The IMF has scored some points in its battle with China over the mining-for-infrastructure deal but a final decision is unlikely before year's end
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....
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