based PetroChina subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) that it would not be able to process Sudanese crude imports at its new 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery at Qinzhou. The refinery began receiving its first test cargoes, from an undisclosed location, in late 2009.
Tags: Chinese, Japanese, Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, Walking the walk, Salva Kiir Mayardit, Jia Qinglin, Nafi'e Ali Nafi'e, Chao Weidong, Mustafa Osman Ismail, Taiwan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/436/Oil---after-independence

Wang Gang
A pillar of China's diplomacy is the cultivation of links between the Chinese Communist Party and the ruling parties of its allies. The strategy has become more nuanced, as seen during Wang Gang's 28 May-8 June trip to Africa. In Zimbabwe, Wang toasted CCP-Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front ties but made time for a quiet visit to opposition leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. In Kenya, the joys of power sharing were honoured as Wang pledged cooperation with the Party of National Unity, Orange Democratic Movement and ODM-Kenya. However, a few days later in Egypt, the opposition did not merit even a nod.
Tags: Wang Gang, Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Kenya, Egypt, Taiwan, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/435/Wang-Gang

Hamidon Ali
In early 2010, Hamidon Ali became President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which monitors UN progress on development goals. The ministerial session of the Council's annual meeting on 28 June-2 July focused on the Millennium Development Goals, particularly women's rights and development cooperation. The session resulted in the establishment of a new body, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (or UN Women for short).
Tags: Hamidon Ali, Australia, United States, Singapore, Indonesia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/434/Hamidon-Ali

Wang Jin-pyng
Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, Taiwan has taken a low-key approach to international affairs in order to assuage China. For Taiwan's remaining African allies - Burkina Faso, Gambia, São Tomé e Príncipe and Swaziland - this has meant few high-level visits and a levelling-off of Taipei's already modest aid programme.
Tags: Ma Ying-jeou, China, Burkina Faso, Gambia, São Tomé e Príncipe, Swaziland, Wang Jin-pyng, Yahya Jammeh, Shen Ssu-tsun, Chen Shih-liang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/433/Wang-Jin-pyng

Manoj Kohli
Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile services company, at last acquired long-coveted African assets when it completed the purchase of Zain's Africa operations for US$10.7 billion on 8 June. Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli has just wrapped up an inspection tour of its new assets, which make his company the world's fifth-largest mobile company in terms of subscribers.
Tags: India, Manoj Kohli, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Sunil Mittal, South Africa, Sanjay Kapoor
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/432/Manoj-Kohli

Choose your poison
The shadowy joint venture between Angola's state-owned oil company and the nebulous China International Fund has reached a new stumbling block in its three-year-old pursuit of a major stake in Tanzania's national airline. Infrastructure Minister Shukuru Kawambwa announced on 29 June that negotiations with China Sonangol had reached a stalemate over Air Tanzania Corporation Limited's (ATCL) debt obligations and that the government would have to look elsewhere. Yet sources at the talks tell Africa-Asia Confidential that the two sides are actually very close to signing a deal and that Kawambwa's statement was simply a final show of dissatisfaction. Formed after the breakup of the East African Community in 1977, Air Tanzania has struggled ever since. Its performance is far behind that of Tanzania's privately-owned Precision Air, which has teamed up with Kenya Airways in a code-sharing deal.
Tags: Angola, Shukuru Kawambwa, Kenya, United States, Julius Nyerere, Zitto Kabwe, Liberia, Zimbabwe, South African, Jakaya Kikwete
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/431/Choose-your-poison

Take the diamonds and run
A fly-by-night Indian company registered in Hong Kong has packed its bags and disappeared after mining diamonds and not paying taxes for more than four years. Kasaï Oriental's Direction Provinciale des Recettes (DPR) and the parastatal diamond mining company Société Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA) are struggling to hold the Société Minière du Sankuru to account and have since seized company property in an attempt to collect back taxes, but the SMDS executives are long gone. SMDS is a joint venture between the Indian-owned Indo Afrique Mining, which holds a 51% stake, and MIBA, which has 49%. SMDS is represented by an Indian national, Hiren Bhanu.
Tags: Hiren Bhanu, Alphonse Ngoyi Kasanji, Christine Tusse Daumbo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/430/Take-the-diamonds-and-run

Changing sides with profit
Malawi has profitably switched its allegiance to China from Taiwan with a price tag of over US$350 million. In the past two years, China has taken over road and building projects from Taiwan and added more soft loans. Lilongwe's official relationship with Beijing began in January 2008 with the unceremonious dumping of a 41-year relationship with Taipei. The announcement was made while Taiwanese Foreign Minister James Huang was already in the air en route to Malawi.
Tags: James Huang, Bingu wa Mutharika, Fan Guijin, Thengo Maloya, Charles Namondwe, United States, Britain, Zimbabwean, Lin Songtian, Mozambique
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/429/Changing-sides-with-profit

Beijing gazumps New Delhi
The Lagos State government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation signed an US$8 billion deal this month for a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery and a liquefied petroleum gas refinery that will produce 500,000 tonnes a year in the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Lagos will provide land and infrastructure for the project; the CSCEC will provide 80% of the finance and the NNPC will raise the rest. This plan, however, worries India's companies in Nigeria, especially ONGC Mittal Energy (OMEL), the consortium created by New Delhi's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the Mittal Group (AAC Vol 3 No 2). OMEL had sought assurances of support from the NNPC and the Nigerian government in December last year for its plans to build a refinery in the Lekki Free Trade Zone but the deal has gone awry.
Tags: Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Femi Otedola, Bilateral trade balloons, France, Italy, Levi Ajuonuma, Babatunde Fashola, Emmanuel Egbogah, Billy Agha, Remi Babalola, Sunrise and CNOOC, Leno Adesanya, Namadi Sambo, Swiss-, Bisi Onasanya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/428/Beijing-gazumps-New-Delhi

A whale's tale
National pride comes before a fall. Reports that Tokyo has routinely bribed at least six African countries to vote in support of its whaling policy have embarrassed the Japanese government. This follows the 21-25 June meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Agadir, Morrocco, which ended in deadlock, thus allowing the hunting of the endangered species to continue.
Tags: Morrocco, Swiss, Benin, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Iceland, Norway, Patronage and paranoia, United States, France, Australia, Hiroaki Kameya, Sunday Times
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/427/A-whale's-tale

Telecom troubles
Plans to sell the state-owned Nigeria Telecommunications (Nitel) have floundered after China Unicom announced it would not be contributing to the front-running New Generation Consortium comprised of China Unicom Europe, the United Arab Emirate's Minerva Group and Nigeria's G-Cell Wireless. The Bureau of Public Enterprises wanted to complete the privatisation in February but the government knew little about the top bidders. On 12 March, the National Council of Privatisation rejected the BPE's recommendations for the preferred bidder and the first reserve bidder.
Tags: United Arab Emirate, Goodluck Jonathan, Bashir Yuguda, Usman Gumi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/426/Telecom-troubles

And the winner is...the CIF
The continuing power of Mines Minister Mahmoud Thiam and the prospect that he will wield influence after the second round of the presidential elections next month is good news for the China International Fund's multibillion iron ore mining deal. Yet many industry experts still doubt the capacity of CIF and its Australian partner, Bellzone, to raise the necessary finance for the project (AAC Vol 3 No 8). Neither of the candidates in the second round Cellou Dalein Diallo or Alpha Condé - have committed categorically either to retaining or scrapping the deals. Yet it is clear that CIF is in a better position than most to protect its interests in Guinea having built up a powerful web of local protectors.The joint venture, Kalia Horizons Minerals, gives CIF exclusive rights to develop the infrastructure linking the port of Matakan by rail to Faranah, near Bellzone's deposits at Kalia, and would if built represent the first part of the trans-Guinea railway for which successive Guinean regimes have long wished.
Tags: Mahmoud Thiam, Australian, Cellou Dalein Diallo, Alpha Condé, Moussa Dadis Camara, Mathurin Bangoura, China, Thierno Aliou Diaouné, French, Halimatou Diallo, Mamadou Aliou Bah, Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, Lansana Conté, Nouhou Thiam, Tibou Kamara, Air Guinée International, Air Guinée, Sylli National, Air Guinée, Air Guinée
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/425/And-the-winner-is...the-CIF

Fishing for votes
Environmental campaigners such as Greenpeace have long protested about the links between voting at the International Whaling Commission and Japanese aid. That was before evidence that Japanese activities, including the paying of travel expenses and pocket money for IWC commissioners, had come to light.
Tags: Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Togo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/424/Fishing-for-votes

CIF sitting pretty in Guinea
As one of the anchors in the proposed trans-Guinea railway, the China International Fund may consider its position in Guinea unassailable. However, the Bellzone/CIF deal is already persuading other companies that investing in Guinea's mines is a good proposition. Anglo-African Minerals said that its 8 July decision to acquire a 67.5% stake in Tougué Bauxite and Alumina Corporation, which has an exploration licence for an area that contains at least one billion tonnes of bauxite, was in part related to the trans-Guinea railway development.
Tags: Singapore, Mahmoud Thiam, Jack Cheung, Boubacar Barry, Beny Steinmetz, Israeli, Lev Leviev, Moshe Halal, Manuel Vicente, Angola, Belgium, José Eduardo dos Santos
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/423/CIF-sitting-pretty-in-Guinea

Balancing act
When asked about the 12 July reinstatement by the International Criminal Court of genocide charges against Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang did not mention the ICC warrant but said that 'positive progress is being made in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the Darfur issue is improving.' Rather than persist with the argument that the arrest warrants are a threat to peace in Sudan, the Foreign Ministry said, 'We hope that relevant institutions...play a constructive role in realising lasting peace and stability in Sudan and the region.'
Tags: Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Qin Gang, United States, Scott Gration, Barack Obama, Susan Rice
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/421/Balancing-act

S.M. Krishna
After the resignation of New Delhi’s point man on Africa, Shashi Tharoor, in May, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is taking an even more hands-on role in the cultivation of India-Africa ties. In mid-March, he opened the 6th Confederation of Indian Industry-Export-Import Bank Conclave on India-Africa cooperation and then attended the Group of 15 summit in Tehran, Iran, a gathering of Asian, African and Latin American developing nations. On 25 May – Africa Day – Krishna announced his support for permanent African representation on the United Nations Security Council, terming the current arrangement ‘undemocratic’. India expects support for its own ambitions for a UNSC seat in return.
Tags: Shashi Tharoor, S.M. Krishna, Iran, United States, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/419/S.M.-Krishna

Xia Huang
Xia Huang’s short tenure as Ambassador to Niger has been anything but uneventful. Since his arrival in Niamey in November 2009, Xia has contended with a coup that overthrew President Mamadou Tandja and strikes over working conditions at the Chinese-operated Société des Mines d’Azelik uranium mine – quite a burden for an untested diplomat. The military coup on 18 February hardly interrupted the tide of Chinese investment. While the West condemned the coup, Xia moved quickly to strike cordial relations with the military junta. Chinese interests escaped disruption and Xia lashed out at the ‘campaign of attacks and slander’ that attended China’s absence of censure of the coup.
Tags: Xia Huang, Niger, Mamadou Tandja, Liu Guijin, Ousmane, Belgium, Gabon, France, Société des Mines d’Azelik, Conseil Suprême pour la Restauration de la Démocratie, Université de Liège, Université Libre de Bruxelles
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/418/Xia-Huang

Morgan Tsvangirai
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s 24-26 May visit to South Korea was intended to drum up much-needed business for Zimbabwe. An investment promotion and protection deal was agreed with Prime Minister Chung Un-chan but the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front government then claimed it was ‘null and void’ since Tsvangirai did not have the authority to sign on its behalf.
Tags: Morgan Tsvangirai, South Korea, Chung Un-chan, Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-il, North Korea, Chinese, Wang Gang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/417/Morgan-Tsvangirai

Chen Bingde
Chinese arms are affordable options for African militaries looking to upgrade, and the advisors of the People’s Liberation Army are ready to meet that demand. On 23-31 May, PLA Chief of Staff Chen Bingde visited Namibia, Angola and Tanzania – all clients of China’s arms industry.
Tags: Chen Bingde, Namibia, Angola, Tanzania, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Sam Nujoma, Charles Namoloh, Peter Nambundunga, Francisco Pereira Furtado, Hussein Ali Mwinyi, Davis Mwamunyange, South Africa, Taiwan, Forças Armadas Angolanas
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/416/Chen-Bingde

Building an improbable railway
There are two big problems with the new deal between the China International Fund and the small Australian mining company Bellzone announced in Conakry on 24 May to mine iron ore in the expansive Kalia concessions. Firstly, there is little sign for now that the joint venture could raise the several billions needed to exploit the concession and build the railway. Secondly, the trans-Guinea railway route through the Fouta Djallon mountains looks financially problematic, given the political risk associated with the project, despite the potential value of the iron ore reserves in the Kalia I and II concessions.
Tags: Sékouba Konaté, Cellou Dalein Diallo, Alpha Condé, Sidya Touré, Mahmoud Thiam, Congo-Kinshasa, Union des Forces Démocratiques de Guinée, Rassemblement du Peuple de Guinée, Union des Forces Républicaines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/415/Building-an-improbable-railway

Get in the game
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari held a mini-summit of African ambassadors on 2 June to launch Islamabad’s first real forays into Africa. In the style of Beijing’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the aim is to increase commercial ties between Pakistan and its few African partners. African countries which currently have diplomatic representation in Islamabad include Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan and Tunisia. For reasons of geography and cultural and religious affinities, Pakistan largely trades with and treats with North and East Africa, but it has diplomatic representation in about ten African countries, with embassies in Cairo, Lagos, Port Louis and Pretoria. Like its Asian neighbours, Pakistan wants to build on its liberation-era support – diplomatic backing for Eritrea’s independence bid and financial assistance for Winnie Mandela – to create new markets for its exports and to help boost African development.
Tags: Asif Ali Zardari, Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Eritrea, Winnie Mandela, Umar El-Gash Maina, Nawabzada Malik Amad Khan, Syed Athar Ali, Hina Rabbani Khar, Malik Asif Hayat, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Egypt, United States, Burundi, Chad, Congo-Kinshasa, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/414/Get-in-the-game

Is what is good for Zijin good for Congo?
A storm is gathering over attempts by China’s Zijin Mining Group to buy Platmin Congo without prior approval from President Joseph Kabila’s government, despite generally good Beijing-Kinshasa relations. The row centres around Platmin Congo’s rights to a joint venture with the state mining company Gécamines. The Mines Ministry is blocking the deal, pending negotiations on the future of the joint venture, and both sides have set a deadline of 30 July to resolve outstanding issues.
Tags: China, Joseph Kabila, Martin Labwelulu Labilo, British, Alexis Mikandji Penge,, Lan Fusheng, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Société Minière de Deziwa et de l’Ecaille C, Gécamines, Directeur de Cabinet, Commission de Revisitation des Contrats Miniers, Gécamines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/413/Is-what-is-good-for-Zijin-good-for-Congo%3f

Out of the starting blocks
On 24 May, Seoul’s Strategy and Finance Ministry identified Algeria, Ethiopia, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa and Tanzania as ‘strategically important’ countries in its economic cooperation with Africa. South Korea will target infrastructure projects in Northern and Southern Africa, and mining and agricultural investment in East and Central Africa. Nigeria, where South Korean oil companies have been involved in extended legal proceedings (AAC Vol 2 No 3), is absent from the list of countries that will get Seoul’s special attention.
Tags: Algeria, Ethiopia, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Choi Kyung-hwan, Namibia, Australian, Zimbabwean, Morgan Tsvangirai, Chung Un-chan, Elias Mudzuri, Henry Dzinotyiweyi, Robert Mugabe, Senegal, Samuel Sarr, Lee Bae-soo, Karim Wade, Kenya, China, India, Kim Seong-jin, Gabonese, Zambia, Park Ki-sik
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/412/Out-of-the-starting-blocks

Private grief, state cash
China may be the biggest state investor in Congo but its private companies have invested less than those from South Africa and Britain, a new survey in Kinshasa reveals. According to the Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements (ANAPI), private companies from Asia and the Middle East are responsible for US$1.1 billion or 19.5% of a total promised investment of $5.6 bn. in 2007/2009. Despite calls from Beijing and New Delhi for business to explore Congo’s markets, many private projects have not obtained the necessary finance.
Tags: South Africa, Britain, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, South Korea, India, Turkey, South Africa, Britain, United States, Belgium,, Kuwait, Harish Jagtani, Sajid Dhrolia, Gilbert Tshiongo Tshibinkubula wa Ntumba, Kazakhstan, Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/411/Private-grief%2c-state-cash

Taxing times
India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is sending a team of senior officials to resume the difficult negotiations with Mauritius to resolve the lingering stand-off over the 1983 Double Tax Avoidance Agreement. Under the DTAA, capital gains on shares in Indian companies bought in Mauritius are not liable for tax. That has encouraged a massive flow of illicit funds from India to Mauritius, which is then re-invested in India – with no tax paid on the profits.
Tags: Pranab Mukherjee, Shashi Tharoor, Singapore, Lichtenstein, China, Australia, Bahrain, British, Congo-Kinshasa, Seychelles, Economic Times
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/410/Taxing-times

Fertile fields for India
Ethiopia is renowned more for its famines than for its fertile fields but land leasing has become a burgeoning business in some of the most unlikely locations. Vast swathes of arable land, a permissive government and geographical proximity have garnered interest in agricultural investment in Ethiopia from Saudi Arabia, Chinaand India. India is the current leader in the stakes and, with more than 400 companies with projects in development, cumulative Indian investment in Ethiopia is approaching US$4.2 billion.
Tags: Saudi Arabia, Meles Zenawi, Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, Kenya, Aditya Agarwal, Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/409/Fertile-fields-for-India

The highway on trial
As the graft wars intensify between factions of the Algerian government, several officials are appearing in court in connection with irregularities on contracts with Chinese companies in the East-West Highway project. Beijing denies all wrongdoing and Ambassador Liu Yuhe dismisses accusations of corruption against CITIC-CRCC (a consortium of CITIC Group and the China Railway Construction Corporation) in the East-West contracts as ‘without foundation’. Instead he seems to blame Western companies for the corruption probes, arguing that some of Algeria’s traditional partners ‘felt threatened by the Chinese presence’.
Tags: The highway on trial, Japanese, Mohamed Khelladi, Amar Ghoul, Mohamed Bouchama, Agence Nationale des Autoroutes, gendarme
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/408/The-highway-on-trial

Beijing in the line of fire
Chinese companies are caught in the political crossfire between President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his opponents in the military and intelligence services led by General Mohammed ‘Tewfik’ Mediene. The main point of contention is the conduct of the government’s promised anti-corruption campaign, which is targeting some of Boutflika’s ‘grands projets’, seen as his legacy to the country and which others regard as a lucrative source of revenue.
Tags: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Mohammed ‘Tewfik’ Mediene, Soviet Union, Sackings and a reshuffle, Mohamed Meziane, Chakib Khelil, Youcef Yousfi, Amar Ghoul, Saïd Bouteflika, Spanish, Amar Tou, Turkish, Ahmed Kellou, Hassane Saïdi, grands projets, Front de Libération Nationale, Département du Renseignement et de la Securité., fin de règne, Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Réalisation des Investissements Ferroviaires, FCC Construcción, Commission Nationale des Marchés Publics, Chambre d’Accusation de Boumerdès
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/407/Beijing-in-the-line-of-fire

Mike Hung
Taiwan’s entrepreneurs are loath to let geopolitical concerns stand in the way of a good deal. In the 1980s, while the governments of Taipei and Beijing continued to clash over Taiwan’s sovereignty, Taiwanese businessmen evaded restrictions on investment across the Taiwan Strait by funnelling capital into China via Hong Kong and the BritishVirgin Islands. Eventually, Taipei grudgingly loosened its regulations.
Tags: China, British, Mike Hung, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mahmoud Gebril, Libya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/406/Mike-Hung

Ajai Chowdhry
Lessons from India’s rise can be fruitfully applied to Africa – another group of a billion or so people: this was the message Ajai Chowdhry brought to Tanzania. Chowdhry co-chaired the World Economic Forum on Africa in Dar es Salaam on 5-7 May. The theme was ‘Rethinking Africa’s Growth Strategy’. Amid calls to increase agricultural investment and combat haphazard urbanisation, Chowdhry was the advocate of information technology.
Tags: Ajai Chowdhry, Tanzania, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/405/Ajai-Chowdhry

Stan Mudenge
Isaak Stanislaus Gorerazvo Mudenge’s role as Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s Secretary for External Affairs keeps him in the foreign policy loop and he took part in Zimbabwe’s April celebrations of 30 years’ bilateral relations with China. Mudenge has long rallied robust rhetoric to China’s defence. In 2004, he blasted Taiwan’s presidential election as a ‘sham’ and ‘a danger not only to the stability of China but also to international peace and security.’
Tags: Isaak Stanislaus Gorerazvo Mudenge, China, Taiwan, Britain, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Joice Mujuru
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/404/Stan-Mudenge

Slow to let go of Hitachi
Faced with popular outcry about profiteering from electricity shortages and opaque ties between political parties and businesses, South Africa’s governing African National Congress is being forced to abandon its stake in Japan’s Hitachi Power Africa. ANC Treasurer Mathews Phosa announced on 11 April that the Chancellor House Holdings (CHH) group, the ANC’s front company for business investment, would sell its 25% share, but by mid-May the ANC had already missed its self-imposed deadline to sell the stake.
Tags: Helen Zille, Popo Molefe, Robin Duff, Mail and Guardian
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/403/Slow-to-let-go-of-Hitachi

Nguyen Minh Triet
On his April trip to North Africa, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet ramped up interest in the second Vietnam-Africa forum, set for August 2010. In Algeria and Tunisia, his message was the same: Vietnam is deepening its commitment to market reforms and welcomes foreign investors to tap its low-cost labour market. Both countries are partners of state-owned Petrovietnam – Algeria since 2002 and Tunisia since 2008. Talks in Tunis and Algiers largely concerned increasing ties in oil, trade and agriculture.
Tags: Nguyen Minh Triet r, Algeria, Tunisia, Nong Duc Manh, Nguyen Tan Dung, Le Hong Anh, Nguyen Ai Quoc, Chinese
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/402/Nguyen-Minh-Triet

Beijing digs deeper into Zambian mines
Oppositionist Michael Sata’s rhetoric against China is not slowing down Chinese investment plans ahead of Zambia’s national elections, which are due in 2011. Chinese companies operating Zambian mines will now have access to US$5 billion from the China Development Bank under a deal signed by the Zambian Ministry of Mines and the CDB on 12 May.
Tags: Michael Sata, Angola, Rupiah Banda
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/401/Beijing-digs-deeper-into-Zambian-mines

The long shadow of dollar diplomacy
Five years after Senegal’s break in diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the island state which only has 23 diplomatic allies continues to haunt political life. At the heart of the affair are the opaque dealings concerning a US$14 million aid package ‘offered’ by Taiwan to support bilateral cooperation. Wanting to maintain its ‘privileged’ relations with countries that recognised its sovereignty, the Taiwanese government dispensed largesse without much in the way of accounting and Senegal’s leaders allowed funds for public projects to transit through the private bank accounts of troubled businessmen linked to the regime.
Tags: Souleymane Jules Diop, Idrissa Seck, Macky Sall, Pierre Aïm, Emmanuel, Jérôme Godart, Italy, France, Liberian, Charles Taylor, Côte d’Ivoire, Musa Sesay, Parti Démocratique Sénégalais, Leeral Askanwi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/400/The-long-shadow-of-dollar-diplomacy

CIF, Beijing’s stalking horse
Beijing’s relationship with the China International Fund is much clearer than it likes to admit. When the Hong Kong-registered CIF signed multibillion-dollar deals with pariah regimes in Guinea and Zimbabwe in 2009, officials of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strenuously insisted that CIF and its Singapore-based sister organisation, China Sonangol, were private businesses that had nothing to do with the government (AAC Vol 2 No 12). At the same time, CIF was placing multimillion-dollar orders for train equipment with China’s state-owned enterprises.
Tags: Singapore, Ma Zhaoxu, Diare Mamady, Wang Qingfang, Xu Jingchang, Robert Mugabe, Tunisia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/399/CIF%2c-Beijing%e2%80%99s-stalking-horse

Building on oil money
The Ghanaian government is proposing to put up US$1.5 billion of its future oil revenues to finance the first phase of a controversial housing project with the South Korean construction company STX Group, which is said to be $6.3 bn. in debt. President John Evans Atta Mills’s government brought a motion before parliament on 4 May for a supplier’s credit agreement for the first stages of the project. STX Group Chief Executive Kang Duk-soo was in Accra in early May, promising to turn Ghana into a West African industrial giant.
Tags: Kang Duk-soo, Kwabena Duffuor, John Mahama
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/398/Building-on-oil-money

Beleaguered Bélinga
When Gabon’s President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba was alive, his ministers had nothing but praise for the nearly US$4 billion Bélinga iron ore mine and associated logistics projects, described by the President as ‘the project of the century’. Now that Bongo’s son, former Defence Minister El Hadj Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba, has replaced him at the presidential palace, the government (largely made up of the same Parti Démocratique Gabonais cadres as before) and the chattering classes only have bad things to say about the deal.
Tags: Omar Bongo Ondimba, Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba,, Fu Ziying, Brazilian, Edouardo Ledsham, Seyi Mèmène, Equatorial Guinea, French, Zhang Guohua, El Hadj, El Hadj, Parti Démocratique Gabonais, Stade de l’Amitié Sino-Gabonaise, l’Union
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/397/Beleaguered-B%c3%a9linga

Asian solutions for Africa’s refinery problems
With limited domestic markets and poor infrastructure, the building of African refineries by Asian countries is often interpreted as cementing political ties rather than economic ones. China’s Sinopec balked at the building of a US$8 billion Angolan refinery at Lobito, sending a chill through Luanda-Beijing relations and opening the door for India to show its willingness to finance the project this year.
Tags: China, Angolan, India, Nigerian, Olusegun Obasanjo, Algeria, South Korea, Gabon, Kim Seong-jin, Egyptian, Chad, Niger, , Sudan, Malaysia, Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/396/Asian-solutions-for-Africa%e2%80%99s-refinery-problems

Oiling the gears
Equal measures of optimism and scepticism greeted China’s announcement of an agreement to build three oil refineries worth US$23 billion. The terms of the memorandum of understanding are clear; the source of financing and the economics of the deal are not. With newly inaugurated President Goodluck Jonathan stamping his authority on Abuja and the sacking of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) director, the deal could meet the same fate as the oil-for-infrastructure pacts signed under former President Olusegun Obasanjo .
Tags: Goodluck Jonathan, Cameroon, Benin, Leno Adesanya, Rilwanu Lukman, United States, Emmanuel Egbogah
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/395/Oiling-the-gears

Tweeting Tharoor and the cricket controversy
Minister of State for External Affairs for Africa Shashi Tharoor considered himself a modern diplomat for his embracing of the internet messaging website Twitter. Yet his tweets from Liberia and Mauritius did little more than rankle Delhi’s chattering classes. Twitter also proved to be his downfall after a battle of words with Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL), led to his resignation on 18 April. ‘I will always be a voice for Africa,’ said Tharoor, a former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications.
Tags: Shashi Tharoor, Liberia, Mauritius, Lalit Modi, Sunanda Pushkar, Britain, Singapore-, Shashank Manohar
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/394/Tweeting-Tharoor-and-the-cricket-controversy

Round-trips and hot money
India is changing its tax laws in a bid to introduce greater transparency into its financial transactions with Mauritius. The aim is to stem ‘round-tripping’ of funds by politicians, businessmen and criminal syndicates, and assuage concerns about the unregulated and ‘hot’ money which transits through the Mauritian economy and into India. The licit and illicit financial flows from Mauritius account for as much as 90%, or tens of billions of dollars, of foreign direct investment in India each year.
Tags: Lal Krishna Advani, Bhartruhari Mahtab, In defence of Port Louis, , Milan Meetarbhan, Singapore, Britain, France, Germany, United States, Virendra Kapoor, Subramanian Swamy, Bharatiya Janata, Africa-Asia Confidential, hawala, Hawala, hawala
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/393/Round-trips-and-hot-money

Mahmoud Mohieldin
Egypt’s Minister of Investment has shown unusual initiative in tackling the country’s long-running budget deficit. Mahmoud Mohieldin has knocked on doors throughout Asia in search of foreign investment for a wish list of infrastructure projects including the Red Sea port development and, particularly, the North-West Suez Gulf Economic Zone.
Tags: Mahmoud Mohieldin, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Britain, Youssef Boutros-Ghali
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/392/Mahmoud-Mohieldin

Stephen Shu-hung Shen
While the cosy ties between Beijing and Taipei make headlines, Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency has become a surreptitious agent of foreign policy. More surprisingly, the Agency is led by a bureaucrat with a single-minded devotion to environmental issues.
Tags: Stephen Shu-hung Shen, Ma Ying-jeou, Swaziland, São Tomé, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/391/Stephen-Shu-hung-Shen

Lee Myung-bak
Lee Myung-bak has kept Africa high on his agenda and has continued his predecessor’s Africa-friendly policies. A second Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference was held in 2008, emulating the investment and development forums that China and Japan have successfully organised.
Tags: Lee Myung-bak, China, Japan, Ghana, Thailand
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/390/Lee-Myung-bak

Jia Qinglin
Jia Qinglin, the number four in China’s leadership, has just completed his second tour of African nations. At each stop, Jia sought to build ties with presidents and legislative leaders: Paul Biya and National Assembly President Cavayé Djibril in Cameroon, Hifikepunye Pohamba and National Council Chair Asser Kapere in Namibia, and Jacob Zuma and National Council of Provinces Chair Mninwa Mahlangu in South Africa.
Tags: Jia Qinglin, Paul Biya, Cavayé Djibril, Cameroon, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Asser Kapere, Namibia, Jacob Zuma, Mninwa Mahlangu, South Africa, Lai Changxing, Jiang Zemin
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/389/Jia-Qinglin

Nuctech’s nobody
Why won’t anyone help Yang Fan pay his US$135,000 bail bond – especially when he has $2.3 million stashed in a local bank account and a swish golf estate home in Cape Town, South Africa, completed just in time for the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup there next month?
Tags: Yang Fan, South Africa, Teckla Lameck, Jerobeam Mokaxwa, Hu Haifeng, Hu Jintao, Sisa Namandje, Calle Schlettwein, Angola, Helmut Angula, Sam Nujoma, Jia Qinglin, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, France, Michael Wang, Informante, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/388/Nuctech%e2%80%99s-nobody

More ore, more problems
A US$3.3 million loan offered by the China International Fund has drawn renewed criticism of the company’s activities in Guinea. On 1 March, Abdoulaye Yéro Baldé, a member of Mouvement Social de Guinée, appeared on Radiodiffusion-Télévision Guinéenne. Baldé excoriated the $7 billion in contracts that CIF and partner China Sonangol controversially signed in October 2009 with the military junta then led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.
Tags: Abdoulaye Yéro Baldé, Moussa Dadis Camara, Jack Cheung Chun Fai, Mahmoud Thiam, Karim Karjian, Mamady Youla, Russian, Lansana Conté, France, Boubacar Barry, Mamadou Sandé, Siba Lohalamou, Australian, Israel, Mouvement Social de Guinée, Radiodiffusion-Télévision Guinéenne, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée, Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia, Cour d’Appel, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/387/More-ore%2c-more-problems

More multibillion mining contracts for Kinshasa
Five years after his first official visit, President Joseph Kabila returned to South Korea on 29-30 March. Two protocols were agreed. The first accord seeks to replicate China’s US$6 billion ore-for-infrastructure Sicomines contract, but on a smaller scale.
Tags: Joseph Kabila, Gilbert Tshiongo Tshibinkubula wa Tumba, Martin Kabwelulu Labilo, Victor Makwenge Kaput, Lee Myung-bak, Gervaus Ntirumenyerwa, Kwon Jin-bong, Kang Duk-soo, Short on delivery and detail, Adolphe Muzito, Li Ruogu, Calixte Mukasa Kalembwe, Moise Ekanga, United States, Kimbembe Mazunga, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Gécamines, Bureau de Coordination et de Suivi du Programme Sino-Congolais, Roger Busima Kataala, Agence Congolaise des Grands Travaux, Sicomines, Boulevard du 30 Juin, Boulevard Lumumba, Avenue de Libération, Sicomines, cinq chantiers, Sicomines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/386/More-multibillion-mining-contracts-for-Kinshasa

For Punjabi farmers, an African frontier
African missions from Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe were invited to a conference in Patiala in Punjab on 26-27 March with farmers from all over the region to examine the opportunities for utilising Indian agricultural technology and expertise in Africa.
Tags: Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, India, Preneet Kaur, Malaysian, Jonathan Wutawunashe, Gennet Zewide, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/385/For-Punjabi-farmers%2c-an-African-frontier

Wanted: special partners
India plans to increase its annual trade with Africa to US$70 billion – up from current levels of $45 bn. – over the next five years. That is an exponential increase from the $5.2 bn. of 2002/03. The 28 March acquisition by Bharti Airtel of telecommunications company Zain Africa’s assets for $10.7 bn. has almost tripled the level of Indian investment in Africa, a large proportion of which has been in sectors other than hydrocarbons and minerals. The Airtel deal is a further sign of the private sector’s readiness to invest there.
Tags: China, Shipra Tripathi, Manmohan Singh, S.M. Krishna, Shashi Tharoor, Ghana, Togo, Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/384/Wanted%3a-special-partners

CADF in Africa: Deals from 2009-2010
April 2009: the China-Africa Development Fund and YTO Group announced a joint venture – the China-Africa Machinery Corporation – to manufacture agricultural and construction equipment. YTO agreed to invest US$20.1 million for a 55% stake, while the CADF paid $16.5 mn. for 45%. The first countries to be targeted were South Africa and Algeria. When the deal was announced, the CADF said that it was considering another 10 projects relating to transport supplies, home appliances, agricultural goods and motorcycles.
Tags: South Africa, Algeria, Ghana, Benin, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Henry Liu, Seychelles, Liberia, UNSUCCESSFUL BIDS
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/383/CADF-in-Africa%3a-Deals-from-2009-2010

CADF in Africa: Deals from 2007-2008
The first cooperation agreement signed by the China-Africa Development Fund was with the Tianjin North China Geological Exploration Bureau, a state-run mining enterprise, in December 2007.
Tags: Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Togo, Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/382/CADF-in-Africa%3a-Deals-from-2007-2008

CADF expands Africa network
The China-Africa Development Fund’s expansion plans moved a step forward with the opening of a new branch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 30 March. The office will pursue greater cooperation with the African Union, also headquartered in the city. CADF’s chief representative in Ethiopia is Wang Yong, who was Managing Director of CADF’s Eastern Africa Investment Department in Beijing. The Fund opened its first overseas branch in Johannesburg, South Africa, in March 2009, giving it a listening post in the continent’s largest economy. A third office is planned for Zambia. CADF executives have scoured the continent for investment opportunities. But while the Fund had more than 100 projects under study in 2008, no more than 20 deals have been signed since then.
Tags: Ethiopia, Wang Yong, South Africa, Zambia, Zhao Jianping, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Mark Fung, Chi Jianxin, Amanda Zhao, Egypt, Seychelles, Mauritius, Rama Sithanen, Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Zhou Chao, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/381/CADF-expands-Africa-network

Naruhito
Japan’s Africa diplomacy is taking a royal turn. Crown Prince Naruhito made his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa this month. During his trip to Ghana on 7-10 March, Naruhito visited President John Atta Mills. He attended a medical symposium held in honor of Hideyo Noguchi, a Japanese doctor who died of yellow fever in 1928 while researching the disease in Accra.
Tags: Naruhito, Ghana, John Atta Mills, Hideyo Noguchi, Kenya, Sudan, Raila Odinga, Britain, Masako Owada, Hisashi Owada
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/380/Naruhito

Zhu Min
Advocates of Chinese engagement with Africa often take rhetorical swipes at the ‘Washington Consensus’. The fact is that China covets seats in the institutions that underpin it. Justin Lin’s appointment as the World Bank’s Chief Economist in 2008 was hailed as an indication of China’s rising status. Now on the scene is Zhu Min, who will join the International Monetary Fund as Special Advisor to the Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Tags: Chinese, Justin Lin, Zhu Min, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, United States, Japan, Naoyuki Shinohara, Brazil, Murilo Portugal, India, Anoop Singh
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/379/Zhu-Min

Roger Busima Kataala
Roger Busima Kataala is the head of the Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands (ACGT), the agency that supervises Chinese-led infrastructure construction. The administrator has become increasingly visible in publicising progress and deflecting criticism of the massive public works.
Tags: Roger Busima Kataala, Chinese, Pierre Lumbi Okongo, Joseph Kabila, Moïse Ekanga Lushima, Yerodia Ndombasi, Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands, Bureau de Coordination et de Suivi du Programme Sino-Congolais, Office de Voirie et Drainage
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/378/Roger-Busima-Kataala

Kofi Annan
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is taking African advocacy directly to Asia, as he takes up his appointment as Li Ka-shing Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. After calling on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Annan delivered a speech at the National University of Singapore on 26 February. Annan commended Asian governments that base their legitimacy on delivering development – a gentle formulation that includes authoritarian and democratic governments alike. But by the end of the speech, Annan was pushing hard for African engagement that was transparent, fair and sustainable. He then travelled to Indonesia to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and address the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat.
Tags: Kofi Annan, Li Ka-shing, Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong, Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Ghana, United States, Switzerland, Mo Ibrahim, Nelson Mandela, Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/377/Kofi-Annan

Monuc moves out
The United Nations announced in early March that it would begin to withdraw its peacekeeping mission, the Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (Monuc) from Congo-Kinshasa. The first troop withdrawals are set for June with drawdown to be complete by next year but the nations which supply the peacekeeping troops are complaining that missions like Monuc, one of the most robust operations in recent UN history, have complex and unachievable goals. India is amongst the chief contributors to Monuc and an important member of peacekeeping missions throughout the world: now its politicians are asking how future UN missions can avoid muddled mandates that achieve very little.
Tags: Joseph Kabila, Lambert Mende, Hardeep Singh Puri, Pakistani, Jean Marie-Guéhenno, United States, Britain, France, China, Russia, Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo, Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/376/Monuc-moves-out

Banda bags a billion
Zambia does not always get what it wants or what it wants at the right time. President Rupiah Banda went on a 10-day official visit to China in late February and came back with a raft of promises of new investments, even in agriculture, just when the political class is focused on floods and food shortages. Oppositionists argue that Banda spends more time in the air than in his country.
Tags: Rupiah Banda, Wen Jiabao, Egypt, Thandiwe, Michael Sata, Cecila Makota, Felix Mutati, Chris Alden, Dominique Strauss Kahn, Situmbeko Musokotwane
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/375/Banda-bags-a-billion

Victory for the Kinshasa vultures
The execution of the US$6 billion ore-for-infrastructure deal originally signed in April 2008 between the Congolese state and Chinese companies China Railway Group and Sinohydro has suffered a setback. On 10 February, the Hong Kong High Court of Appeal decided to freeze, at the request of the United States ‘vulture fund’ FG Hemisphere Associates LLC, $221 million due from the Chinese companies in entry fees for their access to more than 10 mn. tonnes of copper and 600,000 tonnes of cobalt reserves.
Tags: United States, Oliver Kamitatu, Yugoslav, Central African Republic, France, Switzerland, South African, British, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Chambre de Commerce Internationale, Société National d’Electrcité
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/374/Victory-for-the-Kinshasa-vultures

Reshuffling Luanda's Beijing connection
The news that José dos Santos da Silva Ferreira is to head a new super ministry which will oversee Chinese contracts and projects is a strong vote of no-confidence by President José Eduardo dos Santos in the former head of the Gabinete de Reconstrução Nacional, General Helder van Kopelilpa. Before the 8 February cabinet reshuffle, Kopelipa and the GRN had managed the US$6.5 billion in oil-backed credit lines that China has extended to Angola since 2004 and also the infrastructure projects that they have financed. Da Silva Ferreira, a relative Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) unknown, is now at the forefront of Sino-Angolan affairs.
Tags: José dos Santos da Silva Ferreira, José Eduardo dos Santos, Helder van Kopelilpa, Higinio Carneiro, Portuguese, Li Ruogu, Zhang Bolun, Saudi Arabia, Chen Yuan, Aguinaldo Jaime, South Korea, Madagascar, Gabinete de Reconstrução Nacional, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, Casa Militar, Futungo de Belas, Banco Nacional de Angola, Empresa Distribuidor de Electricidade, Agência Nacional para o Investimento Privado
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/373/Reshuffling-Luanda's-Beijing-connection

How militias control the mines
Prominent Congolese businessmen with connections to rebel groups in the conflict-ridden North and South Kivu Provinces are largely responsible for the illegal export of quantities of tin and tantalum to Asia via Rwanda, according to research produced by United Nations experts. The trade is facilitated by international companies based in Rwanda.
Tags: Rwanda, Mudekereza Namegabe, Edouard Kitambala, Muyeye Byaboshi, Belgian, Michel Defays, Chinese, John Crawley, United States, Paul Kagame, Russian, Swiss, Chris Huber, Viktor Bout, Thailand, Britain, Chain of supply, Modeste Makabuza, James Kabarebe, David Bensusan, Malaysia, Tanzania, India, Indonesia, Australia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, John Kanyoni, Laurent Nkunda, Alfred Knight, Alex Stewart, French, Burundi, Uganda, Canadian, Agence Nationale de Renseignements, Forces Démocratique pour la Libération de Rwanda, Africa-Asia Confidential, Conseil National pour la Défense du Peuple, Fédération des Entreprises du Congo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/371/How-militias-control-the-mines

New pressure on China deals

Tags: Kerfalla Yansané, Jean Marie Doré, Singapore, Angola, Mahmoud Thiam, Sékouba Konaté, Moussa Dadis Camara, Sidiki, Toumba, Diakité, Kerfalla Person Camara, Yero Baldé, A general in his pocket, Mamadou Sandé, Boubacar Barry, Jack Cheung, Conseil des Ministres, Mouvement Social de Guinée, Forces Vives de Guinée, Air Guinée International, Air Guinée, Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia, Bureau National d’Expertise du Diamant et des Matières Précieuses, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/370/New-pressure-on-China-deals

Companies and contracts under scrutiny
There are four main strands to the sweeping the anti-corruption investigations launched in the wake of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s win with 90% of the votes cast in the elections on 9 April 2009: the review of the East-West Highway project now costed at over US$12 billion; the review of more than $3bn. of railway building contracts awarded by the Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Réalisation des Investissements Ferroviares; the award of no-bid contracts by directors of the state oil company, Sonatrach; and the gaoling of five executives of the state-owned Société d’Exploitation et de Gestion des Terminaux Marins à Hydrocarbures.
Tags: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Mohammed Meziane, Chakib Khelil, Mohammed, Tewfik, Medienne, India, China, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Chani Mejdoub, Mohamed Bouchama, Luxembourg, Koweitien, Paul Falcone, Angola, Japan, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Egypt, Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Réalisation des Investissements Ferroviares, Société d’Exploitation et de Gestion des Terminaux Marins à Hydrocarbures, Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité, Fonds Algéro-Koweitien pour l’Investissement, Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Réalisation des Investissements Ferroviaires
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/369/Companies-and-contracts-under-scrutiny

East-West Highway to trouble
State prosecutors have ordered more arrests this month, as investigations intensify into the Chinese companies and European middlemen dealing with Algeria’s US$12 billion East-West Highway project. The probes, which started last September, are driven partly by a power struggle between President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and some top generals. Investigators say they have uncovered a system of kickbacks and illegal commissions linked to Algeria’s security services, senior directors in the Public Works Ministry, European banks and French businessman Pierre Falcone, who last year was gaoled for six years for his role in the Angolagate arms scandal.
Tags: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Pierre Falcone, Angola, Mohammed, Tewfik, Medienne, Mali, Mauritania, United States, India, Turkish, Mohammed Meziane, Contracts and kickbacks, Japanese, Spain, Chani Mejdoub, Luxembourg, Austria, Singapore, Amar Ghoul, Chakib Khelil, Abdellatif Benachenhou, Mohammed Khelladi, Hamdan Salim, Mohamed Ferrach, Hua Dong Yi, decideurs, Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité, Al Qaida, Chambre d’Accusation du Tribunal d’Alger, Agence Nationale des Autoroutes, Agence Nationale d’Etudes et de Suivi de la Réalisation des Investissements Ferroviaires
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/368/East-West-Highway-to-trouble

Evariste Boshab
Evariste Boshab, Secretary General of the ruling Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Démocratie, has become an essential contact for Congo-courting diplomats, particularly those from Asia’s one-party states, China and North Korea. As chief legislator, Boshab held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Bangguo, in Beijing in July 2009. That visit’s fruits became clear in January when Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, visited Boshab in Kinshasa. Reports emerged that the CCP would train PPRD functionaries, help it establish a party school and – perhaps further out of the CCP’s traditional skill set – assist with elections.
Tags: Evariste Boshab, China, North Korea, Wu Bangguo, Wang Jiarui, Kim Jong-il, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Ri Myong- chol, Belgium, Joseph Kabila, Vital Kamerhe, Rwandan, Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Démocratie, Place de la République, Université Catholique de Louvain, Université de Kinshasa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/367/Evariste-Boshab

Kim Hyong-o
The January trip to North Africa of South Korea’s Kim Hyong-o served two main objectives – to promote trade and to lay the groundwork for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2014-15. Seoul is keen, too, to spread its version of parliamentary democracy in Africa.
Tags: South Korea, Kim Hyong-o, Morocco, Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, Tunisia, Kamel Morjane, Foued Mebazaa, Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, Chambre des Conseillers, Chambre des Députés,, Dong-a Ilbo, East Asia Daily
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/366/Kim-Hyong-o

Anil Agarwal
Chinese investment may attract the ire of the Zambian opposition (see Briefing), but it is an Indian company that operates Zambia’s largest copper mine. Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources is hiding, as it were, in plain sight. Not that everything goes smoothly for the company: as owner of 79.4% of Konkola Copper Mines, Vedanta has ploughed US$1.5 billion into the enterprise since 2004. Fluctuating prices caused the closure of Vedanta’s Nkana copper smelter in 2008 along with the lay-off of workers in 2009, and its tenure as KCM owner has been marred by disputes with unions.
Tags: Chinese, Zambian, Indian, Anil Agarwal, Navin, Australia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/365/Anil-Agarwal

Donald Kaberuka: From Tunis to Beijing
As President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka received red-carpet treatment on his visit to China on 3-6 February. A troop of dignitaries turned out to welcome him: China Development Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan; People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang, who hosted a meeting of the China-Africa Development Fund; Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, who oversees economic, energy and financial matters; and executives of the China Export-Import Bank. The AfDB President also paid a visit to Shenzhen, the manufacturing centre that has become one of China’s wealthiest cities.
Tags: Donald Kaberuka, China, Zhou Xiaochuan, Yi Gang, Wang Qishan, South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Britain, Rwanda, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/364/Donald-Kaberuka%3a-From-Tunis-to-Beijing

China Union’s clouds have iron linings
More than a year and two amendments later, progress is finally being made on little-known China Union’s US$2.68 billion deal to redevelop Liberia’s Bong Mines. In her apologetic New Year address, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced that a second amendment to the China Union deal would soon be submitted for ratification by the legislature.
Tags: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Wen Jiabao, Richard Tolbert, Charles W. Brumskine, Qin Yuhai
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/363/China-Union%e2%80%99s-clouds-have-iron-linings

Anti-Asian strength in numbers
There is a long way to go before the 2011 national polls, but the current political jockeying in Zambia would give any visitor the impression that the election is to be held next week. The battle for the presidency is between incumbent President Rupiah Banda and the main opposition leader Michael Sata, who heads the Patriotic Front. President Banda is due to make a state visit to China this month.
Tags: Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata, China, Hakainde Hichilema, Malaysian, Tanzania, Yao Jian, Li Qiangmin, Li Baodong
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/362/Anti-Asian-strength-in-numbers

Beijing's builders are back
The on-again off-again plan to renovate the railway linking coastal Lagos to Kano in the north may formally start up this year, but questions about the validity of any contract signed between the Chinese companies and the Nigerian government remain until the current political crisis is solved. The plan for the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to connect Nigeria’s two most populous cities and main commercial centres is criticised for its vastly inflated cost and has so far resulted in more controversy than actual work.
Tags: Goodluck Jonathan, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Olusegun Obasanjo, Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Isa Bio, Britain, Babatunde Fashola, Mansur Mukhtar, Yi Zonghua, Dutch, Emmanuel Egbogah, Rilwanu Lukman, Mohammed Barkindo, Leitan Adesanya, Tanimu Yabuku
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/361/Beijing's-builders-are-back

Tullow takes Lake Albert
In February, after months of political jockeying, Tullow gained control of all of the oil under Lake Albert, allowing it to bring in its preferred partner, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Beijing’s oil companies have won another diplomatic and commercial victory over the interests of Western oil majors.
Tags: Irish, Italy, Tony Buckingham, Angolan, Sierra Leonean, Kenya, United States, France, Franco Frattini, Hillary Onek, Aidan Heavey, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Amama Mbabazi, Charles Mpagi, Izama Angelo, Ghana, Joe Oteng-Adjei, Daily Monitor
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/360/Tullow-takes-Lake-Albert

Asian national minnows
Smaller Asian energy companies are intensifying their exploration and production efforts in Africa, following in the wake of the Indian and Chinese oil and gas giants. Pakistani, Thai and Vietnamese companies are joining those from Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea, especially in the exploration and production sector.
Tags: Pakistani, Thai, Vietnamese, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Libya, Mauritanian, Madagascar, Piya Sosothikul, Asim Hussain, Algerian, Senegal, Morocco, Sudan, Uganda, Egypt, Pairoj Raengphonsamrit, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Hassan Marican, Shamsul Azhar Abbas, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Mocambique, SPI-Gestäo E Investimentos
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/359/Asian-national-minnows

Untoward Indian tillers
A US$40 million concessionary loan from the Indian government is mired in delays, a legal review and accusations of corruption. Moreover, the mix of army-owned enterprises, tied aid and squabbling agents around the deal is raising eyebrows in diplomatic and business circles. The loan, managed by the Export-Import Bank of India, is for the purchase of power tillers (walking tractors). Specifically, it is for Indian power tillers, as 85% of the loan is tied to Indian goods and services.
Tags: Indian, Tanzanian, Jeetu Patel, Yusuf Manji, Peter Mizengo Pinda, Abdulrahman Shimbo, Kilimo Kwanza, Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa, Kilimo Kwanza, Chama cha Mapinduzi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/358/Untoward-Indian-tillers

RITES not right
The Rail India Technical and Economic Services buyout of 51% of Tanzania’s national railway company is set to collapse this month. In March 2006, RITES agreed to buy part of the failing Tanzania Railways Corporation, now called Tanzania Railways Limited, after winning an international tender. There has been constant criticism on both sides, and in July 2009 TRL Chief Executive Hundi Lal Chaudhary said that RITES was ready to walk away.
Tags: Minimum wage halt, Shukuru Kawambwa, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/357/RITES-not-right

Fixing Kinshasa's broken boulevards
Agreed in November 2009, the second phase of infrastructure deals associated with the Sicomines joint venture is worth US$400 million and is expected to provide Congolese President Joseph Kabila with a list of projects about which he can boast in the 2011 national elections. The first phase of infrastructure projects was already underway while Kinshasa was debating the debt implications of the deal with the International Monetary Fund
Tags: Congolese, Joseph Kabila, Gabonese, French, Sicomines, le Boulevard du 30 Juin, Programme de Rélais du Gouvernement, Boulevard, Avenue Sendwé, Boulevard Triomphale, Avenue de la Libération, Université Protestante du Congo, Avenue de la Paix, Avenue Ndjoko, Agence Congolaise des Grands Travaux, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/356/Fixing-Kinshasa's-broken-boulevards

Kinshasa’s missing millions
Over US$23 million in signature bonuses payable on China’s $6 billion Sino-Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines) deal with the Kinshasa government have been stolen according to a probe by a commission set up by the National Assembly. The stolen monies were part of some $50 mn. that Chinese companies were due to have paid to Congo’s mining parastatal, Gécamines, the Commission Economique et Financière reported in late January. These findings follow growing concerns in recent weeks about the accountability of natural resource deals by Chinese companies in Angola and Kazakhstan. Ahead of national elections in 2011, Congo’s President Joseph Kabila is demanding better value for money: more jobs for Congolese workers and fewer imported Chinese workers.
Tags: Angola, Kazakhstan, Joseph Kabila, Modeste Bahati Lukwebo, Pierre Lumbi Okongo, Li Changjin, Fan Jixiang, Sino-Congolaise des Mines, Sicomines, Gécamines, Commission Economique et Financière, Sicomines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Sicomines, Gécamines, Entreprise Minière de Kisenge Manganèse, Gécamines, Agence Congolaise des Grands Travaux, Sicomines, Gécamines, Sicomines, Bureau de Coordination et de Suivi du Programme Sino-Congolais, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Boulevard du 30 Juin, Africa-Asia Confidential, Sicomines, Université de Kinshasa, Sicomines, Sicomines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/355/Kinshasa%e2%80%99s-missing-millions

How to manage expectations
When Premier Yukio Hatoyama and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came to power in September 2009 promising to focus on domestic issues and budget cutting, African countries feared that overseas development assistance would be among the first targets. Hatoyama’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September sought to assuage such fears, saying that ‘the new Japan will not turn its back on such challenges.’
Tags: Yukio Hatoyama, Naruhito, Ghana, Kenya, Benin, Rwanda, Somalia, Djibouti, Afghanistan, Sudanese, Nigeria, Congo-Kinshasa, Senegal, Copenhagen cash, India, China, South Africa, Canadian, Australian, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Liberia, Congolaise, Mauritanie, Tanzania, Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière de Mauritanie
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/354/How-to-manage-expectations

Yin Zhuo
Fears of an aggressive Chinese military build-up surfaced again after a People’s Liberation Army Navy Admiral advocated the establishment of an overseas base to fight Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and wider Indian Ocean. Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo suggested that China’s anti-piracy operations would be well-served by a military base where its ships could refuel and resupply. China has sent four flotillas to patrol the waters off Somalia in the past year; the warships currently call at a French naval base for supplies.
Tags: Chinese, Somali, Yin Zhuo, French, Malaysian, China Daily, Université de Paris
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/353/Yin-Zhuo

Li Qiangmin
As he responds to the fiery criticism of opposition Patriotic Front leader Michael ‘King Cobra’ Sata, Li Qiangmin is more outspoken than most Chinese diplomats, staunchly defending his country’s investments in Zambia. However, Li has been careful not to cross the line his predecessor, Li Baodong, overstepped in 2006 by threatening to cut relations if Sata was elected president. It was an outburst that cost China goodwill, though in the end not enough to cost Levy Mwanawasa victory.
Tags: Michael, King Cobra, Sata, Li Qiangmin, Chinese, Li Baodong, Levy Mwanawasa, Israel, Uganda, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/352/Li-Qiangmin

Shin Kak-soo
Under President Lee Myung-bak, South Korea is devoting more attention to Africa. In 2009, Lee pledged to double aid to Africa to US$200 million. Shortly after, Seoul hosted its second Korea-Africa Forum. High-level visits are on the increase; the latest is Shin Kak-soo’s tour of Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya in early January.
Tags: Lee Myung-bak, South Korea, Shin Kak-soo, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, China, Japan, Ebrahim Ebrahim, Gwendoline Mahlangu-Nkabinde, Sri Lanka, Israel
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/351/Shin-Kak-soo

Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Indian Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari began 2010 with a seven-day trip to Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. Ties abound between India and the three countries: Vedanta is the largest foreign investor in Zambia, Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika was educated at Delhi University and Botswana has a long history of military cooperation with the Indian army. Still, it was the first visit by a high-level Indian official to the latter two countries and the first in two decades for Zambia.
Tags: Indian, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Bingu wa Mutharika, Jawaharlal Nehru
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/350/Mohammad-Hamid-Ansari

The year ahead
As one of the less developed Asian countries, Cambodia’s diplomats do not travel as much or have budgets as large as their Indian and South Korean counterparts. Nonetheless, the Phnom Penh government is focused on increasing trade with Africa in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and textiles.
Tags: Cambodia, Indian, South Korean, French, Laos, Vietnam, Benin, Chad, Indonesia, Liberia, South Africa, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, North Korea, Senegalese, Abdoulaye Wade, Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Moammar el Gadaffi, Nelson Mandela, Kim Jong-il, Thailand, Sudan, Sri Lanka, South Korean, Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistani, Somalia, Burundi, Uganda, Afghanistan, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, British, Syed Anwar, Libya, Singapore, Lee Yi Shyan, Mozambique, Zambia, South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, Shin Kak-soo, Congo-Kinshasa, Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Cameroon, Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Algeria, Tanzania, United States, Vietnam, Nguyen Van Minh, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Shenhua Ningxia, Monument de la Renaissance Africaine, Al Shabaab, Al Shabaab, Al Qaida, Nava Bharat, Charoen Pokphand, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Moçambique
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/349/The-year-ahead

Sitting on the fence
Africa is almost off Taiwan’s diplomatic radar. In contrast to the attention lavished by Chinese leaders on countries across the continent, Taiwan’s relations with its four African allies remain low key, more so since June 2008 when President Ma Ying-jeou promised a ‘truce’ with China in the competition for diplomatic recognition (AAC Vol 1 No 11).
Tags: Chinese, Ma Ying-jeou, Chen Shui-bian, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Chad, Lee Teng-hui, South Africa, Swaziland, São Tomé e Príncipe, Isatou Njie-Saidy, Djibouti, Timothy Chin-tien Yang, Lesotho, Andrew Nien-dzu Yang, Zhang Ming-zhong, Japan, David Lin, Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Chao Yung-chuan, Abubakar Mohammed, Liberia, Charles Taylor, Sierra Leone, Kuomintang, Pétanque
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/348/Sitting-on-the-fence

Deconstructing Chindia
India’s push for more trade and access to African mineral resources in 2010 will be made with one eye focused on Beijing. Indian diplomats and businessmen are trying more than ever to distinguish their activities in Africa from China’s, which they deride as ‘exploitative’. What so far separates India from China is that New Delhi’s entrepreneurs and private companies have led the charge for India-Africa trade. McLeod Russel bought up a handful of tea plantations in Uganda in December, Bharti Airtel is in the market for African telecom purchases again, Tata Motors has announced that it will launch its inexpensive Nano car in Africa and Malawi’s government has invited Indian companies to build a port at Nsanje.
Tags: China, Uganda, Malawi, Shipra Tripathi, Kenyan, Kamalesh Sharma, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Murli Deora, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Sudan, Namibia, Niger, Shashi Tharoor, Manmohan Singh, Egypt, Pravin Gordhan, Brazil, Anand Sharma, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Ethiopia, Bingu wa Mutharika, Liberia, Benin, Mozambique, Mali, Mohammad Ansari, Zambia, Botswana, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/347/Deconstructing-Chindia

Academics find holes in China's Marshall Plan
Debate within China has been raging for some time over the solution to the problem of slumping exports. One of the more controversial ideas that has been floated is a ‘Marshall Plan for Africa’ (AAC Vol 2 No 10). The idea is far from coherent, with several protagonists advocating a variety of strategies. The inchoate plan argues for the creation of a US$500 billion fund for developing countries in an effort to boost living standards and create new markets for Chinese products.
Tags: Hu Xiaolian, United States, ad hoc
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/346/Academics-find-holes-in-China's-Marshall-Plan

A year to mend broken promises
The year 2009 was one of broken promises. China declared repeatedly that its relations with Africa would not be affected by the global financial crisis (AAC Vol 2 No 3). In an effort to build up momentum for a rebound in 2010 and as part of a long-standing tradition, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has already embarked on a tour of African countries in his first diplomatic engagement of the year. Beijing has been quick to enact the disbursement of aid packages linked to a new US$10 billion in concessional finance, along with increased science and technology cooperation. This was agreed at the 2009 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Egypt (AAC Vol 3 No 1).
Tags: Yang Jiechi, Egypt, Nigeria, Sinopec-CNOOC stand-off, Ghana, Libyan, Musa Kusa, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan, Olusegun Obasanjo, Yin Zhuo, Wen Jiabao, South Africa, Xinhua, fait accompli, status quo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/345/A-year-to-mend-broken-promises

Stanley Ho
Billionaire Stanley Ho is in the vanguard of Chinese investment in Lusophone Africa. His companies will operate the casino in Luanda's soon-to-be-completed Hotel Intercontinental with Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos, as partner. One of his Portuguese companies, Estoril Sol, is looking for casino licences in Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.
Tags: Stanley Ho, Chinese, Isabel dos Santos, Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, Portuguese, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Japanese, United States, Henry Fok, Estoril Sol, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, Moza Banco, Moçambique Capitais, Banco da Africa Ocidental, Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/344/Stanley-Ho

Musa Kusa
Libya's Foreign Minister Musa Kusa was among the first of a wave of African ministers who are loudly and publicly criticising China's activities. In a 10 November interview with the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Musa Kusa had nothing but blunt words for Chinese investors. He criticised Beijing's preference for importing labour for infrastructure projects while neglecting African unemployment. He also railed against the exclusion of African Union officials from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November (AAC Vol 3 No 1) and declared China's efforts to assist African representation at the United Nations Security Council insufficient.
Tags: Libya, Musa Kusa, China, United States, Britain, French, Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Al Qaida, Al Qaida, Al-Mathaba
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/343/Musa-Kusa

Song Sang-hyun
As eyes turn to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's handling of cases against Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba and the authors of Kenya's 2007 post-election violence, a South Korean judge runs things behind the scenes at the International Criminal Court. ICC President Song Sang-hyun is in charge of administration and chooses which judges sit on which panels. Acknowledging that his organisation faces cases of tremendous political significance, Song pledged to the United Nations General Assembly in late October that the ICC's judges would act with conscientious impartiality.
Tags: Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Sudanese, Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Congolese, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Kenya, South Korean, Song Sang-hyun, Tanzania, Lesotho, Botswana, Uganda, Central African Republic, Germain Katanga, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, Joseph Kony
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/342/Song-Sang-hyun

Kasit Piromya
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya is finding more time to develop budding relations with Africa. In a modest step toward that goal, Kasit presided over the launch of a flashy, official website on 30 November, www.thaiafrica.net, to spur private sector interest in Africa. Business with the continent accounts for less than 3% of Thailand's total trade.
Tags: Kasit Piromya, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, Morocco, Sudan, South Africa, Soviet Union, Mongolia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Germany, Japan, United States, Singapore, Samak Sundaravej, Abhisit Vejjajiva
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/341/Kasit-Piromya

World Bank to link Africa and Asia
World Bank President Robert Zoellick's plan to bring the Asian hyper-economies into the international development community is now bearing fruit. On 3 December, Zoellick told London's Financial Times that Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming showed 'not only willingness but strong interest' in 'moving some of the lower-value manufacturing facilities to sub-Saharan Africa.' The move is in the same vein as the US$500 billion Chinese 'Marshall Plan' promoted by former deputy tax administration head Xu Shanda in August (AAC Vol 2 No 10).
Tags: Robert Zoellick, Chen Deming, Marshall, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Angola, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Congo-Kinshasa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/340/World-Bank-to-link-Africa-and-Asia

Hurry up, wait and renegotiate
Gabon's politicians continue to question the delays in the starting-up of the Bélinga iron ore mine and its associated infrastructure works. But financing issues and constant threats of renegotiation have not inspired confidence. As may happen to the China International Fund deal in Guinea (AAC Vol 2 No 11), in Gabon, a change in government has introduced calls for the re-evaluation of Chinese-backed projects. During his first policy pronouncements of a new term in office, new President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba's Prime Minister Paul Biyoghé Mba said that the US$3.5 billion iron ore deal agreed in 2008 might not stand as is. In further bad news, in July, China Export-Import Bank announced that it would not support the Chinese consortium behind the project, due in part to worries about feasibility studies and concerns over public opposition.
Tags: Guinea, Omar Bongo Ondimba, Swiss, Alain-Claude Bilie Bi Nzé, Julien Nkoghé Békalé, Chang Xuehui, Germany, Compagnie Minière de Bélinga, Sauvons Bélinga, Rassemblement pour le Gabon, Sauvons Bélinga, Sauvons Bélinga
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/339/Hurry-up%2c-wait-and-renegotiate

All that glitters is mine
The details of the US$8 billion China Sonangol/China International Fund are becoming more apparent as subsidiary deals are signed. On 7 December, Zimbabwe's Transport and Mining Ministries signed mining and construction deals with China International Fund and the Sino-Zimbabwe Development Company, a joint venture between the Harare government and the Hong Kong-based companies, modelled on the deal signed in Guinea in October (AAC Vol 2 No 12).
Tags: Guinea, Canada, Gideon Gono, Robert Mugabe, United States, Britain, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Kelvin Kwan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/338/All-that-glitters-is-mine

Grease for the wheels of friendship
At the India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference in Delhi on 8 December, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna preached the benefits of 'a close alignment on major international issues and an abundance of socio-political goodwill'. Some 15 African countries, including Algeria, Angola, Benin, Egypt, Gabon, Nigeria and Sudan, participated in the conference, a much smaller turnout than at the November 2007 inaugural meeting. Addressing the conclave, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said Delhi was eager to participate in new opportunities in Angola, Ghana, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda and Côte d'Ivoire. India's hydrocarbon consumption has grown at an average rate of 3.5% for the last decade and is expected to double by 2020. Deora said Delhi's firms are interested in 'farm-in' activity in Libya, Algeria and Egypt. Dehli also offered expertise in laying oil and gas pipelines, establishing liquefied petroleum gas terminals and depots, and marketing and distribution.
Tags: S.M. Krishna, Algeria, Angola, Benin, Egypt, Gabon, Nigeria, Sudan,, Murli Deora, Ghana, Uganda, Libya, China
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/337/Grease-for-the-wheels-of-friendship

New men for a new push
The second iteration of India's Congress Party-led federal coalition has augmented its diplomatic, strategic and commercial thrust into Africa in pursuit of hydrocarbons, minerals, agricultural land and markets. By selecting Shashi Tharoor as junior foreign minister in charge of Africa in May, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hopes to exploit his contacts and experience as a former UN official who has interacted closely with African states for many years on refugee issues and peacekeeping operations.
Tags: Shashi Tharoor, S.M. Krishna, Ethiopia, Liberia, Ghana, Benin, São Tomé e Príncipe, Cape Verde, French, Shipra Tripathi, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda, Uganda, Malaysian, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Senegal, Mozambique
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/336/New-men-for-a-new-push

A useful deal in the Delta
South Korea's state-run Land and Housing Corporation is offering investments and technical cooperation in the oil-rich Niger Delta, a move that might help the ambitions of Seoul's energy companies and appeal to President Umaru Yar'Adua's efforts to win hearts and minds following his amnesty offer to Delta militants in October. On 1 December in Abuja, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan received a delegation from the Corporation. The presidency said the Koreans had offered to 'partner with the Nigerian government in the development of new towns and civil infrastructure', and were 'also willing to assist in establishing water purification plants'.
Tags: Umaru Yar'Adua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/335/A-useful-deal-in-the-Delta

It's not over until it's over
After winning a court battle over the Nigerian government's attempt to cancel its oil production licences, South Korea's Korea National Oil Corporation is offering to finance billions of dollars of new energy projects - partly to ensure that the dispute with Abuja does not erupt again. Soon after the judgment found in KNOC's favour on 20 August, the company's officials met in Abuja with Odein Ajumogobia, Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, to suggest an out-of-court settlement to the case it had just won in court.
Tags: South Korea, Odein Ajumogobia,, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Mittal, France, Noel Ojei, Anthony Anenih, Charles Osezua, Sudhir Maheshwari, R.S. Sharma, Emmanuel Egbogah,, Mohammed Barkindo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/334/It's-not-over-until-it's-over

China's positioning in the Kosmos
Although Chinese companies have not yet bid for Kosmos's 30% stake in Ghana's Jubilee field, the China Development Bank has bought Beijing's companies a great deal of capital. The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation wants to block United States oil major ExxonMobil from going through with its US$4 billion offer for Kosmos's share and buy it itself. On 8 December, the CDB, the Ghanaian Finance Ministry and the GNPC signed a strategic cooperation agreement to have the CDB finance future infrastructure projects on the Jubilee field. Although no financing total was announced at the deal's signing, it is worth several billion dollars and will enable Ghana to play a bigger role in the exploitation of its own oil and gas reserves. Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor's initial request was for $2 bn. in September when negotiations between Ghana and the Chinese bank began (AAC Vol 2 No 11). Production from the 1.8 bn. barrel Jubilee field is expected in 2010.
Tags: United States, Kwabena Duffuor, India, John Atta Mills, Fiifi Kwetey, Zhao Jianping
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/333/China's-positioning-in-the-Kosmos

Mortgages and minerals
Accra is leading the way forward on housing development, bringing in South Korean company STX Group to build 200,000 housing units over the next five years at a cost of US$10 billion. With Seoul's support, South Korean companies are increasingly taking their contracting prowess abroad, utilising low costs and high technology in conjunction with face-time with African leaders. While the real estate deal signed on 8 December could bring a sea change to housing provision in Africa, the nature of the financing has some worried.
Tags: Kang Duk-soo, Park Young-june, John Mahama, Cementing relations, David Tetteh Assumeng, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Charles Ampofo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/332/Mortgages-and-minerals

The Liberian contribution to the stir-fry
In January, Liberian officials are set to finalise negotiations for a US$1.6 billion palm oil investment deal with Indonesia's Golden VerOleum. The past year has seen a number of feasibility studies into weather and land conditions, and production is scheduled to begin nine months into 2010, should negotiations proceed at pace. Richard Tolbert, Chairman of the National Investment Commission, told Africa-Asia Confidential that a crucial moment for this deal will be the major diligence meeting in January. An insider close to the deal said that a quick start-up was unlikely because the government and the Indonesians were headed for a 'tough' series of negotiations over the fiscal terms. The initial breakdown of the $1.6 bn. includes $850 million to develop the land and associated infrastructure, $400 mn. to build at least 20 palm oil refineries, $250 mn. for housing and $100 mn. for machinery.
Tags: Richard Tolbert, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Franky Widjaja, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Malaysia, India, China, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/331/The-Liberian-contribution-to-the-stir-fry

Beijing's bankroll for Bong's ore
The US$2.68 billion China Union plan to revitalise Liberia's Bong Mines has not taken off, almost a year after it was first signed. Initial concerns about the little-known Chinese mining company's ability to raise such sums now seem well founded (AAC Vol 2 No 4). Seeing no progress on the ground, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was one of a handful of African presidents to attend the ministerial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November. She talked with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and got him to promise that the China Development Bank would bankroll China Union.
Tags: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Wen Jiabao, Liu Chun, Eugene Shannon, Signatures, but no bonuses, Senegal,, Gabon, Zhou Yuxiao, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, Richard Tolbert, Africa-Asia Confidential,, AAC
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/330/Beijing's-bankroll-for-Bong's-ore

Ahmed Aboul Gheit

Tags: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt, Chinese, French, Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, Hosni Mubarak, Brice Hortefeux, Sudanese, Omer Hassan el Beshir, Cyprus, Soviet Union, Italy, Ahmed Nazif
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/329/Ahmed-Aboul-Gheit

Rajiv Sawhney

Tags: Rajiv Sawhney, Uganda, Congo, Indian, Thailand, India, Kenya, Libya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/328/Rajiv-Sawhney

René N'guettia Kouassi
By offering an alternative source of financing and diplomatic support, China has become a useful bargaining chip for African countries. Sounding a note of caution to African policy-makers is the African Union's René N'Guettia Kouassi, who in October told journalists, 'Africa must not jump blindly from one type of neocolonialism into Chinese-style neocolonialism.' Kouassi is one of the few African politicians to criticise publicly China's growing activities in Africa.
Tags: China, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, South Africa, France, Japan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/327/Ren%c3%a9-N'guettia-Kouassi

Xu Jinghu
China's chief envoy to Morocco is an experienced Africa hand, managing the 2006 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing. Now Ambassador to Morocco, consistently placed among China's ten largest African trading partners, Xu Jinghu assisted successor Zhang Ming (former Ambassador to Kenya) as Assistant Secretary General at the fourth FOCAC in Egypt on 8-9 November.
Tags: China, Morocco, Xu Jinghu, Zhang Ming, Kenya, Egypt, French, Gabon, Liu Guijin, Madagascar, Didier Ratsiraka, Marc Ravalomanana
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/326/Xu-Jinghu

The rice run-around
A US$2 million deal by a major Vietnamese rice exporter points to the corruption found on both side of the Africa-Asia commodities trade. Unlike Thailand, where the private sector controls much of the rice business, in Vietnam, state bodies control the key sectors of the trading chain under the guise of privatisation. The Vietnam Food Association was given the responsibility of setting export prices before Vietnam joined the World Trade Organisation in 2007, but it is controlled by the boss of Vietnam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2), Vietnam’s state-owned commodity marketer.
Tags: Thailand, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Truong Thanh Phong, Cao Thi Ngoc Hoa, United States, Ghana, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Tien Phong, Tien Phong
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/325/The-rice-run-around

An electric strategy
India is launching its own mini-offensive in the electricity sector, following Chinese-style financing and contracting practices. On 29 October, New Delhi announced a new US$263 million credit line to finance two new hydroelectric dams and an urban railway in Kinshasa. Congolese Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba made the announcement in late October while he was leading a business delegation through the Indian capital.
Tags: Chinese, Congolese, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, Donald Kaberuka, Adolphe Muzito, Mathias Buabua, Christian Adovelande, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Société Nationale d’Electricité, Africa-Asia Confidential, Agence Congolaise de Presse, Fédération des Entreprises du Congo, Agence Nationale de Promotion des Investissements, AAC, Electricité du Mali
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/324/An-electric-strategy

Seoul brothers
On 23-25 November, Seoul continued with the summitry programme it started in 2006, which gives African countries and their resources a privileged place in its hierarchy of foreign policy goals. Following the principle that frequent face-to-face meetings lead to improved relations between countries and premium access to natural resources, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak promised the guest of honour, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, that South Korea would double its foreign assistance to Africa in the next three years.
Tags: Lee Myung-bak, Senegalese, Abdoulaye Wade, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Morocco, Madagascar, Cameroon, Yu Myung-hwan, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/323/Seoul-brothers

More catalyst than juggernaut
Conventional wisdom has it that the Chinese economic juggernaut is sweeping across the African continent, devastating already weak manufacturing sectors. Yet in many countries, statistics show a far less pessimistic story.
Tags: Chinese, Nigerian, Zambia, South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Egypt, Algeria, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Japan, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Madagascar, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Taiwanese, Deborah Brautigam, The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/322/More-catalyst-than-juggernaut

FOCAC 2009 brings more promises
The Sharm El-Sheik Action Plan sets out China-Africa cooperation goals for 2009 to 2012. Chinese officials emphasised that the 2006 Beijing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was more a one-off than an act that could easily be followed. Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said that the 2009 FOCAC in Sharm El-Sheik was ‘held when the international situation is changing and the international financial crisis continues to spread its effect. China-Africa relations are faced with new challenges and opportunities.’
Tags: Zhai Jun, Goal One, Goal Two, Goal Three, Goal Four, Goal Five, Goal Six, Goal Seven, Goal Eight
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/321/FOCAC-2009-brings-more-promises

Chinese promises, made, respected and broken
China proclaimed that it had accomplished its goals of doubling aid and meeting the eight goals established at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in 2006, but the truth on the ground is far less certain.
Tags: Nigeria, Goal One: Double aid, Zhai Jun, Goal Two: Provide $3 bn. of preferential loans and $2 bn. in buyer’s credits., Goal Four: Build a conference centre for the African Union., Goal Six: Modify the list of exports that receive zero-tariff treatment to include 440 products., Goal Seven: Set up three to five economic cooperation zones., Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Zambia, Goal Eight: Train 15,000 professionals, provide 100 agricultural experts, set up ten agricultural demonstration centres, build 30 hospitals and provide 300 mn. yuan to fight malaria, send 300 volunteers and build 100 rural schools., Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/320/Chinese-promises%2c-made%2c-respected-and-broken

FOCAC meets expectations
In comparison to the festivities of 2006, the 8-9 November Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC IV) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, was a much less hyped-up affair. It was not a heads of state summit – ten came anyway, from Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe – and the aid pledges were expected to fit the lower stature of the summit. China invited each African participant country to send their Minister of Foreign Affairs and a Minister with an Economic or Finance portfolio. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao headed up the Chinese delegation, flanked by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Commerce Minister Chen Deming.
Tags: Egypt, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Wen Jiabao, Yang Jiechi, Chen Deming, Chen Jian, Zhou Chao, Ghanaian, Fu Chengyu, Libya, Loro Horta, Mozambique, Namibia, Hifikipunye Pohamba, Sam Nujoma, Kenyan, Angola, South Africa Zhong Jianhua, Guinea, Omer Hassan el Beshir, Zhou Yongkang, Africa-Asia Confidential, Informante
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/319/FOCAC-meets-expectations

China Sonangol targets Harare’s gold and oil
The China International Fund and China Sonangol are being used to bail out troubled regimes when international pressure on them is at its highest. First, there was the China International Fund’s US$7 billion deal in Guinea on 12 October, just after the 28 September massacre of civilians in Conakry (AAC Vol 2 No 12). This month, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government announced an $8 bn. deal with China Sonangol on 18 November, shortly after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai returned to the power-sharing government and the Southern African Development Community began to increase pressure on the regime.
Tags: Guinea, Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Angola, Manuel Vicente, Kelvin Kwan, Elton Mangoma, Singapore, Gideon Gono, Tendai Biti, Herald, Chronicle
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/318/China-Sonangol-targets-Harare%e2%80%99s-gold-and-oil

The junta rewards new friends
While some were left asking if the US$7 billion deal signed by the China International Fund and its sister company China Sonangol International in early October had actually been awarded, the companies have been granted many of their licences and have begun funnelling money into the coffers of the ruling military junta of Guinea.
Tags: Zimbabwean, Tanzania, Congo-Brazzaville, Mahmoud Thiam, Adrian Lian, Singapore, South African, Ukraine, Moussa Dadis Camara, Russia, Lansana Conté, Jack Cheung Chun Fai, Boubacar Barry, United States, Lansana Kouyaté, Back home in Luanda, Angola, Brazil, José Eduardo dos Santos, Manuel Vicente, Zimbabwe, Sékouba Konaté, Centre de Promotion et de Développement Minier, Banque Centrale de la Republique de Guinée, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée, Société Ashanti Goldfields de Guinée, Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia, Air Guinée International, We regret the omission of an acknowledgement of Chatham House’s report ‘Thirst for African Oil’ in the Angola/China feature in AAC Vol 2 No 11.
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/317/The-junta-rewards-new-friends

Zhao Jianping
China Development Bank Vice-Governor Zhao Jianping has taken the reins of the China-Africa Development Fund from CDB colleague Gao Jian. Zhao's career is marginally more cosmopolitan than that of the man he quietly replaced in March. Zhao earned a master's at the Management School of the University of Texas, United States. He then worked as a manager at the Bank of China's Hong Kong and Macau office from 1993 to 1998. Zhao returned to Beijing to become Vice-Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange before joining the CDB as Vice-Governor in 2001.
Tags: China, Zhao Jianping, Gao Jian, United States, Malawi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa,, Mauritius, Gbenga Daniel
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/316/Zhao-Jianping

Phung Dinh Thuc
The new president of Vietnam's state oil monopoly is increasingly looking overseas to shore up the country's reserves. Phung Dinh Thuc is a Soviet-trained engineer with a long career at Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) and its subsidiaries, and became the company's President on 1 July. Thuc studied oil and gas production at the Bacu Petrochemical Academy in the Soviet Union in 1977 and later earned his doctorate in Marine Petroleum Technology there in 2000.
Tags: Vietnam, Phung Dinh Thuc, Soviet, Venezuela, Algeria, Thai, Nong Duc Manh, Nguyen Tan Dung, Mozambique, Petróleos de
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/313/Phung-Dinh-Thuc

Shashi Tharoor
Appointed as Minister of State for External Affairs for Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, Shashi Tharoor brings his experience in the United Nations to the post. As a sign of his UN-style even-handedness, Tharoor claims that Delhi is not in competition with Beijing in Africa and that 'there is space for both.'
Tags: Shashi Tharoor, S.M. Krishna, Kofi Annan, Chinese, Ghana, Liberia, United States, Yugoslavia, Lok Sabha
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/312/Shashi-Tharoor

Chin-tien (Timothy) Yang
One of the Taiwan's most experienced Africanist diplomats now appointed as Foreign Minister, Chin-tien (Timothy) Yang keeps carefully to the new script which paradoxically downplays the importance of Taipei's African allies. In his first weeks as Foreign Minister, Yang studiously supported President Ma Ying-jeou's 'modus vivendi' diplomacy, whose main tenet is that Taiwan should avoid disrupting the efforts of Ma's government to cultivate new economic and political ties with the Middle Kingdom. Accordingly, Taiwan has abandoned its annual bid for UN recognition. Taiwan pressed instead for 'meaningful participation' in two UN agencies and the advocacy of Taiwan's 23 allies was not requested. Yang used the words 'pragmatic' and 'practical' to describe his viewpoint, promising to avoid shake-ups in diplomatic relations.
Tags: Taiwan, Chin-tien (Timothy) Yang, South Africa, Lesotho, Ireland, Indonesia, Australia, United States, Liu Chao-shiuan, Andrew Hsia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/311/Chin-tien-(Timothy)-Yang

Power surge in Addis
Ethiopia has signed contracts with Chinese construction companies to build two huge dams as part of a US$12 billion, 25-year Power Sector Master Plan to harness the country's hydropower potential. It is one of several deals in which China will finance and build the facilities to allow Ethiopia to expand domestic power coverage and to export power to its power-starved East African neighbours. These deals mark the first time that the World Bank has been overtaken as the major financier of hydropower development in Ethiopia. It also shows the willingness of Chinese companies to invest in sustainable energy technology in Africa through the building of wind farms.
Tags: Mihret Debebe, Wind versus water, Italian, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Salini Costruttori
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/310/Power-surge-in-Addis

Cameroon/Asia: New farmers from the East
Asian companies have recently started negotiations to secure Cameroonian land to cultivate rice and other staples, but local civil society groups are already sounding warnings about the implications. At the end of September, the Cameroonian press and the influential non-governmental organisation Association Citoyenne de Défense des Intérêts Collectifs (ACDIC) began campaigning against favourable deals given to Chinese and Indian investors.
Tags: Chinese, Indian, Louis Paul Motaze, Wang Jianjun, Bernard Njonga, Paul Biya, Association Citoyenne de Défense des Intérêts Collectifs
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/309/Cameroon%2fAsia%3a-New-farmers-from-the-East

The next great land sale
South Korea is desperately trying to manage the political fallout as it negotiates the acquisition of 100,000 hectares of farmland with the Tanzanian government. It is trying to avoid a repeat of the crisis caused when Korean conglomerate Daewoo tried to secure 1.3 million ha. of land in Madagascar last year and helped precipitate a crisis which toppled President Marc Ravalomanana.
Tags: Madagascar, Jakaya Kikwete, Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda, Julius Nyerere, Lee Myung-bak, Hong Moon-pyo, India, Senegal, Kilimo Kwanza, Africa-Asia Confidential, Mwalimu
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/308/The-next-great-land-sale

The race to give Museveni what he wants
In Uganda, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation has taken the pole position in discussions to buy out part of Irish oil company Tullow's interests in more than one billion barrels of reserves found under Lake Albert. With productive acreage to develop in places like Ghana, the company does not want to follow its Ugandan assets through to the stage where nearly US$4 billion needs to be invested in a pipeline to get the crude to port and a large refinery, pushed by the government in Kampala, would be built. The total project could be worth $5-6 bn.
Tags: Uganda, Irish, Ghana, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/307/The-race-to-give-Museveni-what-he-wants

Abuja writes the playbook, Beijing brings the players
On the face of it, the speculation that China could take over US$50 billion worth of Nigeria's oil reserves currently licensed to Western oil majors is on the outer reaches of political fantasy. Although Western oil companies are privately dismissive of China's tactics, the start-up of negotiations on the oil licences has started to concentrate minds. If nothing else, it is a shrewd negotiating gambit by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's government, which has been besieged on all sides in domestic politics.
Tags: Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Rilwanu Lukman, Militants and multinationals, Cameroon, Annkio Briggs, Emmanuel Egbogah, United States, Dutch, France, Tanimu Yakubu, The debutantes come out, Fu Chengyu, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, Swiss, Korea, India, Ghana weighs its chances, Ghana, United States, John Atta Mills, Britain, Thomas Manu, Africa-Asia Confidential, Financial Times, AAC
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/306/Abuja-writes-the-playbook%2c-Beijing-brings-the-players

Graphic: China International Fund's web of public and private backers
Despite the protestations of China's Foreign Ministry, the China International Fund is linked to an array of private entrepreneurs and Chinese state-owned enterprises.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/305/Graphic%3a-China-International-Fund's-web-of-public-and-private-backers

How the Sino-Angolan alliance works
The China International Fund (CIF) was born in the aftermath of Angola's civil war as the Luanda government embarked on Africa's costliest post-war reconstruction, fuelled by oil, gas and mineral resources. Founded in 2003 by Dayuan International Development (then Beiya International Development), CIF has financed well over US$3 billion of business in Angola, mostly channelled through the Gabinete de Reonstrução Nacional, a body set up in 2004 to allow President José Eduardo Dos Santos and his ally General Helder Viera Días to manage these huge investments.
Tags: Angola, José Eduardo Dos Santos, Helder Viera Días, France, Singapore, Venezuela, US, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Gabinete de Reonstrução Nacional, The 88 Queensway Group: A Case Study in Chinese Investors' Operations in Angola and Beyond'., ,
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/304/How-the-Sino-Angolan-alliance-works

The faces behind the funds
The business people, politicians and state officials behind the China International Fund (CIF) and China Sonangol International (CSI) entered the public eye in 2008 with the purchase of the publicly traded office supply company Artfield Group (now China Sonangol Resources Enterprise). These are the key figures.
Tags: Veronica Fung Yuen Kwan, Lo Fong Hung, Wang Xiangfei, Portuguese, Wu Yang, Pierre Falcone, Angolan, Lev Leviev, Israeli
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/303/The-faces-behind-the-funds

Blood and money in the streets
Beijing's Foreign Ministry officials are energetically distancing themselves from a US$7 billion minerals deal announced on 9 October by the increasingly isolated military regime in Guinea with the Hong-Kong based China International Fund. Without some fast diplomatic footwork, China could again face excoriation for helping to finance a murderous regime, five years after an international campaign began pressuring Beijing over military and financial links to the Sudanese regime and massacres in Darfur.
Tags: Sudanese, Angola, Moussa Dadis Camara, United States, Ban Ki-moon, Mohamed Thiam, Singapore, Mamady Diaré, Boubacar Barry, Mamadou Sandé, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Julius Nyerere, Jakaya Kikwete, Côte d'Ivoire, Portuguese, Lo Fong Hung, Veronica Fung, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Denis Gokana, Blaise Elenga, Africa-Asia Confidential, Société Sino-Guineenne de Développement, Trans-Guinéen, AAC, Petroci, Petroci, Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/302/Blood-and-money-in-the-streets

Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary

Tags: Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, Indian, Malaysian, Mahathir Mohamad, Forbes, roti canai, Syarikat Pengangkutan Sentosa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/301/Syed-Mokhtar-Al-Bukhary

Srinath Narasimhan

Tags: Srinath Narasimhan, Ratan Tata, South Africa, Kenya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/300/Srinath-Narasimhan

Katsuya Okada

Tags: Yukio Hatoyama, Katsuya Okada, Taliban, United States, Sudan, Iran
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/299/Katsuya-Okada

Jiang Jiemin

Tags: Jiang Jiemin, Sudan, Niger, Algeria, Omer Hassan el Beshir
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/298/Jiang-Jiemin

An oil barter rescue
Oil industry officials in Accra are linking Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor's 18 September statement that Ghana had applied for a US$2 billion concessional loan from China to Beijing's bid for a stake in Ghana's oil and gas industry. On 27 August, China National Overseas Oil Corporation Chief Executive Fu Chengyu announced that the state-owned company would be bidding to buy out the stake in Ghana's Jubilee oil field which is currently held by the United States' Kosmos. Although negotiations over Kosmos's exit have become increasingly politicised, several major Western oil companies such as Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi and Royal Dutch Shell are also pursuing the Kosmos stake. On 20 September, Fu met President John Evans Atta Mills in Accra and signed a deal for CNOOC to provide the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) with technical and financial cooperation in oil exploration.
Tags: Kwabena Duffuor, Fu Chengyu, United States, Italy, Dutch, John Evans Atta Mills, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/297/An-oil-barter-rescue

The great South Korean commercial offensive
The latest result of the close ties between Kinshasa and Seoul was revealed on 8 September by Générose Lushiku, Congo-Kinshasa's Minister of Urbanism and Habitat, who announced that South Korea's Berea International had won a US$225 million contract to build 1.2 mn. units of social housing and was due to begin construction before the end of the year. The South Koreans, though, have even bigger ambitions in Congo. The huge dam planned at the Inga III complex, which could produce 4,320 megawatts of power from the Congo River, is the main attraction.
Tags: Générose Lushiku, Chinese, Indian, Jaynet Kabila, Joseph Kabila, Ban Ki-moon, Emile Bongeli, Kim Eun-seok, Han Seung-soo, Adolphe Muzito, Park Young, Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, North Korean, Laurent Désiré Kabila, Kwon Jin-bong, Laurent Muzangisa, Gervais Ntirumenyerwa,, Grand Hotel de Kinshasa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/296/The-great-South-Korean-commercial-offensive

Nuclear-fuelled relations
New Delhi made one of its most important energy and resource deals in Africa on 31 August, signing an accord with the Namibian government to allow for trade in uranium to supply India's energy-starved electricity sector. Memorandums of understanding signed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Delhi covered agriculture, mining, energy and health. President Pohamba's visit was the first by a foreign head of state since the Indian National Congress's May re-election and marks the deepening of ties between the countries, which only traded US$60 million in goods in 2008.
Tags: Manmohan Singh, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Jairam Ramesh, Nahas Angula, China, United States, Gabon, South Africa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/295/Nuclear-fuelled-relations

Financial follow-through
Aggressive investment by the China Investment Corporation, which manages nearly US$300 billion of Beijing's $2.1 trillion in foreign reserves, is leading to a boom in Africa-focused investments. In early September, World Bank President Robert Zoellick began discussions in Beijing with the CIC about potential investment in the IFC Asset Management Company, the new subsidiary of the Bank's private-sector International Finance Corporation.
Tags: United States, Robert Zoellick, Japan, Singapore, China, Chen Deming, Gao Xiqing, Zhou Yuan,, Swiss, Cameroon, Zambia, Beijing sets standards, Jacko Maree, Craig Bond
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/294/Financial-follow-through

Africa slips down the foreign policy agenda
Tokyo's pledges to double aid to Africa and offer US$4 billion in concessional loans are in question following the landslide election of the Democratic Party of Japan on 30 August. New Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, a grandson of former Premier Ichiro Hatoyama (1954-1956), appointed his cabinet on 16 September and promised a rapid economic turnaround, more social spending at home and wide-ranging reform of development aid bureaucracy.
Tags: Yukio Hatoyama, Ichiro Hatoyama, Taro Aso, Yoriko Madoka, United States, North Korea, China, India, Katsuya Okada, Shadow Shogun, Ichiro Ozawa, Somalia, Akihisa Nagashima, Masayuki Naoshima, South Korea, Cameroon, Egypt, Eritrea, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Israeli, Russian, Iranian, Sadako Ogata
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/293/Africa-slips-down-the-foreign-policy-agenda

The oil revenue row
Beijing faces a new round of criticism over its heavy investments in Sudan's oil business following the publication of a report by British lobbyists Global Witness(1) on 7 September pointing to massive discrepancies between production figures released by Khartoum and those of the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation. If the CNPC figures are accurate, it would mean that the National Congress Party regime in Khartoum is substantially underreporting oil production, especially in fields where it has to share sales revenue with the Government of Southern Sudan.
Tags: British, Uganda, Kenya, Iran, Gutbi el Mahdi, Malaysia, India, Salva Kiir Mayardit
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/292/The-oil-revenue-row

Telecoms domination in three fell swoops
Untitled Document Indian companies are behind three now somewhat troubled bids to take over the choicest assets in the African telecoms business: Bharti's US$23 billion merger with MTN, Essar's takeover of Warid Telecom's African holdings and Vavasi Group's bid for 46% of Zain. Political and economic concerns threaten the Zain and MTN agreements, but the Warid plan looks set to go ahead.
Tags: Uganda, Congo-Brazzaville, Kenya, Siphiwe Nyanda, Pranab Mukherjee, Pravin Gordhan, Britain, Manmohan Singh, Jacob Zuma, United States, Sunil Mittal, Akhil Gupta, France, Malaysian, Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, Kuwait, Bader al-Kharafi, Farid Arifuddin, Ahmad al-Saadun
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/291/Telecoms-domination-in-three-fell-swoops

The Luanda-Beijing axis targets Guinea
Guinea's military ruler Moussa Dadis Camara set up a commission on 28 August to manage a planned US$1.6 billion investment from the China International Fund. The CIF is 70% owned by New Bright International Development and 30% by Sonangol Exploration and Production. The commission will be led by Minister of Construction Boubacar Barry and its members include Minister in the Presidency for Economic Affairs Captain Mamadou Sande and Mining Minister Mahmoud Thiam. The opaque relationships formed in Angola between officials in Luanda and companies in Hong Kong through the CIF are taking wing and the target is Guinea.
Tags: Moussa Dadis Camara, Boubacar Barry, Mamadou Sande, Mahmoud Thiam, Angola, Manuel Vicente, Singapore, Aboubacar Koly Kourouma, Tanzania
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/290/The-Luanda-Beijing-axis-targets-Guinea

Luanda diversifies its portfolio
China's relations with Angola suffered a setback this month when Luanda turned down the acquisition by China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Sinopec of a coveted oil block. Worse, lower than expected oil revenues have battered the Angolan economy and government officials are scheduled to meet representatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund at the end of this month to negotiate a support package. Sonangol, the state-owned oil company, invoked its right of first refusal on 10 September on a 20% share of Block 32 held by United States-based Marathon Oil. China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) were planning to buy the block - a promising investment, boasting 12 oil discoveries and estimated recoverable reserves of 1.5 billion barrels of light crude - in a 50-50 joint venture for US$1.3 bn.
Tags: United States, Brazil, India, , Friends and finances, Congo-Kinshasa, Libya, Canadian, India, Helder Bataglia, French, Pierre Falcone, José Eduardo dos Santos, Tangled webs, Luo Fanghong, Helder Vieria Dias Junior, Kopelipa, Manuel Vicente, Pakistan, Japan, Hu Jintao, Italy, Lee Myung-bak, Manmohan Singh, Higino Carneiro, Kim Jong-hoon, Espirito Santo Commerce, Gabinete de Reconstrução Nacional
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/289/Luanda-diversifies-its-portfolio

Map: Asian money and African mines

Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/288/Map%3a-Asian-money-and-African-mines

Jiang Weiqiang
Jiang Weiqiang and his State Council Information Office colleagues will play a leading role in Beijing's media courtship of Africa ahead of the fourth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November. At the FOCAC Media Seminar in Beijing, 15-19 July, Jiang tried to develop a united front with African state media organisations. He insisted that the message of China-Africa cooperation should be taken directly to the people and not depend on Western media, which he described as anti-China and anti-Africa. Representatives from 27 African countries attended, as did Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun and Liu Yunshan, Politburo member and Director of the Central Propaganda Department.
Tags: Jiang Weiqiang, Egypt, Zhai Jun, Liu Yunshan, South Africa, Kenya, People's Daily, Xinhua, Xinhua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/287/Jiang-Weiqiang

Yasukazu Hamada
As the political head of a more outward-looking Japanese military, the Self-Defence Forces, Yasukazu Hamada is taking a robust line against pirates based in Somalia. In March, he ordered two SDF destroyers to the Gulf of Aden, an unprecedented move under the restrictive terms of the post-Second World War constitution. Tokyo is also planning to use its technical expertise more actively in United Nations peacekeeping, although many of the details are yet to be agreed.
Tags: Japanese, Yasukazu Hamada, Somalia, Michio Watanabe, Koichi Hamada, Taro Aso, China, Koreas, Taiwan, Yakuza
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/286/Yasukazu-Hamada

Sizwe Nxasana
Sizwe Nxasana has just led negotiations for an alliance with China Construction Bank. The two banks have signed a deal which commits FirstRand (the second biggest bank in South Africa) to offer financial and advisory services to Chinese investors in Africa and China Construction Bank (the second biggest in China) to do the same for African companies in China.
Tags: Sizwe Nxasana, China, South Africa, Paul Harris, Nigeria, Kenya, Britain, India
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/285/Sizwe-Nxasana

Gurjit Singh
Long-serving diplomat Gurjit Singh distinguished himself as one of the most activist ambassadors in Addis Ababa and personally raised the substance and profile of Ethiopia-India relations. Singh has just ended a four-year stint that saw Delhi's presence in Ethiopia grow dramatically with 439 investment projects that will bring in US$4.2 billion. Singh reckons that investment will soon grow to $8-10 bn.
Tags: Gurjit Singh, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Italy, Djibouti, Meles Zenawi, China, South Korea
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/284/Gurjit-Singh

The rice and the rot
Opposition politicians in Delhi are pressing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party government for a full investigation into allegations of corrupt deals worth 25 billion rupees (US$520 million) in rice exports from India to five African states: Comoros, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius and Sierra Leone. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led a parliamentary walkout on 30 July, demanding a probe by a joint parliamentary committee or the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Tags: Manmohan Singh, Comoros, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, John Atta Mills, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Anand Sharma, Swiss, Zeinab Bangoura, Bharatiya Janata, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/283/The-rice-and-the-rot

Gagner-gagner - they claim
Both sides are claiming victory this month in the long-running negotiations on debt relief between the Kinshasa government and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Kinshasa has won promises of substantive and rapid relief on some US$11 billion of debt owed to the Bank and the Fund, which dates back to the rule of the West's Cold War ally President Mobutu Sese Seko (1965-1997). The revised plan on Congo's debt and the terms of a new IMF lending programme are due to go to the Fund's board on 24 September. If approved, the three year debt relief plan could start in early 2010 and reduce debt service obligations by as much as $400 mn. a year.
Tags: Mobutu Sese Seko, Wu Zexian, Moïse Ekanga, Robert Zoellick, Brian Ames, Jean-Claude Masungu, Mulongo, Office de Coordination et du Contrôle du Programme Sino-Congolais, Sicomines, Gécamines, Sicomines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/282/Gagner-gagner---they-claim

KNOC, KNOC, who is there?
In mid-August, Nigeria's Federal High Court overturned President Umaru Yar'Adua's revoking, in January, of Seoul-based Korea National Oil Company's rights to 60% of Oil Prospecting Licences 321 and 323 in a ruling that proved unexpectedly damning for the presidency and supportive of foreign oil companies. The ruling reinstates the contract awarded to KNOC under former President Olusegun Obasanjo's government.
Tags: Umaru Yar'Adua, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdullahi Mustapha, Indian, China
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/281/KNOC%2c-KNOC%2c-who-is-there%3f

Beijing debates world's biggest aid fund
Chinese officials are discussing ways to use some of their country's $2.1 trillion in foreign reserves to finance what could be the world's biggest development aid programme, as Western economies are still staggering under the weight of recession. The main recipients of the investment and development funds would be Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Tags: Marshall, Xu Shanda, Jia Qinglin, United States, Soviet, Paul Krugman, Lin Fengyun, South Africa, Tao Zhu
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/280/Beijing-debates-world's-biggest-aid-fund

African officials ignore labour abuses
African Labour Research Network investigators found that many factory inspectors at Kenya's Labour Ministry took bribes from Chinese and other companies to overlook bad practices. Despite reports that in Malawi, workers for Chinese companies were mixing cement with their bare hands and others had to work 12-hour shifts without a break, there is little follow-up by authorities. In Kenya, the Blue Wave Group sacked all its workers in June 2008 when they tried to form a union.
Tags: Kenya, Malawi, Angola, Zambia, South Africa, Man Loong Lee, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/279/African-officials-ignore-labour-abuses

Labouring the point
African trades unionists are stepping up their criticism of the Chinese companies in countries like Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa. In mid-August the Congress of South African Trade Unions called on President Jacob Zuma's government to impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports because the products are being made by 'exploited workers' and what it called the 'tsunami of cheap Chinese goods' was leading to the loss of jobs.
Tags: Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Jacob Zuma, Man Loong Lee, Ghana
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/278/Labouring-the-point

South Africa's arms deals with Asia
Anti-arms trade campaigners and opposition MPs are claiming that the African National Congress government covertly sought to sell weapons to repressive regimes in North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya and Zimbabwe without the required scrutiny. On 5 August, Shadow Defence Minister and opposition Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier accused the government of lax management of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee, which oversees the country's arms sales.
Tags: North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya, Zimbabwe, David Maynier, Burma, Max Sisulu, Kim Jong Il, Jeff Radebe
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/277/South-Africa's-arms-deals-with-Asia

Wade's monumental error
The latest grand projet from President Abdoulaye Wade - the US$30 million Monument de la Renaissance Africaine - has quickly become an extreme parody of bad government in the eyes of many Senegalese. The African Renaissance, launched by South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki and enthusiastically backed by President Wade a decade ago, was meant to promote Africa's artistic achievements, commitment to human development and the resilience of its culture and values.
Tags: Abdoulaye Wade, South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, North Korea, Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Gabon, Omar Bongo Ondimba, Togo, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Angola, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mbackiou Faye, Abdoulaye Diop, Assane Diagne, Karim, Viviane, Moustapha Guirassy, Pierre Goudiaby Atépa, grand projet, Monument de la Renaissance Africaine, Parti Socialiste, Agence de Régulation des Marchés Publics
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/276/Wade's-monumental-error

Strategic resources and global rivalries
All modern economies face the challenge of securing access to strategic minerals: cobalt, used to make superalloys; rare earth metals like neodymium, which is used in the manufacture of hybrid automotive engines and computer hard disks, and the dull black ore known as coltan, used to make components of cellphones. There is no consensus on what minerals are regarded as strategic; that depends on a country's industrial and resource base. Widely defined, a strategic mineral is one seen as necessary for essential civilian, industrial and military needs during a national emergency. The United States government classified nearly a hundred different minerals as 'strategic' from diamonds to chromium.
Tags: United States, Soviet Union, Rhodesia, Ian Smith, South Africa, Ronald Reagan, Deng Xiaoping, Congo-Kinshasa, Japan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/275/Strategic-resources-and-global-rivalries

The race for strategic minerals
Strategic minerals are back in fashion and - along with oil and gas - at the centre of geopolitical rivalries between industrial economies in Asia and the West. New technologies have failed to free modern economies from their dependence on base metals and rare minerals: for example, fibre-optics are replacing copper cables, but demand for the associated cobalt for superalloys used in jet engines and gas turbines is growing fast. Competition is increasing over price and secure supplies between Asia's super economies - China, India and Japan - and with Western economies.
Tags: China, India, Japan, Germany, Mind the mergers, Switzerland, Britain, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, South Korea, India, Cameroon., South African, France, Niger, Namibia, Central African Republic, Japan, Congo-Kinshasa, Gabon, Ghana, Dalai Lama, Zimbabwe
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/274/The-race-for-strategic-minerals

Small corridors of power at Nuctech
Until now, Hu Haifeng, the 38-year-old son of China's paramount leader Hu Jintao, has managed to stay out of the limelight. While Hu senior climbed the party ranks - through unglamourous assignments as party leader in impoverished Guizhou province and then Tibet - the family remained in Beijing. Haifeng attended his father's alma mater, Tsinghua University. He joined Nuctech after obtaining his master's degree in engineering physics.
Tags: Hu Haifeng, Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping, Wu Bangguo, Zhou Xiaochuan, Algeria, Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Sudan, Zimbabwe, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/273/Small-corridors-of-power-at-Nuctech

Beijing in scanner scandal
The arrest of Namibia's powerful Public Service Commissioner, Teckla Lameck, on 9 July by investigators of the Namibian Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in connection with a contract between China's Nuctech and Windhoek International Airport has set in train a legal case with serious repercussions.
Tags: Teckla Lameck,, Jerobeam Mokaxwa, Yang Fan, Hu Haifeng, Hu Jintao, Taiwan, United States, British, No-bid, buy-Chinese contracts, Calle Schlettwein, Helmut Angula, Neels Becker, John Nauta, Sam Nujoma, Knowledge Katti, Hage Geingob, Canadian, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Albert Kawana, Martin Shalli, Zambia, Hidipo Hamutenya, South African, Jeremy Gauntlett, Falun Gong, The Namibian
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/272/Beijing-in-scanner-scandal

MTN, militants and share claims
A tangled web of financial holdings stretching from South Africa to Ghana and Lebanon could delay plans for a US$20 billion merger of India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN).
Tags: Ghana, Lebanon, Jerry John Rawlings, Mikati, Nigeria, Barbara Ackah-Yensu, John Kufuor, United States, United Kingdom
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/271/MTN%2c-militants-and-share-claims

MTN-Bharti merger
The planned US$20 billion merger of Africa's Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) and India's Bharti Airtel would bring together two continental giants to form the world's third largest mobile phone company. The merger looks set to go ahead despite concerns from shareholders on both sides about pricing and management control of the new company.
Tags: Kuwait, Sudanese, Mo Ibrahim, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Kenya, Bharti, Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Mikati, Brian Molefe, Cyril Ramaphosa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/270/MTN-Bharti-merger

Mittal's meltdown
The world's biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, is cutting back sharply on its operations in West Africa, which were part of a plan to provide about two-thirds of the company's iron ore. Despite bullish statements by the company's chairman, Lakshmi Mittal, that the worst of the global recession is over, analysts predict that the company's earnings this year will fall to US$6.7 billion from $24.5 bn. in 2008.
Tags: Lakshmi Mittal, Luxembourg, Liberia, Senegal, South Africa, Gabonese, Abdoulaye Wade,, Rash Goel,, Swedish, Changing terms, China, United States, Joseph Mathews, Pat Robertson, Eugene Shannon, Brazil, Algeria, Russia, Africa Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/269/Mittal's-meltdown

China woos the team of rivals
As China emerges as the biggest outside financier of the power-sharing government, differences in Harare over policy towards Beijing are growing. The first public row broke soon after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's tour of Western capitals in June to raise funds to finance his government's economic reforms. Tsvangirai returned with pledges of US$500 million for humanitarian assistance channelled through non-governmental organisations. The government's short-term recovery plan called for an infusion of $8.5 billion.
Tags: Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe, Zhang Guoqing, Hu Wenming, Wu Bangguo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/268/China-woos-the-team-of-rivals

Undue diligence in the timber sector
Malaysian timber conglomerate Samling, which faces accusations of illegal logging, is at the centre of a storm over the bidding by foreign companies for 25-year contracts in Liberia's timber sector. The row follows the leaking of a Liberian government-commissioned assessment of the companies bidding for the logging work that raises questions about the companies' suitability and the management of the government's Forest Development Authority (FDA).
Tags: Charles Taylor, Ghana, Cambodia, Guyana, Yaw Chee Ming, Eddington Varmah, Leonid Minin, Italy
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/267/Undue-diligence-in-the-timber-sector

End of the line for Durbar
A colourful Pakistani businessman, Saifee Durbar, faces extradition to France on fraud charges following the decision of the Central African Republic on 23 June to withdraw his 'honorific' title as Deputy Foreign Minister.
Tags: Saifee Durbar, France, Léopold Bachmann, Iranian, Britain, Sudan, Cameroon, Algerian, Nacer Eddine Fetaimia,, Sylvain Ndoutingaï, Elysée
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/266/End-of-the-line-for-Durbar

Al Qaida may target Chinese in Africa
More signs are emerging that China is being drawn inexorably into Africa's internal politics and is being compelled to take sides in wider geopolitical disputes. This time, the trigger was the violence between the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in China's Xinjiang Province, which left some 200 people dead after riots erupted on 5 July.
Tags: Algerian, United States, George W. Bush, Afghanistan, Britain, France, Soviet, Sudan,, Turkish, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Armenians, Tanzanian, Charles Sanga, Al Qaida, gendarmes, gendarmes, Al Qaida, mujahideen
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/265/Al-Qaida-may-target-Chinese-in-Africa

Tokyo's new loans for Africa
Japan is to add another US$4 billion in new concessional loans to Africa over the next five years, outpacing the spending of the China-Africa Development Fund, according to Koji Yonetani, the Counsellor for Economy and Development Affairs at Japan's Embassy in Paris.
Tags: China, France, Italy, Taro Aso
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/264/Tokyo's-new-loans-for-Africa

Michael Chilufya Sata
Neither age nor ill-health seem to dampen the fire in the belly of Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata. Born 1937, 'King Cobra' has lost none of his bite, even after losing presidential elections in 2001, 2006 and 2008.
Tags: Zambian, Michael Sata, Kenneth Kaunda, Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Chinese, Li Baodong, Taiwan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/263/Michael-Chilufya-Sata

Seiko Hashimoto
Seiko Hashimoto brings Olympic glamour to the Africa-Asia axis. Born in 1964 in Hokkaido, she competed in seven Olympic Games, four as a speed skater and three as a cyclist. After taking a bronze medal in the women's 1,500-metre speed skating event at the Albertville games of 1992, she parlayed her sports career into a seat in the House of Councillors, the upper house of Japan's Diet, on the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ticket.
Tags: Seiko Hashimoto, Japan, Taro Aso, Hirofumi Nakasone, Somali, Rwanda, Ugandan, Yoweri Museveni
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/262/Seiko-Hashimoto

Dai Bingguo
Dai Bingguo was last in Africa in February, when he accompanied President Hu Jintao to Saudi Arabia, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius. The low-key diplomat's nondescript title of State Councillor belies his the extent of his influence in China's foreign affairs.
Tags: Dai Bingguo, Hu Jintao, Saudi Arabia, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Mauritius, Russian, Soviet Union, Hungary, Xi Jinping, Yang Jiechi, Italy,, South African, Jacob Zuma, Indian, Manmohan Singh
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/261/Dai-Bingguo

Najib Razak
Najib Razak's political pedigree is impeccable, but he struggles with the common touch needed to enact his liberal, but potentially unpopular, economic policies. Born 1953, Najib is the son of Abdul Razak Hussein, the second Premier of Malaysia. After brief stints working for the Bank Negona and Petronas, he ran for his late father's parliamentary seat in 1976. Najib, 23 and unopposed, became the country's youngest MP.
Tags: Najib Razak, Abdul Razak Hussein, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Egypt, Sierra Leone
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/260/Najib-Razak

ICBC's toe in African waters
The October 2007 merger between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank, and Standard Bank, South Africa's largest, is finally showing its potential. After a lacklustre start, this month's visit to Cape Town by ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing revealed that the pair plan to put their billions of dollars into African energy projects.
Tags: Jiang Jianqing, Congo-Kinshasa, Angola, Jacko Maree, Botswana, Yoweri Museveni, Craig Bond, Uganda, Nigeria, Babatunde Fashola
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/259/ICBC's-toe-in-African-waters

Leaky dam builders
While China's leading dam-builder Sinohydro was busy dealing with complaints from Western non-governmental organisations about its refusal to engage with local populations, an East African NGO shut down one of Sinohydro's projects in Kenya. As Chinese companies continue their expansions abroad, many have had difficulty meeting international safety and environmental standards, as in the case of the tainted milk scandal (AAC Vol 1 No 11).
Tags: Kenya, United States, Gabon, Ghana, Mozambique, Fan Jixiang, Ghana, Peter Bosshard, Fiesta Warinwa, Boulevard du 30 Juin
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/258/Leaky-dam-builders

Billions for all
The list of countries with multibillion-dollar, Chinese-backed projects is growing longer, with Mozambique the latest country to receive a golden handshake. In late May, China Exim Bank announced US$2.3 billion in loans for the Mphanda Nkuwa dam on the Zambezi River, a project that will be carried out by Brazilian and Mozambican interests rather than Chinese. The project is led by the Brazilian construction company Camargo Corrêa, Electricidade de Moçambique and Energia Capital. China Exim Bank decided to take part after attempts to involve the European Investment Bank and the World Bank proved unsuccessful.
Tags: Brazilian, Samora Machel, Jossefate Samora Machel., Luisa Diogo, South Africa, Paolo Zucula, Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, Malawi, Zambia, Filipe Nyussi, Camargo Corrêa, Electricidade de Moçambique, Energia Capital, Sogecoa, Moçambique, Construção, Justiça Ambiental, Livaningo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/257/Billions-for-all

Minerals meltdown
China is taking advantage of the global economic crisis to restructure its mining industry. A 4 trillion renminbi (US$586 billion) stimulus plan, announced late last year, encompasses sector-specific reform measures put forward by the National Development and Reform Commission, the state macroeconomic planning agency. Since May, the Ministries of Finance and of Industry and Information Technology have implemented more detailed regulatory measures to consolidate large and mid-tier players, and to squeeze out smaller firms.
Tags: Zambian, Australia, Zheng Zhi, Zhang Yan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/256/Minerals-meltdown

As sweet as chocolate
Western investors are waiting around on the sidelines, nervous that the outcome of Côte d'Ivoire's elections, scheduled for 29 November, may bring more instability, but Chinese investors are heading straight for Abidjan, the next destination on their post-conflict country business tour. The war that pitted the north of the country against the south has not been resolved and the national elections, if they actually take place this year, are key to ending the conflict and achieving stability.
Tags: Chinese, Laurent Gbagbo, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, Henri Konan Bédié, Wei Wenhua, French, Niger, United States, Laurent Dona Fologo,, Shanghai show, Angola, Charles Kader Gooré, Jeannine Ollo-Servat, Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings, Indian, Vincent Kragbé Gadou, Anand Sharma, Mahatma Gandhi, Barthélémy Kouassi Yao, Conseil Economique et Social, de la Côte d'Ivoire, Port Autonome d'Abidjan, Gezhouba, PKD Conseil, Sophia Immobilier, Syndicat des Marins Pêcheurs de Côte d'Ivoire
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/255/As-sweet-as-chocolate

Tug of war
The International Monetary Fund's pressure on Kinshasa has led to the first sign of the government buckling. At the end of 2007, President Joseph Kabila's government agreed a US$9 billion deal with a consortium of Chinese companies to build railways and other infrastructure in exchange for access to minerals. The IMF said that it would hold off on any aid to the cash-strapped Treasury until the details of the contract were known and the non-concessional terms and addition to the burden of foreign debt were removed.
Tags: Joseph Kabila, Brian Ames, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, , Côte d'Ivoire, Wu Zexian, Moïse Ekanga, Lambert Mende, Playing both sides, Ismaila Dieng, Jean-Claude Masangu, Canadian, Paul Fortin, Henri-Thomas Lokondo, Sicomines, Gécamines, Africa-Asia Confidential, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/254/Tug-of-war

Wade's skyscraper legacy
Kawsara in the Koran is one of the heavenly gardens promised to virtuous Muslims. In Dakar, it is the name of an ambitious property development, the Cité des Affaires Kawsara, which has led to very public headaches for President Abdoulaye Wade and troubled relations with Chinese partners.
Tags: Chinese, Assane Diouf, Pape Diop, Saudi, Pakistani, Madagascar, Ibrahima Bâ, Maguette Diop, Zhang Yong, Lu Shaye, Lamine Diack, Jean Paul Dias, Cité des Affaires Kawsara, Africa-Asia Confidential, Parti Démocratique Sénégalais, Sichuan Jiahe, Parti Socialiste
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/253/Wade's-skyscraper-legacy

China's trains, Zimbabwe's tobacco
Beyond the political controversy about relations with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front regime, Chinese businesses are set to provide an important source of new investment and jobs for Harare's shaky power-sharing government. This month, a Chinese delegation sent by the state-run Export-Import bank expressed interest in financing tobacco farming on 20,000 hectares in Mashonaland Central.
Tags: Joseph Made, Chris Mutsvangwa, South Africa, Mauritius
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/252/China's-trains%2c-Zimbabwe's-tobacco

Re-enter the dragon
The Beijing-Harare axis is thriving under Zimbabwe's power-sharing government. Despite opposition claims that China would lose influence because of its close relations with President Robert Mugabe and its historical support for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), trade with Zimbabwe is increasing again. Furthermore, Beijing's officials say they helped prepare the ground for the new government, a claim which irritates Western diplomats.
Tags: Robert Mugabe, Weng Ruiyang, Angola, South Africa, Yuan Nansheng, Russia, Business backs Beijing, Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara, Iran, Malaysia, Britain, Zhai Jun, Liu Guijin, Johnny Rodrigues, Grace Mugabe, Bona, Colin Galloway, Tim O'Rourke, Mapfumo Marks, Manyaira Reliance Pepuka, Margaret Ng, quid pro quo, Africa-Asia Confidential, Sunday Times, Xinhua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/251/Re-enter-the-dragon

Zhang Ming
Zhang Ming rose to his position through the West Asia and North Africa Department of China's Foreign Affairs Ministry, which he joined in the early 1980s. Postings at the embassies in Yemen, Oman and Israel led to a stint as Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry's general office in 2001. He was appointed Ambassador to Kenya in 2006.
Tags: Zhang Ming, China, Yemen, Oman, Israel, Kenya, Sudan, Xu Jinghu, Morocco, People's Daily, Xinhua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/250/Zhang-Ming

Musa Hitam
Malaysia's Sime Darby has signed a US$800 million deal securing a 63-year concession to 220,000 hectares in Liberia that include the troubled Guthrie Rubber Plantations. Sime Darby, a government-controlled plantation operator, is headed by Chairman Musa Hitam, who has a master's degree in international relations from Sussex University and is a member of the United Malays National Organisation, the largest party in the ruling Berhad Nasional coalition government. Previously, Musa was Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Minister of Primary Industries (1974-78) and Minister of Education (1978-1981).
Tags: Malaysia, Liberia, Musa Hitam, Mahatir bin Mohamad, Berhad Nasional, Permodalan Nasional Berhad, Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputra
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/249/Musa-Hitam

Nong Duc Manh
Its revolutionary days are long over and CPV General Secretary Nong Duc Manh leads an outward-looking Vietnam committed to multilateral diplomacy, which this year has taken steps to mend relationships (and borders) with China, Laos and Cambodia. Now Vietnam is seeking to develop trade relations with Africa, reaching out to Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and Central African Republic.
Tags: Nong Duc Manh, China, Laos, Cambodia, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Central African Republic, François Bozizé, Soviet Union, Nguyen Ai Quoc, Nguyen Minh Triet, Nguyen Tan Dung, Le Kha Phieu, Nguyen Van Linh, doi moi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/248/Nong-Duc-Manh

R.S. Sharma
R.S. Sharma has the top job at India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), a state-owned company with a growing global agenda. Market capitalisation makes ONGC India's second-largest company, trailing Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate.
Tags: R.S. Sharma, India, Mukesh Ambani, Subir Raha, Congo-Brazzaville, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, São Tomé, Sudan, China, Malaysia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/247/R.S.-Sharma

Kim Yong-nam
Born in Pyongyang in 1928, while the Korean peninsula was under Japanese occupation, Kim Yong-nam came of age as Soviet-backed Kim Il-sung consolidated power over North Korea and set it on its singular, isolated path. He is as near as North Korea gets to a foreign policy guru.
Tags: Japanese, Kim Yong-nam, Soviet, Kim Il-sung, North Korea, Kim Jong-il, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Namibia, Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, Uganda, Singapore, S.R. Nathan, South Africa, Jacob Zuma, Hong Joon-pyo, South Korea, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/246/Kim-Yong-nam

Yuan Nangsheng
After Mao Zedong completed his first Soviet-style Five Year Plan in 1954, China's economic problems deteriorated sharply. That year, China's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yuan Nansheng, was born, and his life reflects the vicissitudes of a childhood in Mao's China.
Tags: Mao Zedong, Soviet, China, Yuan Nansheng, Robert Mugabe
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/245/Yuan-Nangsheng

Hirofumi Nakasone
Born in 1945, the Keio University graduate began his career with Asahi Chemical Industry in 1968 but turned to politics in 1983 after his father, Yasuhiro Nakasone, became Prime Minister (1982-1987). After three years as his father's secretary, Nakasone embarked on his own path. Africa is one of his many priorities - for strategic and reputational reasons.
Tags: Yasuhiro Nakasone, Taro Aso, Masahiko Komura, Somali, Botswana, Egypt, Iran, United States, Barack Obama, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Hosni Mubarak, Gamal
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/244/Hirofumi-Nakasone

Thaksin Shinawatra
Known for his polarising effect in Thai politics, his flight from justice and his interest in football teams in England, Thaksin Shinawatra also presided over a sharp increase in Thai trade with Africa. Before politics, he was a police officer with a doctorate in criminal justice. He then went into business and his computer company Shin Corporation, founded 1983, is now a telecommunications empire.
Tags: Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai, South Africa, Singapore, Central African Republic, Liberia, Joseph Boakai, Richard Tolbert, Thai Rak Thai, in absentia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/243/Thaksin-Shinawatra

With your permission
On 7 May, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a long-delayed white paper on foreign aid confirming what Taipei's allies are keenly aware of: Taiwan's foreign aid has dropped in the last year. Overseas development assistance to Taiwan's 23 allies was US$430 mn. in 2008, or 0.11% of gross domestic product, down from 0.14% in 2007. The loss of ties with Malawi in December 2007 accounts for some of the decline. Of this aid, 66% went to infrastructure development and 11% to technical assistance, with education, humanitarian assistance and other programmes making up the balance.
Tags: Malawi, Ma Ying-jeou, China, Margaret Chan, Swaziland, Barnabas Dlamini, Jabulile Mashwama, Nelisiwe Shongwe, Benedict Xaba, Liu Chao-shiuan, Francisco Ou, Gambian, Yahya, Jammeh, Chiang Kai-shek, Hau Lung-bin, São Tomé e Príncipe, Carlos Alberto Tiny, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, United States, Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/242/With-your-permission

Friends in the right places
Just before President Jacob Zuma's inauguration on 9 May, India's state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) signed a commercial cooperation agreement with the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu) Kopano Ke Matla investment company. Founded in 1997, Kopano (Sotho for 'unity is strength') is a Black Economic Empowerment company. Its founder, Tumelo Motsisi, now a millionaire, defined its mission from early on: 'The driving objective within Cosatu is the ultimate seizure of economic power from a few powerhouses to the majority.'
Tags: Jacob Zuma, Tumelo Motsisi, Marake Collin Matjila, Rana Som, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kopano Ke Matla, Kopano, Kopano, Kopano, Kopano
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/241/Friends-in-the-right-places-

Contract confusion
The junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara's order that all mining licences are subject to immediate revocation if the government does not approve of their development plans has added more confusion to Guinea's troubled mining sector. At the same time, negotiations for a proposed US$20 billion Chinese countertrade deal have collapsed.
Tags: Moussa Dadis Camara, Australia, Wang Wenfu, Lansana Conté, Israeli, Beny Steinmetz, Ahmed Kanté, Ahmed Tidiane Souaré, Louceny Nabé, Sidya Touré, ,, Ousmane Sylla, Ahmed Tidiane Diallo, Palais du Peuple, Sékoutoureyah, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/240/Contract-confusion

Not the promised land
China would not be taking up tracts of land in Africa to meet its domestic food requirements insisted Beijing's Deputy Agriculture Minister Niu Dun in April, but reports on the ground suggest that Chinese companies are rapidly expanding agricultural investment projects. Deputy Minister Niu's public statement reflects pressure from Chinese nationalists, who see the country's dependence on food imports as a strategic weakness, and from African activists, who argue it represents a Chinese imitation of Western neocolonial commercial arrangements. Niu distinguished between China's needs and those of South Korea, following the collapse of Daewoo's bids to secure production rights over half of Madagascar's arable land. In fact, China's needs are much greater and politically urgent than South Korea's.
Tags: Niu Dun, South Korea, Madagascar, Stanley Ho, Portuguese, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Carlos Jorge Ferro Ribeiro, India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Liu Jianjun, Kenya, Tyson Chisambo, Zambia, Michael Sata, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/239/Not-the-promised-land

Oil, votes and Beijing
The combination of lower world oil prices, tighter credit and production cuts has increased Luanda's reliance on its countertrade credits with China. As Angola holds the presidency of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country, it will have to stick to the organisation's production cuts.
Tags: Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Jose Pedro de Morais, Higino Carneiro, Chen Yuan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Luis Sa Silva, Indonesia, Tanzania, Shukuru Kawamwa, Deep wells and pockets, Malaysia, India, Mozambique, Hélder Vieira Dias 'Kopelipa', Germany, Portugal, Spain, Japan, Britain, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, Gabinete de Reconstrução Nacional, Empresa de Distribuição de Electricidade.
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/238/Oil%2c-votes-and-Beijing

A shake-out after the crash
Western mining houses are pulling out of Zambia due to the copper price slump, leaving Chinese and Indian investors to battle over the abandoned assets. As the copper price crashed - from a high of US$8,675 per tonne in July 2008 to $2,800 in December - companies started closing down.
Tags: Israeli, Beny Steinmetz, Switzerland, Luo Tao,, Wei Jianguo, Australia, The winds fall, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata,, Maxwell Mwale, Situmbeko Musokotwane, Xu, Zian Rui
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/237/A-shake-out-after-the-crash

Washington adjusts to the Chinindia factor
China sees India more as a stumbling block than a competitor for its ambitions in Asia. Professor Han Hua, a South Asia specialist at Beijing University, said that China lacks 'a very clear-cut policy on this region. China is still focused on domestic issues, and the east coast - Japan, the United States and Taiwan.'
Tags: Han Hua, Japan, United States, Taiwan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Pranab Mukherjee, A. K. Singh, Barack Obama
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/236/Washington-adjusts-to-the-Chinindia-factor

Somalia tests maritime solidarity
The international anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia is the type of cooperative mission that the United States sees as helpful to reduce the strain on its overstretched military. The Combined Task Force 151 (CTF 151) mission in the Gulf of Aden has had some success but has not convinced India and China to join forces.
Tags: Somalia, United States, India, China, Michael Mullen, Seychelles, Japanese, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, INS Nirdeshak
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/235/Somalia-tests-maritime-solidarity

The battle for the Indian Ocean
For the next few decades, the Indian Ocean will be the setting for competition between three great powers: the United States adjusting to an increasingly multipolar world, and the rising military and economic powers of India and China.
Tags: United States, Mozambique, South Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, William 'Kip' Ward, The great game on the sea, Ma Jiali, David Zweig, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Great powers: India, Monroe, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maldives, Russian, Great powers: China, Britain, David Miliband, Hu Jintao, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/234/The-battle-for-the-Indian-Ocean

Wu Zexian
The posting of Wu Zexian, one of Beijing's most experienced Francophone diplomats, to Kinshasa in March 2007 shows the seriousness of China's Africa strategy. Initially, it looked like a surprising detour for Wu, who after 30 years in the diplomatic service had been appointed Director General of the Department of European Affairs in Beijing. Things became clearer by January 2008, when China Exim Bank signed a massive minerals countertrade deal with President Joseph Kabila for US$5 billion (later raised to $9 bn., AAC Vol 2 No 1).
Tags: Wu Zexian, Joseph Kabila, Victor Kasongo, France
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/233/Wu-Zexian

Pradeep Kumar Chaudhery
After the India-Africa summit in April 2008 set out Delhi's new policies for the continent, Pradeep Kumar Chaudhery was given a leading role in the strategy with his appointment as Additional Secretary to the Department of Commerce in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Tags: India, Pradeep Kumar Chaudhery, O.P. Arya, Congo-Brazzaville, Anicet Georges Dologuélé, Kamal Nath, Banques des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/232/Pradeep-Kumar-Chaudhery

Nobuhide Minorikawa
Nobuhide Minorikawa plays a leading role in the development of Japan's African diplomacy. With wide experience of development economics and diplomacy, he is a familiar face on the African conference circuit.
Tags: Nobuhide Minorikawa, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo-Kinshasa, Hirofumi Nakasone, Botswana, Hidefumi Minorikawa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/231/Nobuhide-Minorikawa

Pornthiva Nakasai
If effort can be measured in miles, Thailand's new Commerce Minister is earning her pay. Pornthiva Nakasi has been travelling constantly this year, in India in February and China, Japan and Russia in March. She will lead a delegation in late April to Nigeria, the largest African importer of Thai rice.
Tags: Thailand, Pornthiva Nakasi, India, China, Japan, Russia, Nigeria, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thaksin Shinawatra, Bhum Jai Thai
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/230/Pornthiva-Nakasai

Not learning lessons
A year after Malaysian company Ramatex abandoned its US$100 million textile factory in Windhoek, the authorities are at last tackling the environmental impact of the operations of the politically-protected company. Ramatex had set up in Windhoek in 2001 to benefit from tariff reductions on African goods through the United States' African Growth and Opportunities Act (AAC Vol 1 No 5) but the company escaped effective scrutiny on environmental and working conditions.
Tags: United States, Russian, United States, John Walters
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/229/Not-learning-lessons

Where confidence is currency
Although China's exports have fallen by more than a quarter from last year's levels, the Export-Import Bank of China is busier than ever financing trade with Africa, Latin America and the rest of Asia. About half of Exim Bank's loans go to Asia, while a quarter of its funding ends up in Africa.
Tags: Zhao Changhui, Australian, Guinea, Madagascar, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Hu Jintao, Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Mauritius, Zambia, Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Benin, Congo-Kinshasa, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/228/Where-confidence-is-currency

Old King Coal
Japanese and Indian interest in Mozambican coal is growing and export prices are rising again. In a deal in March between the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance and Japan's Nippon Steel with coal, the price of coal was fixed at US$129 a tonne for the Japanese fiscal year. That is down from peaks of around $350 in mid-2008, but better than the $85 a tonne seen in mid-2007.
Tags: Anil Razdan, Oldemiro Baloi, Brazilian, Australia, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/227/Old-King-Coal

If not trade or aid, then what?
Taiwanese diplomacy faces an awkward commercial challenge. Stripped of the warm words and diplomatic ambiguities, it is clear that Taipei's biggest trading partners no longer recognise Taiwan as an independent state distinct from the People's Republic of China.
Tags: China, Mauricio Funes, El Salvador, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Burkina Faso, Tao Wen-Lung, Mamadou Sanou, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Nicholas Lee, Institut Supérieur d'Informatique et de Gestion de Ouagadougou
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/226/If-not-trade-or-aid%2c-then-what%3f

Big numbers on Congo's telecoms projects
China's Huawei and China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation are working on two information technology projects for Congo-Kinshasa's Ministère des Postes, Téléphones et Télécommunications (MPTT, Post and Telecommunications Ministry). China Exim Bank is providing concessional finance for both projects. .
Tags: South Africa, Ministère des Postes, Téléphones et Télécommunications, Congo Chine Télécoms
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/225/Big-numbers-on-Congo's-telecoms-projects

Debt, markets and Beijing
Kinshasa's negotiators are preparing for more talks with the International Monetary Fund's debt experts at the Fund and World Bank's spring meetings in Washington on 25-26 April. The fundamental problem remains unresolved: the IMF argues that any progress on a debt reduction plan (financed by the Bank, the Fund and other Western creditors) for Kinshasa will require a renegotiation of the US$9 billion minerals-for-infrastructure deal with China known as Sicomines.
Tags: Joseph Kabila, Mobutu Sese Seko, Jean-Claude Masangu, National esteem, Zhai Jun, India, Yang San, Moïse Ekanga, Roger Busima Kataala, Nigeria, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Banque Centrale du Congo, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Sicomines, Bureau de Coordination et de Suivi du Programme Sino-Congolais, Sicomines, Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands, Sicomines, Avenue de l'Université
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/224/Debt%2c-markets-and-Beijing

Abuja's Asian connections
South Korea: Nigeria is South Korea's third largest trading partner and the largest market in Africa for Korean construction companies. In January 2006, Korean companies were working on 60 projects valued at US$4.6 billion; that is about 75% of all contracts won by South Korea in Africa.
Tags: South Korea, Olusegun Obasanjo, Roh Moo-hyun, India, Manmohan Singh, China, Hu Jintao, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/223/Abuja's-Asian-connections

From win-win to lose-lose
Almost all Nigeria's countertrade deals with Asia have been abandoned after investigations by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's officials into their viability.
Tags: Umaru Musa Yar'Adua', South Korean, Indian, Chinese, Olusegun Obasanjo, , Mohammed Waziri', Goodluck Jonathan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/222/From-win-win-to-lose-lose

Deal or no deal
The Minerals Development Agreement between China Union and the Liberian government, which Africa-Asia Confidential has seen, offers China Union royalty payments and tax exemptions that are far more generous than the usual industry standards.
Tags: India, Brazil, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/221/Deal-or-no-deal

The Bong revival
On closer scrutiny, the agreement between China Union and the Liberian government to resume iron ore production at Bong Mines hugely favours the Chinese company with only a minimal share of revenues for Liberia. Local and international lobbyists for corporate accountability have highlighted the most damaging terms for Liberia in the agreement but have had little effect on the negotiations. On 1 April, Liberia's Senate approved the Minerals Development Agreement that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government had signed with the China-Union (Hong Kong) Mining Company and its local subsidiary China-Union (Liberia) Bong Mines Company on 19 January.
Tags: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Our fair share, Gabon, Congo-Kinshasa,, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/220/The-Bong-revival

This wheel's on fire
China may be popular amongst some politicians, but support on the ground can be much thinner. In spite of increased trade and warmer relations, there has been a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment among workers, civil society and businesses in South Africa. Tensions arise when small local companies find themselves in direct competition with Chinese traders. In some quarters, there is still resentment of the Constitutional Court's judgement a year ago declaring Chinese of South African descent 'black' and eligible for affirmative action and black empowerment. There are claims that non-South African Chinese companies 'front' as locals to secure contracts. The African National Congress (ANC) is so confident of electoral victory on 22 April that it can largely ignore such sentiments.
Tags: Ebrahim Patel, Jacob Zuma, Mathews Phosa, Indian, Sanjay Dutt, Samajwadi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/219/This-wheel's-on-fire

Ditching the Dalai Lama
The South African authorities' refusal of a visa to the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in late March shows how the 'One China' policy extends into relations with Africa, where governments refuse to let the issue of Tibet obstruct their hopes of investment. China boasts that it will not interfere in African's internal affairs but is ready to do so when its own Tibet policies are called into question.
Tags: Nigeria, French, Nicolas Sarkozy, Poland, Taiwan, Malawi, Nelson Mandela, F. W, de Klerk, Desmond Tutu, Mathews Phosa, Angola, Motlanthe takes the flak, Barbara Hogan, Kgalema Motlanthe, Themba Maseko, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Jacob Zuma, Sehloho Moloi, Trevor Manuel, Enoch Godongwana, Thabo Mbeki, Betraying 'Stuggle history', Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, India, Daily Times
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/218/Ditching-the-Dalai-Lama

Yukiya Amano and Abdul Samad Minty
The International Atomic Energy Agency is to decide on a successor to Egypt's Mohamed ElBaradei as Director-General on 26-27 March. Two IAEA Governors, strong>Yukiya Amano and Abdul Samad Minty, have been jostling for the post since 2008. On ElBaradei's watch, the Agency uncovered clandestine nuclear activities in Libya, North Korea and Iran; the latter two remain to be tackled. Both candidates come from countries with unique perspectives on nuclear arms. Japan is the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack. South Africa built its own nukes but dismantled its programme after international pressure. Amano is thought to have wider support than Minty, but falls short of the necessary two-thirds majority.
Tags: Egypt', Mohamed ElBaradei, Yukiya Amano, Abdul Samad Minty, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Japan, South Africa, British, F.W. de Klerk, Tanzania, Ethiopia, United States, Laos, Belgium, France
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/217/Yukiya-Amano-and-Abdul-Samad-Minty

Shantayanan Devarajan
The effects of the global slowdown on African economies have been generally overlooked. The World Bank has responded with its advocacy of more regional integration and infrastructure development, and a proposal for the G-20 summit in London on 2 April that 0.7% of rich countries' stimulus packages should go to poorer countries. As Chief Economist for the Bank's Africa Region, Shanta Devarajan is the public face of its efforts.
Tags: Shanta Devarajan, Sri Lanka, John F. Kennedy, Finland, Ritva Reinikka, World Development Report 2004, World Bank Research Observer
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/216/Shantayanan-Devarajan

Alphonsus Chia Chung Mun
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has secured Singapore's interest in Rwanda's future. Singapore Cooperation Enterprise's Chief Executive Officer, Alphonsus Chia, was in Kigali in February to talk up investment opportunities. This is all part of President Kagame's plan to transform Rwanda into an East African information technology hub and bring it into the ranks of the middle-income countries by 2020. Chia's February visit followed the announcement of development plans for Kigali, now home to a million people.
Tags: Rwandan, Paul Kagame, Singapore, Alphonsus Chia, Kenya, Peter Ho Hak Ean, France, Belgium
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/215/Alphonsus-Chia-Chung-Mun

Victoria Kwakwa
Ghanaian economist Victoria Kwakwa starts her job as World Bank Country Director for Vietnam in April. It is an important posting, given Vietnam's economic record over the past three decades and its high gross domestic product growth following one of Asia's most devastating wars. Previously, Kwakwa worked on poverty reduction and economic management in the Bank's East Asia and Pacific division. From Vietnam, she reported on foreign direct investment during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and continued to monitor its effects there and in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia.
Tags: Ghanaian, Victoria Kwakwa, Laos, Cambodia, Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Rwanda, World Development Repor
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/214/Victoria-Kwakwa

Banking on secrecy
Finance ministers will come under heavy pressure at the G-20 meeting on 2 April in London to crack down on tax havens and the banking secrecy regimes that have facilitated so much capital flight from developing countries to Western jurisdictions. In the short term, Asia's banks and financial systems are likely to be the beneficiaries. UBS and Credit Suisse are relocating their private wealth operations to Asia, where due diligence is a regulatory requirement but is often not enforced.
Tags: Suisse, British, China, United States, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, Congo-Brazzaville, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Gordon Brown, Singapore, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Denis Gokana, Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/213/Banking-on-secrecy

When Irish eyes are smiling
Ireland's Tullow, which has quickly outgrown out its minnow status, enters April stronger, having raised US$2 billion in debt financing and energetically dismissing speculation that it would consider selling equity to China's giant oil corporations. But Tullow's operations in Ghana and Uganda may need to cooperate with China's big construction companies, which are bidding to build pipelines and refineries in both countries.
Tags: Ghana, Uganda, Kenya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/212/When-Irish-eyes-are-smiling

Seoul's safety in numbers
On top of the Madagascar saga, South Korea's loss of oil acreage in Nigeria in February is the biggest of several setbacks for Korean companies in Africa in recent months (AAC Vol 2 No 4). Going it alone caused problems in Madagascar and Nigeria, so Seoul's companies are now trying to partner with local companies with political influence.
Tags: Madagascar, South Korea, Nigeria, Congo-Kinshasa, Belgian, George Forrest, Louis Michel, Israeli, Dan Gertler, Niger, Chinese, South Africa, Groupe Forrest
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/211/Seoul's-safety-in-numbers

A target of the revolution
Almost as soon as he seized power on 18 March, putchiste President Andry Rajoelina cancelled a proposed contract to lease over a million hectares of land to South Korea's Daewoo Logistics. Rajoelina, who has the backing of most of Madagascar's army, said the Daewoo plan undermined national sovereignty. The land lease plan that was under negotiation between ousted President Marc Ravalomanana and Daewoo Logistics seemed doomed from the outset. Yet Daewoo seemed surprised that the plan had fuelled an upsurge in nationalist sentiment.
Tags: Andry Rajoelina, Marc Ravalomanana, Ahn Yong-nam, Shin Dong-hyun, Chinese, Marius Ratolojanahary, Benja Razafimahaleo, Canadian, Japanese, Dealing direct, Indian, putchiste
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/210/A-target-of-the-revolution

Business is politics
The arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir issued by the International Criminal Court on 4 March comprehensively overshadowed the golden jubilee of Chinese-Sudanese relations. March was supposed to be the culmination of a month-long love-in devoted to the celebration of the 50 years since Sudan's military President of the time, General Ibrahim Abboud, recognised Beijing in 1959.
Tags: Ibrahim Abboud, Wang Guangya, United States, Liu Guijin, Russian, Hillary Clinton, France, Libya, Zhang Yesui, Awad Ahmed el Jaz, Japan, Turkey, Ban Ki-moon, Yang Jiechi, Barack Obama, J. Scott Gration, Ethiopia, David Shinn
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/209/Business-is-politics

A 'challenge and a big stress'
Before China, there was Japan, say Kenyans. The Japanese aid model is built largely around supplying technical expertise rather than direct budget support. Japanese experts in agriculture, energy and education are dotted across Africa and they stick around in times of trouble, without asking too many questions of local politicians.
Tags: China, Kenyans, Botswana, Zambia, Sudanese, Yoshiyuki Takahashi, Zhang Ming, South Korean, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/208/A-'challenge-and-a-big-stress'

Missing the target
The man who was Japanese Prime Minister in 2007-08, Yasuo Fukuda, was in Botswana on 21-22 March for the follow-up meeting of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Participants were there to review the Annual Progress Report and Progress Status List which Tokyo's Foreign Affairs Ministry issued last month. The List details all Japanese assistance to Africa in 2008 and the Report sums up how well this assistance has followed the Yokohama Declaration, adopted at TICAD IV (AAC Vol 1 No 7).
Tags: Yasuo Fukuda, Botswana, Junichiro Koizumi, Yoshiro Mori, Taro Aso, Hirofumi Nakasone, Nobuhide Minorikawa, Sierra Leone, Vandi Chidi Minah
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/207/Missing-the-target

Diamonds in the rough
After disappointments in Asia, President Robert Mugabe and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono have been working hard to bring in Russian capital, especially in the opaque diamond sector. Russian surveyors have already visited deposits in Midlands Province and President Mugabe was hoping for a cash injection of up to US$5 billion from the Russian government and state mining company Alrosa, which had held discussions with Gono.
Tags: Robert Mugabe, Gideon Gono, Russian, Australia, Patrick Zhuwawo, Roman Ambramovich, Lev Leviev, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Tshinga Dube
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/206/Diamonds-in-the-rough

Bank East
Asia is an attractive destination for the property and financial portfolios of the senior cadres of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. It is extremely profitable, free from the prying eyes of United States and European sanctions enforcers and is ideologically sound. That is, it fits with President Robert Mugabe's 'Look East' policy which has tried (not very successfully, see AAC Vol 2 No 2) to compensate for lost inflows from Western investors.
Tags: United States, Robert Mugabe, Enock Kamushinda, India, Malaysia, Sally, China, J. Jegathesan, Pardip Kumar Kukreja, Singaporean, Gideon Gono, South African, Hsieh Ping-Sung, Albert Yeung Sau-shing, Jackie Chan, Bona, Mahathir Mohamad, Mahmood Awang Kechik, Constantine Chiwenga, Thailand, Nalinee, Joy, Taveesin, Jeffrey Ng
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/205/Bank-East

The sun also rises
Africa and China escaped the worst direct effects of the global slowdown last year, Africa because its banks were not integrated into international credit markets, and China because its banks were barred from investing in the complex financial products that wrecked several Western banks. But the second and third waves of the slowdown have been breaking on the shores of the African and Chinese economies ­ and wreaking havoc.
Tags: Louis Kuijs, Zhou Xiaochuan, United States, Some flee, others reposition, Zambia, Congo-Kinshasa, Moise Katumbi, Lily Tang, Kenya, Andy Rothman, Shi Lin, Bonnie Liu, Edward Wang, South Africa, Japan, Beny Steinmetz, Chen Yuan, Angola, Chi Jianxin, Nigeria, French, Ethiopia, Canada, Libyan, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/204/The-sun-also-rises

T.C. Venkat Subramanian
India wants to catch up fast with China's still booming economic diplomacy in Africa and at January's India-Africa Business Partnership Forum, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee called for greater engagement and investment in Africa. Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh criticised the lack of resources for India Export-Import Bank compared to its Chinese counterpart.
Tags: China, Pranab Mukherjee, Jairam Ramesh, Chinese, Singapore, Senegal, South Africa,, Eritrea, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Madagascar, S.R. Rao, Sudan, Ethiopia, ,, Dhoom 2
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/203/T.C.-Venkat-Subramanian

Yukio Takasu
Japan chairs the United Nations Security Council in February. Its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC began 1 January. Taking the chair, Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu presented clocks to the Council members as a gentle reminder to his often tardy colleagues to arrive punctually at meetings.
Tags: Yukio Takasu, Ban Ki-moon, Congo-Kinshasa, Somalia, Sudan, Omer el Beshir, United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Libya, Vietnam, Egypt, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Malaysia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/202/Yukio-Takasu

Ma Ying-jeou
As China's President Hu Jintao tours Africa this month, his Taiwanese counterpart will be conspicuously absent. Ma Ying-jeou has been trying to cool the diplomatic competition with Beijing.
Tags: China, Hu Jintao, Ma Ying-jeou, Burkina Faso, Gambia, São Tomé e Príncipe, Swaziland, Francisco Ou, El Salvador, Panama, Chiang Ching-kuo, Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian, Frank Hsieh, Wu Poh-hsiung, Lien Chan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/201/Ma-Ying-jeou

Hu Jintao
This month, China's leader embarks on his fourth tour of Africa. The itinerary - Mali, Mauritius, Senegal and Tanzania - shows the range of relationships built up under Hu Jintao. These are medium-size economies with multi-party systems; three are Francophone, much to Paris's irritation.
Tags: Mali, Mauritius, Senegal, Tanzania, Hu Jintao, Mao Zedong, Jiang Zemin, Xi Jinping, United States, Wen Jiabao, Terpsichore
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/200/Hu-Jintao

The new Conakry order
Despite a show of insouciance after December's putsch led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in Conakry, China's diplomats and business leaders are closely watching the new regime's policies, particularly its intentions to review all mining contracts. China is now the biggest foreign investor in the Mano River Union countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, following China Union's $2.68 billion investment in Liberia. That strategic position has been further strengthened by the state-owned Aluminium Corporation of China (Chinalco)'s US$19.5 bn. investment in the debt-laden Rio Tinto Group (equivalent to 18% of Rio's equity), which has started work cautiously on a $6 bn. iron-ore project in Guinea.
Tags: Moussa Dadis Camara, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Lansana Conté, Israeli, Beny Steinmetz, South Africa, Mahmoud Thiam, United States, Barack Obama, Huo Zhengde, Moussa Diokoro Camara, Conseil National pour la Démocratie et le Développement, Direction Nationale de la Pharmacie et du Laboratoire
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/199/The-new-Conakry-order

Beijing news network
Beijing is investing 45 billion yuan (US$6.6 bn.) in expanding its Xinhua News Agency and launching a 24-hour English language television news station. The plans envisage more cooperation with African media organisations and have already prompted criticism from Western newspapers and human rights groups, which regard Chinese news outlets as controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Tags: Malawi, Wen Jiabao, Egypt, Togo, Cameroon, Raphaël Mvogo, Paul Biya, Roger Mbassa, Australia, Ephraïm Inoni, South African, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua, Xinhua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/198/Beijing-news-network

Best friends again
Angola has maintained its status as China's biggest trading partner in Africa - with trade volumes between the two countries reaching US$25.3 billion in 2008 - according to Beijing's Minister of Commerce Chen Deming.
Tags: Chen Deming, Paulo Kassoma, José Eduardo dos Santos, Li Ruogu, Eduardo Severim De Morais, José Botelho de Vasconcelos, United States, India, Fan Jixiang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/197/Best-friends-again

Makokou answers back
President Omar Bongo's government strikes a delicate balance on the Bélinga project: on the national stage, it tells the Gabonese that it is pressuring China to speed up work, but on the international stage it wants to reinforce its regional role by cultivating a close diplomatic relationship with Beijing.
Tags: Omar Bongo, Jean Ping, Jean-Marie Mokoko, Notables du Département de l'Ivindo, Notables, Notables,, Compagnie Minière de Bélinga,
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/196/Makokou-answers-back

Iron in the soul
Having won a dangerous game of brinkmanship, President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba is trying to re-excite China's interest in the Bélinga iron ore project. Since the end of last year, China's multibillion dollar iron ore project has been facing testing times on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Tags: Omar Bongo Ondimba, Brazil, India, Slashing investment, French, Casimir Oyé Mba, Yin Zhixin, Xue Jinwei, Georgette Koko, El Hadj, Compagnie Minière de Bélinga, Transgabonais
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/195/Iron-in-the-soul

Contract shuffles
Global financial chaos and falling demand for oil and minerals are prompting recalculations on all sides. The IMF and World Bank have revised down their gross domestic product forecasts for China and India this year to 8% and 7% respectively, and slashed their Africa forecast lower still.
Tags: China, India, Chike Udenze, Ibrahim Bio, Xu Jianguo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/194/Contract-shuffles

What's yours is mine and...
The Korean National Oil Company may take legal action in response to Nigeria's revoking last month of two lucrative concessions awarded to the company in 2005. KNOC won operating rights to Oil Prospecting Licences 321 and 323 ahead of a rival consortium led by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh (OVL).
Tags: Korean, India, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Niger, Algeria, Primod Mittal, Assets and liabilities, Tony Anenih, Roh Moo-hyun, British
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/193/What's-yours-is-mine-and...

Vultures over Kinshasa
Chinese money is now a key target for United States' FG Hemisphere Associates LLC, which wants to reclaim a debt of US$104 million owed by Congo-Kinshasa. FG Hemisphere is widely known as one of the leading 'vulture funds' and was created by former Morgan Stanley consultants Peter Grossman and Keith R. Fogerty.
Tags: United States, Peter Grossman, Keith R. Fogerty, Bosnia, South Africa, Belgian, German, Paul Singer, Société Nationale d'Electricité, Gécamines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/192/Vultures-over-Kinshasa

Twixt Beijing and the IMF
Falling demand for copper, cobalt and diamonds offers a stark choice for President Joseph Kabila's government: does it accept the onerous conditions of credits from the International Monetary Fund or does it put its faith in massive mining and infrastructure projects with China, which have been under negotiation for the past two years? The package of countertrade deals with China could be worth as much as US$20 billion in the medium term, but Kinshasa wants to reduce its $11.5 bn. foreign debt, accumulated under kleptocratic leader Mobutu Sese Seko, who was chased from power in 1997.
Tags: Joseph Kabila, Mobutu Sese Seko, Jean-Claude Masangu, Adolphe Muzito, Yang San, Kabila's footpaths, Brian Ames, Banque Centrale du Congo, Banque Centrale, Boulevard du 30 Juin, chantiers, les cinq sentiers, Groupement d'Entreprises Chinoises, Sino-Congolaise des Mines, Sicomines, Gécamines, Banque Centrale, Sicomines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/191/Twixt-Beijing-and-the-IMF

The born-again Bong mines
The US$2.68 billion Bong Mines deal hands the Chinese consortium led by Yin Fuyou and China Union a 25-year concession for the formerly German-owned Bong Mines in Bong Country, north-east of Liberia's capital, Monrovia. It covers 352 square kilometers and has been only partially explored: it is reckoned to hold at least 300 million tonnes of low-grade (35-45%) iron ore.
Tags: Chinese, Yin Fuyou, German, Richard Tolbert, Samuel Kofi Woods
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/190/The-born-again-Bong-mines

A more perfect union
The US$2.68 billion agreement signed by China Union's Chief Executive Yin Fuyou and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on 19 January to restart iron ore production at the old Bong Mines flies in the face of global economic realities as mining projects stall and close across Asia and Africa. The mega deal - the largest in Liberia's history - points to China's long term strategy in the region, where it is developing a portfolio of mining interests in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Tags: Yin Fuyou, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Richard Tolbert, Gabon, Sierra Leonean, Financial worries, Xue Song, Indian, Hu Jintao, Yin Aiping, Natty Davis, Charles Gyude Bryant, Nigeria, United States, United Arab Emirates, Olusegun Obasanjo, Kola Adun, Eugene Shannon, Zambia, Mauritius, Chi Jianxin, Joseph Boakai, Olubanke King Akerele, Antoinette Sayeh, Chris Toe, Toga McIntosh, Israel, Beny Steinmetz, Zhonglilian, chaebol
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/189/A-more-perfect-union

Ghana's votes and China's dams
The Beijing-Accra axis, which dates back to the heady Independence days of President Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, is an important one for both sides. Beijing wants a strong economic relationship with Ghana to show that not all its African partners are mineral-rich and corrupt autocracies. Accra wants to escape the label of being a Western poodle as well as finding alternative financing sources for some ambitious power and transport projects.
Tags: Kwame Nkrumah, John Evans Atta Mills, Hu Jintao, John Agyekum Kufuor, Fan Jixiang, Afare Donkor,, Ding Zhengguo, Yu Wenzhe,, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/188/Ghana's-votes-and-China's-dams

Another new world order
Like every other major economy, China is reassessing its priorities, and worrying about unemployment and falling market demand. Beijing's policymakers will therefore concentrate more on domestic economic growth and spend less time winning hearts and minds in Africa with shows of developmental largesse. However, this is a tactical twist rather than a strategic change.
Tags: Congo-Kinshasa, Qian Qichen, Yang Jiechi, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, South Africa, Egypt, Taiwan, Record-breaking China/Africa trade, British, Chen Deming, Angola, Gabon, José Eduardo dos Santos, Liberia, Nigeria, Laurent Nkunda,, Rwandan, Congo-Brazzaville, Zimbabwe, Somali, Hu Jintao
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/187/Another-new-world-order

Ploughing new fields
Cambodia's diplomatic reach in Africa is extremely limited but its rice exports are expanding fast despite questions about their quality. With a record surplus of over 2.8 million tonnes in 2008, the Agriculture Ministry reports that more than 2 mn. tonnes will be exported to Africa and the Middle East in 2009. The main African destination will be Senegal.
Tags: Senegal, INDONESIA, Hassan Wirayuda, Mozambique, United States, Japan, Mari Elka Pangestu, Bachrul Chairi, Somali, Indonesia, South African, Nigeria, Malaysia, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, China, Umaru Yar'Adua, Ojo Maduekwe, Susilo Bambang, Yudhoyono, LAOS, Laos, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Najib Tun Razak, Zambia, Japanese, Singapore, Robert Mugabe, Grace Murufu,, Cameroon, Ethiopia, NORTH KOREA, North Korea, Kim Jung-il, Naguib Sawiris, Abdoulaye Wade, PAKISTAN, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, India, Usama al-Kini, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, SOUTH KOREA, South Korea, Kazuo Kodama, Gambia, Madagascar, THAILAND, Thailand, Alongkorn Pollabutr, Algeria, VIETNAM, Vietnam, Chad, Central African Republic, Vu Moc Anh, Al Qaida, Al Qaida
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/186/Ploughing-new-fields

Delhi defies the downturn
Over the next five years, New Delhi expects India's trade with Africa to reach US$100 billion - despite the global economic slowdown. In an upbeat analysis of relations with Africa, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee identified agriculture, mining, chemicals, information technology and infrastructure components as the main areas for expansion. Mukherjee was speaking at the India-Africa Business Partnership Summit in New Delhi on 21 January; also at the Summit, External Affairs Minister Anand Sharma promised his government would ask its banks to improve payment and credit facilities for Indian and African businesses.
Tags: Pranab Mukherjee, Anand Sharma, Chinese, Togo, Kenya, Nigeria, Emmanuel Egbogah,, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Angola, Botswana, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa, Manmohan Singh, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Sudan, Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Bharatiya Janata, Mysore
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/185/Delhi-defies-the-downturn

State agencies lead the way
Most of the impetus for Japanese companies in Africa will be coming from state agencies. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency wants to test its newly expanded powers and wider funding base, which includes much of the finance previously earmarked for the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Much of what JICA commits in 2009 will reinforce long-term Japanese private investment in energy and minerals.
Tags: Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Gabon, Angola, American
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/184/State-agencies-lead-the-way

Good intentions meet reality
Tokyo's promises to double aid to Africa by 2012 are being tested by international financial pressure on Japan's already feeble economy - and by domestic political troubles. Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had pledged to meet the African aid commitments of the previous government under Yasuo Fukuda, but economic trends are militating against it.
Tags: Taro Aso, Yasuo Fukuda, United States, Somalia, Export opportunities, Shintaro Matoba, Kenya, Botswana, Yoshiro Mori, Tetsuro Yano, Toshimitsu Motegi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/183/Good-intentions-meet-reality

Africa tests rapprochement
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou's new diplomatic strategy of rapprochement with China is making waves from the Taiwan Strait to distant African shores. Agreements have been signed between the two sides' semi-official negotiating bodies and their diplomats follow new codes of conduct. Yet the deals have not been debated by the Taipei parliament and they avoid the main issue, the island's sovereignty.
Tags: Ma Ying-jeou, China, V. N. Chibundu, Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia, Chao Chien-min, Liberia, South Korean, Swaziland, Jacob Zuma, Yang Jiechi, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Business before politics, Burkina Faso, Angola, Cheng Ho, Kenya, Yushan, Wuhan, emalangeni
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/182/Africa-tests-rapprochement

Ibrahim Ali Hassan
The Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs is a fixture at the major Asian development events, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. The long-serving diplomat has seen first-hand the rise of Asia in Africa and has led Egypt's delegations to TICAD in 1998 and to FOCAC since its first conference in 2000. Now Ibrahim Ali Hassan will head and coordinate the fourth ministerial conference of FOCAC in Sharm El Sheikh in late 2009.
Tags: China, Egypt, Ibrahim Ali Hassan, Benin, Li Keqiang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/181/Ibrahim-Ali-Hassan

Cho Hwan-eik
The President of KOTRA studied political science at Seoul National University, and has an MBA from New York University and a doctorate in business administration from Hanyang University.
Tags: Cho Hwan-eik, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/180/Cho-Hwan-eik

Chen Deming
Touring Africa in the wake of the global credit crunch has been a sobering experience for China's Commerce Minister, Chen Deming. His 12-19 January trip began in Kenya, where Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta complained about Kenya's trade imbalance with China. More agreeably, in Zambia, Chen and President Rupiah Banda signed off on new infrastructure projects, including a stadium and government offices, and opened a Lusaka export processing zone for Chinese companies. (China is building similar zones in Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia.)
Tags: China, Chen Deming, Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, Zambia, Rupiah Banda, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Angola, Taiwan, Singapore
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/179/Chen-Deming

Muhyiddin Yassin
Muhyiddin Yassin is one of three vice-presidents of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the leading member of the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition, and as Trade Minister, one of the most important figures in Malaysia's burgeoning trade with Africa.
Tags: Muhyiddin Yassin, Chinese, Indian, Britain, Abdullah Badawi, Najib Abdul Razak, Egypt, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Azman Mokhtar, Barisan Nasional, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, Khazanah Nasional Berhard
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/178/Muhyiddin-Yassin

Never mind the yuan, feel the ideology
Ideological rather than commercial motives led to the 2003 launch of Zimbabwe’s ‘Look East’ policy, but as the country’s economic position has deteriorated, Harare has tried to woo Chinese capital and companies. In 2000, China established the China-Africa Cooperation Forum with 44 African nations to promote free trade and investment. But by then, trade with Zimbabwe was already in decline.
Tags: Britain, United States, Robert Mugabe, Sudan, Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Hu Ming
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/176/Never-mind-the-yuan%2c-feel-the-ideology

The twins and trade
The twinning of provinces and cities in China and Africa is central to Beijing’s strategy of allowing provinces to take a lead role in trade matters. For Beijing, twinning is much more than the polite cultural exchanges promoted by European cities; instead it is a detailed economic and commercial strategy with clear objectives.
Tags: Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Togo, Madagascar, Djibouti, Malawi, Zhang Liang Yu, Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Egypt, Mali, Guinea
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/175/The-twins-and-trade

The power of the provinces
The provincial leaders who have driven China’s economic boom and commercial charge into Africa insist that history is on their side. Ancient China’s Emperors – powerful as they seemed – still had to negotiate their powers and authority with the provincial barons of the day. It was only under Mao Zedong’s communist rule that Beijing seemed able – albeit temporarily – to impose its writ across China.
Tags: Mao Zedong, Regional entrepreneurs, Pakistan, Eritrea, Deng Xiaoping, Nigeria, Mauritius, Confucius in africa, Wang Dian Jian, Phil Edmonds, Congo-Kinshasa, Angola, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Sibusiso Ndebele, Kenyans, Portugal, Cyprus, Botswana, Gao Yaozong, ‘Chocolate city’, Central African Republic, Didier Basangele-Nkita, Hu Jintao, Zambia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/174/The-power-of-the-provinces

The waiting list
The diplomatic battles between China and Taiwan – often played out on African soil – are on hold. There is no formal truce yet because China’s strategists believe that they are well ahead in the bigger game, the plan to recover Taiwan. There is some good news for those African states that have stayed loyal to Taipei. Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou has promised a new White Paper on foreign aid, one that would bring Taiwan’s foreign aid closer to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standards.
Tags: Ma Ying-jeou, Andrew Hsia, Costa Rica, Burkina Faso, Gambia, São Tomé e Príncipe, Swaziland, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/173/The-waiting-list

Crumbling cement
Worsening international economic conditions, tighter credit lines and Nigeria’s weak industrial policy have led to a sharp cutback in the US$3.3 billion cement manufacturing deal between China’s Sinoma International Engineering Company and Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Group.
Tags: Aliko Dangote, Senegal, Congo-Kinshasa, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Knut Ulvmoen, Egypt
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/172/Crumbling-cement

Tokyo's plans
Sadako Ogata, President of the newly reorganised Japan International Cooperation Agency, says that the JICA is now the best funded national development agency in the world. Her job, therefore, also makes her one of the most powerful aid chiefs in the world.
Tags: Sadako Ogata, China, Yasuo Fukuda, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Zambia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/171/Tokyo's-plans

Nkunda's anti-Beijing card
China’s billion dollar contracts in Congo are at the centre of a new propaganda front in rebel General Laurent Nkunda’s war against President Joseph Kabila’s government in Kinshasa. Nkunda and his Rebel Conseil National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) have demanded the cancellation of all China contracts signed by Kinshasa as one of their key conditions in talks with the United Nations Special Representative and mediator, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and the Governor of North Kivu Julien Paluku.
Tags: Laurent Nkunda, Joseph Kabila, Nigerian, Olusegun Obasanjo, Julien Paluku, Rwandan, Kagame, United States, Spain, Cynthia McKinney, Argentine, dolfo Pérez Esquive, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Rebel Conseil National pour la Défense du Peuple, Asia Times, Forum International pour la Vérité et la Justice dans l’Afrique des Grands Lacs, Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/170/Nkunda's-anti-Beijing-card

Go East, old man
Asia is responding to President Robert Mugabe’s calls for solidarity in the time of cholera – but not in the way that Harare had envisaged. The economic meltdown and spread of cholera across Zimbabwe and into South Africa has emboldened China, India and Japan – which have been promoting the virtues of Asia’s non-intervention in African politics – to make increasingly direct criticisms of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) regime.
Tags: Robert Mugabe, South Africa, India, Japan, United States, Liu Joanchao, Botswana, Stepping back, Kenya, Raila Odinga, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, Andrew Small, Joshua Nkomo, Soviet Union, Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, Korea, Vietnam, Eric Bloch, Look East goes south, Wu Bangguo, Ethiopia, John Robertson, Congo-Kinshasa, Zambia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/169/Go-East%2c-old-man

Liu Qi
In August 2008, the sun shone brightly on the Beijing Olympics. With Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping providing behind-the-scenes muscle, the government forced factory closures and enacted draconian traffic restrictions. The veil of smog lifted at the last minute and the lion’s share of the credit goes to Liu Qi.
Tags: Xi Jinping, Liu Qi, Zambia, Daniel Munkombwe, South African, Kgalema Motlanthe, Jacob Zuma, Jeff Radebe, Paul Mashatile, Britain, Boris Johnson, Meng Xuenong
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/168/Liu-Qi

Tenzin Gyatso
Though the Dalai Lama has recently hinted at retirement, his capacity to ruffle China’s feathers is undiminished. His lecture in Lagos, Nigeria, on 28 November passed without incident or comment from Beijing. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua scrupulously kept his distance, and the only controversial moment came when the Dalai Lama opined that sexual relationships ‘are always full of trouble’.
Tags: China, Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, French, Nicolas Sarkozy, Poland, Rama Yade, un psychodrame
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/167/Tenzin-Gyatso

Deepak Kapoor
The 26 November terrorist attacks in Mumbai that left 164 people dead and more than 300 wounded took place during General Deepak Kapoor’s African goodwill tour, but he did not rush home.
Tags: Deepak Kapoor, South Africa, Botswana, Godfrey Ngwenya, H. C. Masire, Dikgakgamatso Seretse, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Pakistan, Somalia, Mallipudi Raju Pallam Mangapati
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/166/Deepak-Kapoor

Vu Tien Loc
In August 2008, the sun shone brightly on the Beijing Olympics. With Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping providing behind-the-scenes muscle, the government forced factory closures and enacted draconian traffic restrictions. The veil of smog lifted at the last minute and the lion’s share of the credit goes to Liu Qi.
Tags: Xi Jinping, Liu Qi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/165/Vu-Tien-Loc

Uwe Wissenbach
Many European Union diplomats believe their continent’s influence is being sidelined as China boosts its investments and profile in Africa. One man in the European Commission is working to channel those feelings toward constructive engagement. As the EC’s Coordinator for Africa-China Relations, Uwe Wissenbach shapes policy as the EU adjusts to Asia’s growing influence in Africa.
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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/164/Uwe-Wissenbach

Kamal Nath
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wants more trade with India. During his 16-19 November trip to New Delhi, he marketed Egypt as a gateway to Africa and an attractive investment in its own right. The pitch fell on the ears of Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who is interested in building an Indian industrial zone there. Indian imports mainly oil and gas from Egypt. Bilateral trade stands at US$3 bn. annually; the two countries want that to rise to $10 bn. by 2010. India will need to diversify its imports.
Tags: Egyptian, Hosni Mubarak, India, Kamal Nath, Lok Sabra
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/163/Kamal-Nath

Kang Man-soo
South Korea has been hit hard by the financial crisis and Finance Minister Kang Man-soo has organised a US$11 billion stimulus package. He is maintaining the commitments he made at the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference on 27-30 October in Seoul. Korea pledged some $760 mn. in new finance for infrastructure and mining projects, with Angola as a favoured client.
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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/162/Kang-Man-soo

Wu Bangguo
Second in command of China’s Communist Party Wu Bangguo has just completed a tour of Algeria, Gabon, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Seychelles from 3-14 November. He visited the allies in rough order from oldest to newest. With Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Wu talked up infrastructure and energy. He proposed a trade and economic zone. Then he spent two days in Gabon discussing minerals and power with President Omar Bongo Ondimba.
Tags: China, Wu Bangguo, Algeria, Gabon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Seychelles, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Omar Bongo Ondimba, Meles Zenawi, Jean Ping, Marc Ravalomanana, James Michel, Egypt, Hu Jintao, Zambia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/161/Wu-Bangguo

Diplomacy still has dollars for some
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou’s desire to put an end to ‘dollar diplomacy’ (AAC Vol 1 No 11) has been put to the test by his counterparts in Burkina Faso and Gambia. On a diplomatic tour at the end of October, Taipei’s Foreign Minister Francisco Ou took the opportunity to put the rhetoric into practice, but some allies fared better than others.
Tags: Ma Ying-jeou, Francisco Ou, Blaise Campaoré, Isatou Njie-Saidy, Omar Touray, Yahya Jammeh, Alain Bédouma Yoda, Swedish, Gunilla Carlsson, Chad, Malawi, Commission Mixte de Coopération Burkina-Taïwan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/160/Diplomacy-still-has-dollars-for-some

Washington wants the details
The International Monetary Fund has given Kinshasa a stark choice: the Bretton Woods financial institutions or the Chinese. On a visit in September, an IMF delegation led by Africa Department Director Brian Arnes made clear that it wants to see feasibility studies completed by March 2009 on the US$9 billion Chinese infrastructure deals signed in May (AAC Vol 1 No 7).
Tags: Brian Arnes, Laurent Nkunda, Nigerian, Olusegun Obasanjo, Pierre Lumbi, Groupement d’Entreprises Chinoises
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/159/Washington-wants-the-details

Mapping the arms sales

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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/158/Mapping-the-arms-sales

New forces in the arms bazaar
Asian states buy, sell and invest in Africa and their military dealings are growing too. The global arms trade is dominated by the United States, Western Europe and Russia, but several Asian nations have substantial military industries. Selling arms is profitable and cements political and economic ties with African partners.
Tags: United States, Russia, China, India, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Britain, France, Angola, Rwanda, Pakistan, Germany, Uganda, Chinese flying high, , , Zambia, Michèle Alliot-Marie, Japan, South Korean, Turkey, Nigerian, Libyan, Algeria, Egypt, North Korean, Ethiopia, Somalia, Israel, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kenyan, Issayas Afewerki, Morocco, Sweden, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Belarus, Congo-Kinshasa, Greece, Serbia, Chad, Kenya, Military relations, Tanzania, Mali, Al-Bashir, Namibia, Italy
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/157/New-forces-in-the-arms-bazaar

Seoul search in Africa
International financial realities did not deter the 21 African delegations to the second Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference (KOAFEC), held in Seoul on 27-30 October. At the inaugural meeting two years ago, just 15 countries had attended but this year many new countries were present Among those represented this year were Benin, Congo-Kinshasa, Gabon, Gambia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda. In its bilateral relations and with those of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Seoul has yet to venture outside the areas of its strengths (infrastructure and telecommunications) or its weaknesses (natural resources).
Tags: Benin, Congo-Kinshasa, Gabon, Gambia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Tanzania, Nigeria, Sim Jin-Sik, Bruce Montador
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/156/Seoul-search-in-Africa

The honeymoon is over
The catastrophic failure in November of Nigeria’s US$340 million, Chinese-built satellite NIGCOMSAT-1, launched only a year ago, is the latest, most visible indication of increasing difficulties between Beijing and its most sought-after and elusive partner in sub-Saharan Africa. The communications satellite project had symbolised China’s success in doing business with the region’s largest oil producer, offering technology and capital either unforthcoming from established partners or with fewer political strings. But the failure of the satellite’s power unit after a short time – and criticism of the project’s cost and implementation – suggests serious problems. The satellite fiasco came amid growing tensions over private and state contracts. On 20 November, Tanimu Yakubu, Chief Economic Advisor to Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, announced the government may cancel an $8.3 billion railway modernisation contract agreed in 2006 with China Civil Engineering and Construction Company.
Tags: Tanimu Yakubu, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Olusegun Obasanjo, Li Zhaoxing, Hu Jintao, Aliko Dangote, He Wenping, Chen Xiaoxing
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/155/The-honeymoon-is-over

Chen Yuan
p>Chen Yuan is one of the ’princelings’, as children of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary compatriots are known. His father, Chen Yi, was a key player in the Communist revolution, a member of Mao’s Central Committee, and wielded great influence until his death in 1995.
Tags: Chen Yuan, Mao Zedong, Chen Yi, Deng Xiaoping, Uganda, United States, Gao Jian
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/154/Chen-Yuan

Jairam Ramesh
Jairam Ramesh’s career has taken him to the top of government and politics in India. Now he has expanded his remit to economic relations with Africa. On 6-7 October, he led a business delegation to the fifth Ethio-India Joint Trade Committee meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The talks produced a US$640 million line of credit to build three sugar factories in Tendaho. >/P>
Tags: Jairam Ramesh, India, Ethiopia, Gurjit Singh, Meles Zenawi, Mahatma Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, United States, Sonia Gandhi, Rajya Sabha, Making Sense of Chindia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/153/Jairam-Ramesh

Motoyoshi Noro
Japan is increasing its diplomatic presence in southern Africa following the successful Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) IV in May. Until this year, Japan’s Embassy in Zambia handled relations with Malawi and Botswana. Ambassador Hideto Mitamura opened the Lilongwe consulate in January, overseeing its operation until Motoyoshi Noro arrived in June. Botswana too received a new ambassador, Ryoichi Matsuyama. <
Tags: Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Hideto Mitamura, Motoyoshi Noro, Ryoichi Matsuyama, India, Ghana, Ethiopia, Bingu wa Mutharika, Chargé d’Affaires
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/152/Motoyoshi-Noro

Chin Dong-soo
In Asia’s rush to develop relations with Africa, South Korea is trying to catch up with its East Asian rivals, Japan and China. Dignitaries attending the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference (KOAFEC) Ministerial Conference 27-30 October in Seoul are to be welcomed by Chin Dong-soo, the new President of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim).
Tags: Japan, China, Chin Dong-soo, United States, Angola, Ghana
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/151/Chin-Dong-soo-

Xu Jianguo
Ambassador to Africa’s biggest oil producer, Xu Jianguo has presided over a rapid expansion of commercial and diplomatic ties since his posting to Abuja in September 2006. Chinese investment in Nigeria is worth more than US$3 billion, and bilateral trade in 2007 was running at over $4 bn., making Nigeria China’s third-largest African trading partner, just behind Angola and Sudan.
Tags: Xu Jianguo, Angola, Sudan, South Africa, Georgia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/150/Xu-Jianguo-

Wang Yi
Wang Yi has been appointed President of Sinosure, China's export credit insurance agency, after he resigned as General Manager of the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC) on 18 April. He steps in after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, a State Council ministry, announced on 23 April that Tang Ruoxin, Sinosure's President since its inception in 2001, had been removed from his post and is under investigation for violations of unspecified regulations.
Tags: Wang Yi, Tang Ruoxin, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/149/Wang-Yi

Shamsudeen Usman
Since joining Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's cabinet in 2007 as Finance Minister, Shamsudeen Usman has courted foreign investment - particularly from China - to rejuvenate Nigeria's infrastructure and boost its petroleum production. His appointment seemed to indicate that Yar'Adua wanted to continue the reforms introduced by his predecessor's Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. As Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of domestic monetary policy (1999-2007), Usman was involved in Okonjo-Iweala's debt restructuring deal. Some say Usman lacks the drive that distinguished Okonjo-Iweala, who forced reforms through entrenched resistance but he shares her insistence on fiscal discipline.
Tags: Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Shamsudeen Usman, China, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Odein Ajumogobia, China, Olusegun Obasanjo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/148/Shamsudeen-Usman

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Born in 1954, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala studied economics at Harvard University, then earned a Ph.D in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. She joined the World Bank, where she was to spend 21 years as a development economist. She became intimately familiar with the economies of East Asia, putting in two tours in the region, and acting as Country Director for Malaysia, Mongolia, Laos and Cambodia.
Tags: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Malaysia, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia, Nigeria, Olesegun Obasanjo, Robert Zoellick, Bangladesh, India
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/147/Ngozi-Okonjo-Iweala

Nobutake Odano
As the man responsible for coordinating the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development scheduled for May 28-30, Ambassador Nobutake Odano has covered a lot of miles in the last six months. Shuttling between Tokyo and Africa, Odano has led preparatory meetings in Zambia, Tunisia, Tanzania and Gabon, with stopovers in London and Brussels to drum up support. Japan's choice of an efficient, experienced diplomat highlights the importance it places on the TICAD IV proceedings.
Tags: Nobutake Odano, Zambia, Tunisia, Tanzania, Gabon, Japan, Britain, Germany, Australia, Myanmar
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/146/Nobutake-Odano

Not working out
When China evacuated 400 construction workers from Mongomo in Equatorial Guinea in early April, it marked the culmination of a labour dispute with a difference. In several African countries, notably Zambia and Congo-Kinshasa, Chinese companies have been criticised for their treatment of local staff. In other African countries, like Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria, Chinese technical staff have been kidnapped by dissident groups. But in Equatorial Guinea the tension was generated by the local authorities clashing with labourers imported from China.
Tags: Zambia, Congo-Kinshasa, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Nigeria, Angola, Mauritian, inter alia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/145/Not-working-out

Ticad Talks
With just a month to go before the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) on 28-30 May, the Japanese hosts are busily firming proposals that will both push forward their aspirations for Africa and earn Japan extra leverage and prestige before the G8 meeting in July.
Tags: Somalia, China, Gabon, Nobutake Odano, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, India
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/144/Ticad-Talks

A $50 Billion Handshake
A sizable and much-ballyhooed credit line looks to be little more than a goodwill gesture from China to Nigeria, promising much but delivering little. The brief fanfare attached to the initial announcement has died away, but concrete proposals have yet to emerge to fill the silence.
Tags: Umaru Yar'Adua, Odein Ajumogobia, Senegal, Shamsudeen Usman
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/143/A-%2450-Billion-Handshake

How Africa could feed itself... And Asia too
The veteran environmentalist Lester Brown asked in the mid-1990s: 'Who will feed China?' The answer is that the Chinese hope to, thanks to more fertiliser, better seeds and genetic modification, but the country is quickly becoming an importer of goods that it recently exported as consumption outpaces advances in production. Prompted by rising world food prices, which make farming more profitable, there is a chance that Asian capital and expertise will help Africa to produce for its own consumption and eventual export.
Tags: Lester Brown, China, South Korean, Belgium, Kenya, Uganda, Liu Jianjun, Li Ruogu, Indians, Vimal Shah, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Malaysia, United States, Industries Chimiques du
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/142/How-Africa-could-feed-itself...-And-Asia-too

Two continents, one food crisis
Africans depend heavily on imported food, and the World Bank estimates that world food prices rose by 58% between March 2007 and March 2008. Moreover, several important food-exporting countries are trying to limit their own food-price increases by taxing, or banning, their own exports.
Tags: Philippines, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Egypt, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Cambodia, United States, China, Australia, Argentina, Madagascar, Ivohasina Razafimahefa, , Nigeria, South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Kandeh Yumkella, Shamsudeen Usman, Mozambique, Angola, Senegal, Togo, Ghana,, Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Guinea, Ethiopia, Burundi, Eritrea, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Niger, Liberia, Botswana, Abdoulaye Wade, Swiss, Japan, Al Qaida
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/141/Two-continents%2c-one-food-crisis

Chalo Africa
Indian Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh cut a deal with Endiama, Angola's state-owned diamond company, to facilitate the direct sale of stones to India by mid-2009. India is also expected to accept Endiama's offer for its mining companies to explore and develop Angolan diamond mines. Similarly, in neighbouring Namibia, Ramesh's discussions with various leaders including ex-President Sam Nujoma focused on directly procuring gems and precious stones, but with no agreement as yet.
Tags: Jairam Ramesh, Angola, Namibia, Sam Nujoma, Bwabwa Wa Keyembe, Congo-Kinshasa, Mussa Usman, Mozambique, Belgium, Chalo Mozambique
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/140/Chalo-Africa

In the Navy
India has defined Africa as part of its wider strategic interest and is concerned about nuclear rival China's encroachment on what it perceives as its'wider sphere of influence' along the African rim of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). To this end, the Indian Navy (IN) is conducting fortnight-long India-Brazil-South Africa maritime exercises (IBSAMAR) from 2 May off South Africa's south-western coast as a force multiplier to further Delhi's strategic, diplomatic and commercial influence in two continents.
Tags: China, Brazil, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, United States, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Sudan, Tanzania
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/139/In-the-Navy

The Delhi Durbar
In a direct challenge to established Western interests and the continent's growing ties with China and Japan, India is promising to invest heavily in Africa's transport, energy and manufacturing sectors as well as build up education and training programmes.
Tags: China, Japan, Manmohan Singh, Tarun Das, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt), Tanzanian, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Senegalese, Abdoulaye Wade, Ruchita Beri, Joseph Kabila Kabange, Democratic Republic of Congo, Alpha Oumar Konaré, Ugandan, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, United States, C. Raja Mohan, Singapore, Francis Moloi, South African, Shipra Tripathi,, Navin Jindal, Sanjay Kirloskar,, Daniel Quarcoo, Ghana, The Hindu
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/138/The-Delhi-Durbar

Masatu Kitera
Masato Kitera is a typical example of the dependable civil servants that Japan has assigned to its Africa projects in advance of TICAD IV, to be held in Yokohama on 28-30 May. Kitera has been the Director General for African Affairs at the Foreign Ministry since January 2008.
Tags: Masato Kitera, France, Thailand, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/137/Masatu-Kitera

Tiong Hiew King
Malaysia's Rimbunan Hijau is the international logging company whose activities have fuelled Asian construction for 30 years. Despite heated criticism from environmental groups, Tiong Hiew King has become one of Malaysia's richest men. His international empire now encompasses property development and media enterprises.
Tags: Tiong Hiew King, Chinese, Russia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan, Rimbunan, Ming Pao
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/136/Tiong-Hiew-King

Akhil Gupta
Largely overshadowed by the family name and media attention devoted to Sunil Bharti Mittal, Akhil Gupta is Bharti Airtel's other Managing Director. Mittal is credited with the vision, but Gupta is the architect who has guided Bharti Airtel's growth.
Tags: Sunil Bharti Mittal, Akhil Gupta
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/135/Akhil-Gupta

Hu Deping
Facing a growing demand for agricultural products while its wealthy business people seek new opportunities, Chinese companies are searching for investments in Africa that go beyond energy and mineral resourses. A key figure in linking Chinese and African enterprises is Hu Deping and his China-Africa Business Council (CABC).
Tags: Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Hu Jintao, Hu Yaobang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/134/Hu-Deping

Reviews and renegotiations, again
Kinshasa's Commission Ministérielle Chargée de la Revisitation des Contrats Miniers has revised the terms of China's biggest contract in Congo-Kinshasa, signed with the joint venture Sicomines, as part of a wider commercial agreement with several Chinese companies, including China Railways and Sinohydro.
Tags: George Forrest, Pierre Lumbi, Canada, Paul Fortin, Zambia,, Wu Zexian, Mao Xiaobing, Indian, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines,, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Compagnie Minière de Luisha, Gécamines, Gécamines, Gécamines, Indo Afrique, Indo Afrique
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/133/Reviews-and-renegotiations%2c-again

No oil guarantees
Angola and China are to set up a'new model partnership'. This will involve the'sharing of risks' and will'complement existing models', said Gao Jian, Vice-Governor of the China Development Bank (CDB) on 18 April.
Tags: Gao Jian, Aguinaldo Jaime, Hu Jintao, Hélder Vieira Días'Kopelipa', Spanish, Deutsche, Saudi Arabia, Banco Nacional de Angola, Futungo de Belas, de Angola
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/132/No-oil-guarantees

Contract Cavalcade
Asian companies are making headway in North Africa. In April, South Korea's Daewoo Engineering emerged as the preferential bidder on a US$650 million town project, complete with roads, sewage and other infrastructure, in Boughezoul (250 kilometres south of Algiers, Algeria). Another city is to be constructed by Korean companies in Bouinan at some $6.5 billion.
Tags: South Korea, Algeria, Japanese, Tunisia, Morocco, Chinese, Tanzania, Egypt, Djibouti, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Libya, L'Algérienne Des Eaux, Office Chérifien des Phosphates
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/131/Contract-Cavalcade

Who's who in policy and politics

Tags: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA, Masahiko Koumura, Masato Kitera, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Sadako Ogata, Kenzo Oshima, , Koji Tanami, Shigeru Kiyama, Nicholas Gouede, Yasuo Fukuda, Yoshiro Mori, Akira Amari, Masakazu Toyoda, Aiji Tanaka, Hidetoshi Taga, Izumi Ohno
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/130/Who's-who-in-policy-and-politics

Slim differences among the parties
Before 1998, Japanese voters would have had some difficuty in identifying any difference in Africa policy among the three main parties. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ, Minshutu) admits that even now they 'do not have policies concerning Africa'. Given the New Komeito Party's focus on domestic issues, that leaves only the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, Jiyu Minshutu) with an official policy towards Africa. However, four little-discussed differences between LDP and DLP affect their policies in tangible ways.
Tags: Sudan, China, Yasuo Fukuda, Junichiro Koizumi-Shinzo Abe, Seiji Maehara, Hu Jintao, Katsuya Okada, Minshutu, Jiyu Minshutu
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/129/Slim-differences-among-the-parties

The Yokohama summit
Japan is launching major changes in its diplomatic and development strategy this year, coinciding with Yokohama's hosting of the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) from 28-30 May and the G8 summit in Hokkaido from 7-9 July. Tokyo is reorganising its government ministries and agencies, and plans to double aid to Africa to US$4 billion although there is some dispute about the baseline calculations.
Tags: Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda, Ichiro Ozawa, Yuriko Koike, Hidetoshi Taga, Muneo Suzuki, Kenyan, Minshutu, Jiyu Minshutu, Soka Gakkai, Nichiren Shosu, Soka Gakkai, Nichiren Shosu, Soka Gakkai
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/128/The-Yokohama-summit

Francisco Ou
Francisco Ou became Taiwan's Foreign Minister on 20 May, as the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT), in opposition for eight years, returned to executive power on the back of Ma Ying-jeou's promises of improved ties with China (AAC Vol 1 No 5).
Tags: Ma Ying-jeou, China, Peru, Nicaragua, Argentina, Guatemala, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek, United States, Japan, Japan, Kuomintang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/127/Francisco-Ou

Jignesh Shah
In late May, a deal was signed to create MCX Africa, a pan-African commodities exchange to be located in Gaborone, Botswana. The exchange is the brainchild of Jignesh Shah, a young billionaire entrepreneur from Mumbai, India.
Tags: Botswana, Jignesh Shah, India, Joseph Massey, Anjani Sinha, Mauritius, Chris Goromonzi, South Africa, Zimbabwean
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/126/Jignesh-Shah

Ken Costa
The courtship by Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel of Cyril Ramaphosa's MTN hit the rocks in May. Enter the next ardent suitor: Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications. A marriage between Reliance, India's second largest mobile operator, and MTN, Africa's largest, would create a company that reaches across South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Reliance has asked Ken Costa of Lazard International (see page 7)to serve as matchmaker.
Tags: Sunil Mittal, Cyril Ramaphosa, Anil Ambani, India, Ken Costa, South Africa, Britain, Korea, Nelson Mandela
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/125/Ken-Costa

Family feud
South Africa's mobile telephone giant MTN risks losing its second Indian suitor as a schism in India's richest family could prevent the deal's signing. A merger between the US$38 bn. MTN and $28 bn. Reliance Communications, India's second largest mobile operator, would spawn the world's fourth largest mobile telephone group after China Mobile, Vodafone and China Unicom. If successfully concluded, it would have over 116 million subscribers in India, Africa and the Middle East.
Tags: China, Ken Costa, Cameroon, Cyprus, Ghana, Iran, Nigeria, Anil Ambani, Uganda, Mukesh, Dhirubhai Ambani
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/124/Family-feud

Glass Houses
Washington politicians are re-evaluating the significance for United States' policy in Africa in light of China's increasing engagement with the continent. On 4 June, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on African Affairs heard State Department and think tank opinions on'China in Africa: Implications for US Policy'.
Tags: Russell D. Feingold, Sudan, James Swan, Thomas Christensen, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, J. Stephen Morrison, Angola, Niger, Nigeria, Liberia, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/123/Glass-Houses

Chips off the old block
Asia's interest in Africa's forests is booming. Figures for 2003 showed that 42% of timber exports from West and Central Africa went to China, from almost nothing only a few years earlier: Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon were the main sources. The Africa-Asia forestry trade has expanded even faster.
Tags: China, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Indian, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Liberia, Indonesia, Gus Kouwenhoven, South Korea, Thailand, Omar Bongo Ondimba, Emile Doumba, Malaysian, Tiong Hiew King, Forest experiments, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Teodorín Nguema Obiang Mangue, South Africa, France, United States, Philippines, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mkapa, Taiwan, Ghana, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan Hijau, Asia Congo Industrie, okoumé, Rimbunan Hijau, Rimbunan Hijau, Man Fai Tai
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/122/Chips-off-the-old-block

Japan-Africa trade and aid

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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/121/Japan-Africa-trade-and-aid

China's African expeditions 2002-2008

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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/120/China's-African-expeditions-2002-2008

Probing the Peacekeepers
Three Indian officers'would not be spared' if they were found to have smuggled gold while serving with the United Nations in Congo-Kinshasa, India's Defence Minister A. K. Antony said after ordering an inquiry into a BBC report about gold, ivory and arms trafficking by Indian and Pakistani peacekeeping troops. The BBC had reported that three Indian peacekeepers had bought'unwrought gold' (later discovered to be fake) from a dealer linked to the rebel Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda. The BBC investigation reported that Pakistani peacekeepers were also trafficking gold and weapons in Congo.
Tags: A. K. Antony, Pakistani, Rwanda, G. V. Satyanarayana, Ruchita Beri, izzat
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/119/Probing-the-Peacekeepers-

Asia's oil interests in Africa

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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/118/Asia's-oil-interests-in-Africa

Unravelling the UN investigation
Confidential reports by the United Nations contain 44 allegations against the Indian battalion based in Congo-Kinshasa's North Kivu province and known as INDBATT. The main report, dated 7 February 2008, describes a relationship between the Indian force and the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR). This militia is mainly composed of the remnants of the Rwandan army responsible for the genocide of 1994, who fled to Congo after the victory of Tutsi rebels under Paul Kagame, now President of Rwanda. The report says that six of these allegationshave been 'corroborated'. These involve:
Tags: Paul Kagame, Vladislav Guerassev, Rajvinder Singh, G. V. Satyanarayana, Inga-Britt Ahlenius, Alan Doss, Forces Démocratiques de Libération du
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/117/Unravelling-the-UN-investigation

Singapore's Africa Team
President S.R. Nathan: took office in 1997, and in April 2007 became the first Singaporean President to go to Africa, with state visits to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, and a private visit to Zambia.
Tags: S.R. Nathan, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Lee Kuan Yew, Ho Ching, Rwanda, Paul Kagame, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, George Yong-Boon Yeo, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, Angola, South Africa, Sitaram Chandra Das, Turkey, Chong Fook Yen, Chay Yee, Sunny George Verghese, Australia, Kuok Khoon Hong, Malaysian, Indonesia, China, Alphonsus Chia, Ghana, Mozambique, Madagascar, Straits Times
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/116/Singapore's-Africa-Team

The wealthy autocratic model
An island at the heart of Southeast Asia and a landlocked state in the heart of Africa are an unlikely couple. Singapore has skyscrapers and strict discipline, Rwanda has its green mille collines and another zealous anti-corruption drive. Singapore's geography made it a global trader. After Rwandan President Paul Kagame's stopover there on the way to the Japan-Africa conference in Yokohama at the end of May, Kigali's The New Times asked: 'If the Singaporeans made it, why not us?'
Tags: Rwanda, Paul Kagame, Lee Kuan Yew, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Uganda, Lee Hsien Loong, Alphonsus Chia, David Himbara, Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysian, Teo Chee Hean, Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen, Sri Lanka, India, Guinea-Bissau, Vietnam, Brazil, United States, Jean-Louis Billon, Netherlands, Taiwan, mille collines, The New Times, Compagnie Cotonniere Ivoirienne
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/115/The-wealthy-autocratic-model

Civil society tiptoes in
From now on, Japan's non-governmental organisations will operate more like British NGOs such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, which manage substantial state aid funds. Local NGOs were barely represented at earlier Africa summits but at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) last month, they fielded a strong presence through the Civil Society Forum. Japanese officials see NGOs as important in mobilising public opinion behind aid disbursements, even if they sometimes criticise officials.
Tags: Shigeyuki Hiroki, China, Tsuyoshi Iwabuchi, Alexander Phiri, Zimbabwean, Kenya
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/114/Civil-society-tiptoes-in

The new order
Behind the Yokohama summit scenery, Japanese civil servants continued with their reorganisation. Key to this is the Japan International Cooperation Agency under its President, Sadako Ogata, the driving force behind the summit and the public diplomacy afterwards: she flew to the World Economic Forum in South Africa to explain the shifts in Japan's policy and its distinct ideas on development and growth. JICA will absorb the soft loan programmes of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), which will in turn be strengthened in its commercial activities.
Tags: South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, Yasuo Fukuda, Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, Zambia, Brazilian, Guinea
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/113/The-new-order

Here comes Hokkaido
In many ways, the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on 28-30 May was a dry run for Tokyo's Group of 8 summit in Hokkaido on 7-9 July. Much of the G8 agenda - climate change, global financial imbalances, food and fuel price crises as well as Africa policy - was rehearsed at TICAD IV. For Tokyo's diplomatic corps, the challenge was to prove that Japan could give a lead on Africa and climate change at the Hokkaido summit this year and into the future. Although it is still the world's second biggest economy in nominal terms - third, behind China, in terms of purchasing power parity - Japan punches well below its weight in the international system, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Tags: China, Indian, United States, Russia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir,, Zimbabwe, Simbarashe Simbanenduku Mumbengegwi, Yasuo Fukuda, Junichiro Koizumi, Korea, Britain, France, George W. Bush, Ghana, John Kufuor, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, North Korea, Irish, Senegalese, Youssou N'Dour, Jeffrey Sachs, Kofi Annan, Congo-Kinshasa, Angola, Nigeria, Francis Fukuyama, Xinhua, Rodong Sinmun, sakura
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/112/Here-comes-Hokkaido

Chi Jianxin
The CADF has passed its first birthday. Announced to much fanfare at the 2006 China-Africa summit, it was formally established in June 2007 by the China Development Bank. The 50-year fund now manages US$1 billion, an amount that will later rise to $5 bn. The Chairman of the Board is the politically well-connected Vice-Governor of the CDB, Gao Jian. The public face of the fund is Chi Jianxin.
Tags: Gao Jian, Liberia, Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudanese, Omer Hassan el Beshir, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Ghana
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/111/Chi-Jianxin

Nguyen Tan Dung
Hailing from Ca Mau, the southernmost province of Vietnam, Dung joined the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (aka the Viet Cong) in 1961. He was 12 years old. In his 20-year military career, he was wounded four times in battle. After he left the army, he earned a bachelor's degree in law. In 1981, he attended the Party School after which he served on various provincial party committees. He became Deputy Minister for Home Affairs in 1995.
Tags: Vietnam, Phan Van Khai, Nong Duc Manh, Britain, Ireland, Germany
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/110/Nguyen-Tan-Dung

Purnomo Yusgiantoro
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia n A native of Semarang, Central Java, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, 56, holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology, and master's and doctorate in resource economics from the United States' Colorado School of Mines.
Tags: Purnomo Yusgiantoro, United States', Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Iran, Libyan, Lemhanas
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/109/Purnomo-Yusgiantoro

Justin Yifu Lin
At the end of May, Justin Yifu Lin will succeed France's François Bourguignon as Chief Economist at the World Bank. The Peking University professor will be the first economist from a developing country to hold the position. 'I look forward to working closely with him on a number of areas, including growth and investment in Africa,' said World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
Tags: Justin Yifu Lin, France, François Bourguignon, Robert Zoellick, Deng Xiaoping, China, United States, Australian, Sun Yefang, Taiwan, Chen Yun-ing
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/108/Justin-Yifu-Lin

Lee Won-gul
Born in Busan in 1959, Lee attended the prestigious Sungkyunkwan University, majoring in public administration. He joined the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1978 and held posts in the aerospace, textile and industrial machinery divisions.
Tags: Japan, China, Australia, South Africa, Benin, Togo, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Fédération Internationale de Football Association
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/107/Lee-Won-gul

Zhai Jun
A specialist in the Middle East and North Africa, Zhai is responsible for China's West Asian and African relations. The Hebei native joined the Foreign Ministry after finishing university and was sent to study Arabic at Cairo University. He returned to Beijing in 1975, spending five years as a translator before taking an embassy post in Yemen. He later worked in Saudi Arabia and served as ambassador to Libya. He was Director-General of West Asian and North African Affairs until 2006, when he became Assistant Foreign Minister.
Tags: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Sudanese, Liu Guijin, Jean Ping
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/106/Zhai-Jun

Szechwan samba
Why are China's importers of raw materials so interested in Africa rather than other continents, such as Latin America? Latin America's natural resources are largely controlled by giant companies from the United States - not rivals to be lightly tackled. A review, Mercados Latinoamericanos, has recently tried to find other answers. They indicate that African political responses to Chinese investment could in the long term thwart China's hopes.
Tags: United States, Nigeria, Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Venezuela, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mercados Latinoamericanos
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/105/Szechwan-samba

Lights off
The abrupt closure of the Malaysian textile company Ramatex Group's operations in Windhoek with a loss of 3,000 jobs in early March has sparked a political row with trades unionists accusing the company of breaking labour laws and environmental despoliation. The case also raises questions about a proposed US$130 million investment by Malaysian companies in Namibia's mining and pharmaceutical businesses.
Tags: Boon Keon Ong
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/104/Lights-off

The copper clashes
Tension and recriminations continue to mark relations between Zambian workers and Chinese investors, two months after the end of a two-day strike at a US$200 million copper smelting plant. Labour Minister Ronald Mukuma has appointed a team thoroughly to investigate the cause of the riots that followed an industrial action by construction workers at the smelter site.
Tags: Ronald Mukuma, Sun Chuanqi, Hu Jintao
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/103/The-copper-clashes

K.V. Kamath
The sixty-year-old from Mangalore is revered in business circles for transforming a small lender, ICICI Bank, into a dynamic private enterprise. He joined ICICI in 1971, working in project finance and making his mark as an able manager with a shrewd eye for opportunity. In 1988, he began an eight-year stint at the Asian Development Bank in Manila.
Tags: South African
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/102/K.V.-Kamath

Firing up the coal
India needs coal to fire up its growth, freight rates from Australia's mines have soared, and India's own coal-mines are crippled by price controls and labour regulations. So importers are looking to Mozambique, where shipping costs are 30% below Australia's and coal reserves are barely exploited. In late 2007 the Mozambican government said it intended to grant Indian companies coal-mining licences for reserves of 200-300 million tonnes. India's biggest firms have stepped in decisively.
Tags: Australia, Canada, Brazilian, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Hu Jintao
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/101/Firing-up-the-coal

All politics is international
Taiwan's Presidential elections on 22 March have delayed the appointment of Taipei's new ambassadors to Gambia and São Tomé e Príncipe. Taipei may also be waiting to see what comes of China's fresh initiative to re-establish relations with São Tomé, which were broken off in 1997.
Tags: Gambia, China, John C. Chen, Phoebe Yeh, South Africa, New Zealand, Frank Chang-ting Hsieh, Ma Ying-jeou, Chen Shui-bian, Lien Chan, Hu Jintao, Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Malawi, Nigeria, Libya, Kuomintang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/100/All-politics-is-international

Hassan Wirajuda
An experienced diplomat, Wirajuda is well-known in regional politics. His country's membership in several multilateral organizations frequently takes him into the African orbit. Wirajuda visited Kenya from 19-20 June. After meeting President Mwai Kibaki, Wirajuda and his Kenyan counterpart, Moses Wetang'ula, signed a pledge to establish a commission to develop trade between the two countries.
Tags: Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, Moses Wetang'ula, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Zola Skweyiya, South Africa, Britain, United States, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Myanmar
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/99/Hassan-Wirajuda

Changing horses
The appointment of a new Prime Minister in São Tomé e Príncipe could herald a reverse for Taiwan, according to regional diplomatic sources, who say political and commercial considerations are pushing the government to consider a switch in relations back to mainland China. Such a move would be the latest setback for Taiwan, which has seen its modest collection of small and impoverished African allies dwindle in the face of a concerted push by Beijing. Malawi in January followed Chad and Senegal in switching allegiances.
Tags: China, Malawi, Chad, Senegal, Miguel Trovoada, Nigeria, Phoebe Yeh, Patrice Trovoada, Swaziland, South Africa, Angola, Fradique de Menezes, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/98/Changing-horses

West Africa looks east
Mali is not the only Francophone West African country courted by Japan. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal was invited, along with the Presidents of Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania to represent the continent at the Africa section of July's G8 meeting to be hosted by Japan.
Tags: Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Russo, Sudan, Chad, Gabon, Angola, Olusegun Obasanjo
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/97/West-Africa-looks-east

The trains don't run on time
Relations between Angola and China are steaming ahead, despite the wishful thinking of some Western diplomats. China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Luanda on 23 June and signed an agreement for an extra credit line to fund reconstruction and development projects; Angolan sources say it will involve more than the US$2 billion oil-backed credit line extended in 2004 by China's Exim Bank. The new agreement is to finance construction of a new Luanda international airport and to continue rehabilitation of the Benguela and Namibe rail lines, and several main roads. China will also send a medical team and construct an institute of international relations in Luanda.
Tags: Wen Jiabao, Hélder Vieira Dias 'Kopelipa', Fernando Miala,, José Pedro de Morais, Kwata Kanaua,, Manuel Rabelais, José Eduardo Dos Santos, Chizé, Daniel Kipaxe,, Portuguese, Brazilian, Singapore, Joaquim David, South Korean, Gabinete de Reconstrução Nacional, Canal Zimbo, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, Canal 2, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, Teixeira Duarte, Mota e Gil, Camargo Correa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/96/The-trains-don't-run-on-time

From Tokyo to Bamako
Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT) finally has something to show for his consistent performance as one of Japan's biggest proponents in Africa with the opening of the Japanese Embassy in Bamako on 7 March. Ambassador to Cape Verde, Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal, Takashi Saito, officially opened the mission, flanked by Mali's Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane. Bamako became the seat of Japan's 27th embassy in Africa, putting it on par with Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea as the only other Francophone West African countries to host a Japanese embassy.
Tags: Malian, Amadou Toumani Touré, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal, Takashi Saito, Moctar Ouane, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Gabon, Junichiro Koizumi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/95/From-Tokyo-to-Bamako

Single-minded politics
A visit from North Korea's elite and reculsive leadership is rare for any region, especially Africa. On 18 March Kim Yong-nam, President of the Supreme People's Assembly and North Korea's effective deputy leader, flew to Uganda, Namibia and Angola to sign trade and defence deals. The discussions in Namibia concern uranium for North Korea's nuclear programme, and those in Angola were about securing access to Luanda's oil. The discussions in Uganda would have rung alarm bells with opponents of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's regime.
Tags: North Korea, Uganda, Namibia, Angola, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Henry Okello, Kim Jong-Il, Zimbabwe, Hifikepunye Pohamba, South Africa, Vietnam, Congo-Brazzaville, Benin, Mozambique, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tanzania, Gukuruhundi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/94/Single-minded-politics

More policing of the peacekeepers
Indian peacekeepers in the United Nations' troubled mission in Congo-Kinshasa face a new investigation - this time into claims that a senior officer has publicly declared his support for Tutsi rebels. The UN has launched inquiries against Colonel Chand Saroha, former commander at Sake in eastern North Kivu Province, for sympathising with General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People at a public function at Kitchanga in April.
Tags: Laurent Nkunda, French, Talum Duby, Deepak Singh Nayal, G. V. Satyanarayana, Rwandan, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/93/More-policing-of-the-peacekeepers

Speedy motors miracle
After a long courtship India's biggest car manufacturers are looking for rapid expansion in African markets. Indian vehicle makers are bullish on Africa and engaged in steadily expanding their reach to tap its burgeoning markets and rising economic potential. Gradually expanding their African operations for decades, Mumbai-based passenger and commercial automotive majors Tata and Mahindra want to double their sales by 2015 and establish joint ventures for local manufacture.
Tags: Raman Dhawan, South Africa, Zambia, Algeria, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Australia, Britain, Malaysia, Mauritius, United States, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Ratan Tata, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, Poonam Sahgal, Morocco, Namibia, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Congo-Kinshasa, Sudan,, Taj Pamodzi, Mahatma, Ubuntu
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/92/Speedy-motors-miracle

Number crunching
Beijing's multi-billion dollar plans for Congo-Kinshasa are hitting new obstacles as questions are being asked about the transparency of the new deals and the behaviour of Chinese companies on the ground.
Tags: Brian Ames,, Pierre Lumbi, Li Changjin,, Gécamines, Banque Centrale du Congo, Gécamines
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/91/Number-crunching

Cementing new relations
Agreements signed this month between Dangote Industries of Nigeria and China's Sinoma International Engineering Company to build 13 cement production lines across Africa at a cost of US$2.8 billion will give the new partners a leading edge over their multinational rivals. Aliko Dangote, Chief Executive of Dangote Industries, confirmed to Africa-Asia Confidential in Abuja that the agreements with Sinoma would amount to China's single biggest private sector deal in Africa.
Tags: Aliko Dangote, Senegal, Tanzania, Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, United States, Umaru Musa Yar, Adua, France, Vietnam, Morocco, Swiss, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Uganda, Tan Zhongming, Lin Zhijiang, Wang Wei, Africa-Asia Confidential, Forbes Magazine
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/90/Cementing-new-relations

The tough trade talks after Hokkaido
Tokyo's careful diplomacy ahead of the Hokkaido G8 summit the 7-9 July now faces its biggest test among African states: how can Japan explain its stance at the next round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva. Like its industrialised counterparts in Europe and the Americas, Japan is cautious on ending both protectionist tariffs and lavish subsidies for domestic farmers. African governments argue that these policies by rich governments (at a cost of US$300 billion a year) are undermining African production and investment.
Tags: Britain, France, Nicolas Sarkozy, United States, China, India, Vietnam, Tanzania, South Africa, Egypt, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/89/The-tough-trade-talks-after-Hokkaido

Lou Jiwei

Tags: China, Lou Jiwei, Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, Gao Xiqing, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/88/Lou-Jiwei

Competing to finance Africa
China Exim Bank and Sinosure are together expected to become the world's largest export credit agencies by 2010, according to the Export-Import Bank of the United States, just two decades after Beijing was able to boast just a handful of state-owned policy banks that bled the state coffers dry due to non-performing loan rates of more than 60%. But the pace of financial sector reform, prompted in the mid-1990s by China's ambitions to join the World Trade Organisation and rapid export-led growth, has also generated new competition. Sinosure, established in 2001 as an export credit insurance agency to streamline China Exim Bank, set up seven years earlier, has expanded rapidly and the functions of both institutions now increasingly overlap.
Tags: United States, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Congo-Kinshasa, Chen Yuan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/87/Competing-to-finance-Africa

Suppiah Dhanabalan
In the elite circles of Singaporean business, certain names frequently recur. Suppiah ‘S’ Dhanabalan, Chairman of Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, is one of them.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/86/Suppiah-Dhanabalan

China's battling banks
CHINA EXIM BANK: Established in 1994 under the Policy Banks Law, China Exim Bank is currently the third largest export credit agency in the world. China Exim Bank is tasked with promoting Chinese exports and international investment, offering export buyers' and sellers' credit, international guarantees, loans for overseas construction and investment, and official lines of credit. China Exim Bank has experienced stupendous growth with annual disbursements totalling US$15 billion by 2005.
Tags: Angola, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sudan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/85/China's-battling-banks

Developing and insuring prosperity
SINOSURE: China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) was established in December 2001 through a merger between the People's Insurance Company of China and the insurance arms of China Exim Bank.
Tags: Zimbabwe, Congo-Kinshasa, Hu Jintao, Chen Yuan, Chen Yun, Nigeria, Angola
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/84/Developing-and-insuring-prosperity

Wired for growth
The battle for African telecoms is on. From the ground up, from the base stations and transmitting equipment to the rival cellphone companies, Asian and European companies are competing in Africa, searching for new markets and revenues. Almost every African country has signed multimillion dollar contracts with Asian telecoms equipment manufacturers and service companies. Growth in equipment, maintenance and services continues. The latest overtures from India's mobile operators suggest the competition will get tougher still in Africa's telecoms. For now China is assuredly in the lead (see map on page 2).
Tags: India, China, Ghana, Niger, Sweden, South Africa, Ambani, Anil, Mukesh, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore, Korea, Rwanda, Angola, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, French, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia, R. P. Sehgal,, K. V. Kamath, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, United States, Ren Zhengfei, Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia, Zambia, Felix Mutati, Algeria, Société Nigérienne des Télécommunications, Youth Daily
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/83/Wired-for-growth

Murli Deora

Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/82/Murli-Deora

Jean Ping
The career of Gabon’s consummate diplomat owes its success less to the impact he made as President of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2004-05 than his accomplishments as head of cabinet to the country’s veteran President, El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba in 1984-90.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/81/Jean-Ping

How to spend it
Debate in Europe and the United States over the power of Asia’s sovereign wealth funds has increased sharply in the wake of the current subprime mortgage crisis. Such funds, which have been in operation for several years, have funds to disburse. There are concerns, however, that some funds may be investing with motives other than a desire for profit.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/80/How-to-spend-it

Asia’s pills for Africa’s ills
The pharmaceutical landscape in Africa has changed dramatically in the last decade. From a largely European import base complemented by nascent but often problematic indigenous manufacture, it is now a market dominated by low cost imports from Asia.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/79/Asia%e2%80%99s-pills-for-Africa%e2%80%99s-ills

The water margin
A combination of strong economic growth and institutional neglect of investment in infrastructure has created a serious problem: South Africa, the continent’s largest and most developed economy, is running out of power.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/78/The-water-margin

Any more business?
The new Defence Ministry building in Accra is under construction by Chinese contractors. Chinese companies built the Tamale and Sekondi stadiums, which were used in February’s 2008 African Cup of Nations football tournament (won by Egypt, the Cup holders), at a cost of US$38.5 million each. China is also involved in telecommunications, roads and other infrastructure projects, including the Bui Dam on the Volta river.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/77/Any-more-business%3f

Year of the rat
Chinese peacekeepers in Southern Sudan have been awarded United Nations Peacekeeping Medals two months early to coincide with the Lunar New Year Spring Festival, celebrated on 7 February. Events in Chad and western Sudan, however, have brought fresh troubles for the Beijing government and illustrate the growing complexity of its involvement in the region.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/76/Year-of-the-rat

India's nuclear family
Faced with a uranium shortage at home, Indian companies are beginning to looking to African uranium producers to meet the country’s civilian and military needs, according to industry sources.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/75/India's-nuclear-family

Delhi reaches out
India is seeking to carve out a distinct relationship with Africa, as part of a new competition for resources and diplomatic support, Foreign Ministry officials in New Delhi have said, as they announced details of plans for an unprecedented summit with African leaders in April. Officials describe the four-day summit, culminating in a meeting with heads of state and government from 14 African states on 8 April as a ‘fresh honeymoon’ to ‘consummate’ an action plan for a new partnership. Leaders of key African states, including resource-rich Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have pledged to attend. The other attendees will be Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/74/Delhi-reaches-out

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
Heading the unwieldy OIC, Ihsanoglu needs all his considerable reserves of tact and political determination. It may help that he can draw on his wide-ranging personal history, which straddles Africa and Asia.
Tags: Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Abdelouahed, Iran, Tanzania, Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdallahi, Mauritania, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Omer Hassan el Beshir, Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/73/Ekmeleddin-Ihsanoglu

Li Jinjun
A new player treads the boards of the African stage: Li Jinjun, Vice-Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China's Party's Central Committee. The party's International Department forges links with political parties abroad, forming a parallel diplomatic channel alongside China's Foreign Ministry.
Tags: China, , Germany, Myanmar, Philippines, India, Wang Jiarui, Jacob Zuma, South Africa, Khumbo Kchali, Malawi, Zambia, Rupiah Banda, Tunisian, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/72/Li-Jinjun

Anand Sharma
An experienced Africanist, Sharma's appointment as a Deputy Minister in the Foreign Ministry shows how seriously India is taking its new Africa strategy.
Tags: South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, United States, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rajya Sabha
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/71/Anand-Sharma

Ramakrishna Sithanen
Sithanen is the key strategist behind his country's fast-expanding ties with Asia's hyper-economies, China and India. He wants Chinese and Indian investment to support his plans for the development of Mauritius as the regional financial centre of choice for Asian investors.
Tags: China, India, Mauritius, Anerood Jugnauth, Navinchandra Ramgoolam
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/70/Ramakrishna-Sithanen

Blue helmets, red faces
India's defence minister A. K. Antony has ordered 'prompt and time-bound' investigations into charges of child sexual abuse by 60 of its soldiers deployed to the Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUC).
Tags: A. K. Antony, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Chand Saroha, Ban Ki-Moon, M. L. Naidu, Inderjeet Narayan, prima facie
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/69/Blue-helmets%2c-red-faces

Tokyo's test
Until public protests over Darfur two years ago, Japan was one of the biggest customers for Sudanese oil. But unlike China and India it had no direct investments in Sudan's energy sector. Now Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is pursuing an engagement policy that openly challenges the other two Asian economic giants.
Tags: China, India, Yasuo Fukuda, Omer Hassan el Beshir, Majok Guandong, Masahiko Koumura, Egypt, Kenya, Al Qaida
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/68/Tokyo's-test

See you in court
Namibia Construction and South Africa's Murray & Roberts claim that a N$74.4 million (US$9.5 mn.) contract awarded last year to China Nanjing International for the construction of a new headquarters for the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation was in breach of Namibia's Affirmative Action Act (1998) and Labour Act (1992).
Tags: South Africa, Meriam Onesmus, Louis Muller, Joel Kaapanda, Vilbard Usiku, Liu Kuangyuan,, Bro-Mathew Shinguadja, Immanuel Ngatjizeko
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/67/See-you-in-court

Flying higher
Talks on a complex three-party investment deal between China and Angola and the ailing Air Tanzania Company are nearing conclusion, officials have confirmed in Dar es Salaam. The aim is to resuscitate the state-owned Air Tanzania as a national carrier and expand the main international airport.
Tags: South African, Chen Yuan, Argentina, Iraq
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/66/Flying-higher

Washington, Beijing or African consensus?
Sports and politics rhymed perfectly as the organisation of the Beijing Olympics confirmed China's global rise. And the impressive harvest of medals won by China's athletes lends credibility to claims that Beijing offers an alternative route to economic and social development. China's international achievements challenge the neo-liberal economic orthodoxy that has been dominant since the end of the Cold War. This orthodoxy - called the 'Washington Consensus' by economist Jon Williamson back in 1991 - now faces competition from Asia's success stories. Now, many developing countries, especially those in Africa, are tempted to follow what some call the 'Beijing Consensus'.
Tags: China, Jon Williamson, Ghana, John Kufuor, Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Taiwan, Kenya, Deng Xiaoping, Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, Adama Gaye
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/65/Washington%2c-Beijing-or-African-consensus%3f

In deep water
Members of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa have committed themselves towards the establishment of a multinational coastguard service to patrol the largely ungoverned seas off Africa's west coast in a bid to tackle rising levels of illegal and unlicensed exploitation of the region's fisheries resources.
Tags: Morocco, Ghana, Korean, Liberia, South African, China, Mauritania, Japan, Somalia, , Mauritius, Malaysia, United States, Panama, Marshall Islands, 'Trash catch', India, Canada, Norway, Mozambique, Tanzanian, John Magufuli
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/64/In-deep-water

Three is a crowd
Kenya finally has succeeded in bringing together rival suitors for an oil refinery rehabilitation contract - but failed to secure an agreement. The acting Finance Minister, John Michuki, chaired the 13 August meeting with Essar Energy of India and Libyan Oil Holdings, both of whom claimed exclusive contracts to upgrade the Changamwe refinery.
Tags: John Michuki, Mwai Kibaki, Nigeria, Angola, Moammar el Gaddafi, Amos Kimunya, Uganda, Right of first refusal
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/63/Three-is-a-crowd

Constructive competition
Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam began negotiations to make his country China's second special economic zone at the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in November 2006, after the Indian Ocean island had been omitted from the initial long-list of 25 countries.
Tags: Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Huang Mengfu, Mauritian passports for investment, Paul Berenger, Rama Sithanen, Pakistan, India, Indian, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/62/Constructive-competition

The Beijing development plan
African states are competing to host China's special economic zones in the expectation they will bring in billions of dollars of investments and create tens of thousands of jobs -in exchange for generous tax exemptions and privileged access to natural resources.
Tags: Zambia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Egypt, , In the zones, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Mozambique, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa,, Martyn Davies,, Angola, Kalonzo Musyoka, Chen Yuan, Uhuru Kenyatta, Cape Verde, Liberia, Bola Tinubu
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/61/The-Beijing-development-plan

Ren Zhengfei
Huawei is China's largest producer of telecommunications equipment, built by an enigmatic figure, Ren Zhengfei. Born in 1944, Ren attended Chongqing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture.
Tags: Ren Zhengfei, Egypt, India, United States
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/60/Ren-Zhengfei

Partha S. Bhattacharyya
With its coal reserves due to last only another 40 to 45 years, India is taking steps to increase its coal imports to meet rising domestic consumption. Spearheading the move is Partha Bhattacharyya.
Tags: India, Partha Bhattacharyya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Japan
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/59/Partha-S.-Bhattacharyya

Choi Young-Jin
Alongside the United Nations Operations in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), South Korea's Choi Young-jin is working to implement the peace process outlined in the Ouagadougou accord of March 2007, signed by President Laurent Gbagbo and the Forces Nouvelles rebel leader, Guillaume Soro.
Tags: Côte d'Ivoire, South Korea, Choi Young-jin, Laurent Gbagbo, Guillaume Soro, Senegal, France, Tunisia, United States, Sierra Leone, Congo-Kinshasa, Ban Ki-moon, Sweden, Pierre Schori, India, Siddharth Chatterjee, Iraq, Forces Nouvelles, Forces nouvelles
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/58/Choi-Young-Jin

Supachai Panitchpakdi
An experienced negotiator at the head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Supachai Panitchpakdi unveiled the agency's annual global survey on 2 September at Britain's London School of Economics.
Tags: Supachai Panitchpakdi, Britain, Thailand, Netherlands, Jan Tinbergen, New Zealand, Mike Moore
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/57/Supachai-Panitchpakdi

Playing the odds
A new phase in China's relations with Sudan began on 1 September when Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun inaugurated the new Chinese Consulate in Juba. This was an historic move in the former wartime government garrison town that became the capital of Southern Sudan after the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The consulate establishes quasi-diplomatic ties with the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), which enjoys semi-autonomy under the CPA.
Tags: Zhai Jun, United States, Norway, Zhang Qingyang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/56/Playing-the-odds

Tokyo eyes the sparklers
As long as it lasts, the diamond boom may help Japanese companies. They are well placed to take advantage of the decision by state diamond company Endiama that more than half of its future joint ventures will involve private firms. Endiama plans to produce more than ten million carats in 2008, producing a turnover of US$1.4 billion.
Tags: Manuel Calado, Yoshikatsu Kawashima, Tiago Dias, Tetsuro Yano, China, Nippon Keidanren, Agência Nacional para o Investimento Privado
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/55/Tokyo-eyes-the-sparklers

Ambitious investments
China's activities in Congo-Kinshasa began with mining, moved into infrastructure and are now more ambitious still: they are diversifying into national development planning. Relations were strengthened by President Joseph Kabila's visit for the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, which coincided with Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga's holiday in China.
Tags: Joseph Kabila, Antoine Gizenga, Athanase Matenda, Ren Zhengfei, Pierre Lumbi Okongo, Wang Zhipeng, Mobutu Sese Seko, United States, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Chen Yuan, Sino-Congolaise des Mines, Gécamines, Office des Mines d'Or de Kilo-Moto, Minière de Bakwanga, Chambre de Compensation Sino-Congolaise
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/54/Ambitious-investments

Dollar diplomacy fails
The opportunities for African states to benefit from the bidding war between Taiwan and China are almost over. Taipei officials believe that 'dollar diplomacy' has failed: Taipei has lost the competition for global supporters to Beijing's superior commercial and diplomatic firepower. Newish President Ma Ying-jeou's more conciliatory approach to Beijing signals a shift from past rivalries to a subtler approach in which Taipei emphasises its concern with transparency and political pluralism.
Tags: China, Ma Ying-jeou, Burkina Faso, Gambia, São Tomé e Principe, Swaziland, Ma's friendly overtures, Tuantuan, Yuanyuan, Mswati, Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, Chad, Kenya, Australia, Yuan, Kuomintang
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/53/Dollar-diplomacy-fails

More competition for Tokyo
Japan would honour its promises to increase aid and investment in Africa despite the departure of Prime Miniter Yasuo Fukuda, said Foreign Minister Shintaro Ito during a trip to Kenya this month. Ito met Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and reiterated that Tokyo would meet all its scheduled commitments: a doubling of official Japanese aid (not including debt cancellation) to Africa over the next five years; doubling investment from Japanese companies; and ensuring greater transparency and international competitive bidding on all aid contracts.
Tags: Yasuo Fukuda, Shintaro Ito, Raila Odinga, China, Yoshihiko Morita, Wycliff Oparanya,, Tetsuro Yano, Muneo Suzuki, Congolese
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/52/More-competition-for-Tokyo

Leading horses to water
Japanese companies in Africa are struggling to increase their market share against pressure from Chinese and Western firms, a new survey by the Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) has found. Some companies claimed, however, that Chinese investment in Africa was increasing commercial opportunities all around.
Tags: Chinese, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta,, Nigeria, Malawi
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/51/Leading-horses-to-water

New regime, new policy
Just a day after he was elected by the Diet, Japan's new Prime Minister Taro Aso flew to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. Although he does not share the African enthusiasms and knowledge of his predecessor Yasuo Fukuda, as a former Foreign Minister and a regular at UN conferences, Aso strongly supports an activist 'development diplomacy' and speaks bluntly for a Japanese diplomat.
Tags: Taro Aso, Yasuo Fukuda, China's trophy projects, Ichiro Ozawa, Hirofumi Nakasone, Yasuhiro Nakasone, United States, Shoichi Nakagawa, Tetsuo Saito, Shigeru Ishiba, Yasukazu Hamada, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Botswana, South Africa, Komeito
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/50/New-regime%2c-new-policy

Investment and jobs
Zambia's relations with India go back a century to colonial rule under Britain, when people from the subcontinent were recruited by the colonial authorities as civil servants and others set up trading networks in southern and eastern Africa. Although much smaller than the Indian community in Kenya, Indians in Zambia have played a bigger political role and have also been important commercially.They could become more important still as the Indian government is committed to working more closely with them as it moves to boost its relations with Africa.
Tags: Britain, Kenya, China, Rupiah Banda, Ajay Mishra
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/49/Investment-and-jobs

China, India and the vote
Asia is looming large in Zambia's presidential elections, due on 30 October. This is partly because China and India have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Zambia's copper mines and also because local trades unionists have protested about the conditions and pay offered by some of the Chinese companies. The antipathy against China has been so great that last year President Hu Jintao had a lengthy meeting with government officials in Lusaka and made a special appeal to Chinese companies in the Copperbelt to respect Zambia's employment laws and local institutions.
Tags: China, India, Hu Jintao, Michael Chilufya Sata, Republic of, Taiwan, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Bwezani Banda, Hakainde Hichilema, Ambivalent attitudes, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe, Congo-Kinshasa
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/48/China%2c-India-and-the-vote

The markets react
Chaos in Western-dominated capital and money markets has spared Africa so far. Many economists believe that Africa might be largely insulated from the first wave of damage from the crisis in the United States' financial system; but if the crisis worsens, and leads to a sustained contraction of credit and recalibration of international risk, the second wave could hold back Africa's current growth path.
Tags: United States, Louis Kasekende, China, India, Angola, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, (i) World Economic Outlook (IMF, April 2008)
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/47/The-markets-react

A softer landing in the East
If Asia's economic growth has offered African exporters a fast-growing and lucrative market and its hyper-economies - China and India - have become important sources of investment capital, then this time the worst effects of the Western-based financial crisis might not reach Africa. That supposition is based on the premise that Asian economies are better placed to weather the current storm than their Western counterparts. So far the signs have been mixed; even within Western governments, there are fierce arguments about the severity and depth of the recession.
Tags: China, India, Japan, Angola, Congo-Kinshasa, Sudan, International aid targets under threat, United States, Liu Mingkang, Shantayanan Devarajan, South Africa, Nigeria, Razia Khan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Africa-Asia Confidential
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/46/A-softer-landing-in-the-East

Jiang Jianqing: President and Chairman, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
In a defining moment, the Communist Party of China (CPC) began in 2002 to admit entrepreneurs – unabashed capitalists – to its ranks. Jiang Jianqing, Governor of ICBC, the world’s largest bank by market value and architect of plans to buy a 20% stake in Africa’s largest bank, Standard Bank, is not one of them. He is very much a cadre.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/45/Jiang-Jianqing%3a-President-and-Chairman%2c-Industrial-and-Commercial-Bank-of-China

Masahiko Koumura: Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Japan’s Foreign Minister is preparing for a busy, Africa-focused 2008: the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development on 28-30 May, and the Group of Eight Summit in Hokkaido on 7-9 July.
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http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/44/Masahiko-Koumura%3a-Minister-for-Foreign-Affairs%2c-Japan

Muhammad Yunus: Managing Director, Grameen Bank
The work of Grameen Bank, which shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Yunus, its founder, began in 1974 when Yunus handed US$27 from his own pocket to a group of 42 craftswomen. The group used the money to pay off debt and develop their business, and eventually repaid him. This was the beginning of microfinance.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/43/Muhammad-Yunus%3a-Managing-Director%2c-Grameen-Bank

Liu Guijin: China's Special Representative on African Affairs
Liu Guijin is in an unenviable position. As China’s Envoy to Africa, he must balance its often contradictory priorities: on one hand, China claims the internal affairs of its African business partners are none of its business; on the other hand, it has a seat on the United Nations Security Council, which has increasingly made Sudan’s Darfur conflict its business.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/42/Liu-Guijin%3a-China's-Special-Representative-on-African-Affairs

Zhong Jianhua: China's Ambassador to South Africa
The career of China’s new Ambassador to South Africa, Zhong Jianhua, hints at the importance Beijing places on its biggest trade partner in Africa. A graduate of the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages, Zhong joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1977. His past assignments include eight years at China’s Embassy in Britain and twelve at the Department of Consular Affairs in Beijing, where he became Director-General in 1999.
Tags: 
http://www.africa-asia-confidential.com/article/id/41/Zhong-Jianhua%3a-China's-Ambassador-to-South-Africa

Li Ruogu: President of the Export Import Bank of China
Li Ruogu has been Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim) since June 2005. With one Masters in Law from Beijing University and another in Public Administration from the United States’ Princeton University, he was briefly an assistant professor at Beijing University before joining the People’s Bank of China in 1985. In the 1990s, he spent a year as an International Monetary Fund economist and four years at the Asian Development Bank, as well as acting as liaison to the African De