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November 2009

Vol 3 N0 1

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Guinea GUINEA | CHINA

The junta rewards new friends

Conakry begins stripping foreign companies of mining and oil assets for its Chinese partners as those partners turn towards Zimbabwe

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 ear...

ZIMBABWE | CHINA

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 ...

AFRICA | CHINA

FOCAC meets expectations

In comparison to the festivities of 2006, the 8-9 November Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC IV) in Sharm El-Shei...

BLUE NOTES

Close

A new report from a United Nations Group of Experts seen by Africa-Asia Confidential reveals violations of the arms embargo on Congo-Kinshasa by Western, African and Asian states. The report blasts the joint UN and Congolese mission, the UN’s most expensive peacekeeping operations and accuses it of exaggerating its successes against the brutal militias terrorising eastern Congo. The Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda control gold and tin deposits which are illegally exported. Among the Asian buyers named in the report were the Malaysian Smelting Corporation and the Thailand Smelting and Refining Company. The funds finance arms purchases organised by FDLR members in France and Germany. Among the Group's less surprising revelations are that North Korea and Sudan have violated UN Security Council resolution 1807 which imposes all states to notify the Sanctions Committee in advance regarding theshipment of arms for Congo. China is leading the charge against the report at the UN Security Council, but other Council members, including Russia and the United States will also be embarrassed. Without a vigorous defence from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who appointed the Group, the report’s criticisms and recommendations are likely to be diluted.

CHINA | AFRICA

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.

AFRICA | CHINA

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.’

AFRICA | CHINA | COMMENTARY

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.

SOUTH KOREA

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.

INDIA | AFRICA

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.

BLUE NOTES

A new report from a United Nations Group of Experts seen by Africa-Asia Confidential reveals violations of the arms embargo on Congo-Kinshasa by Western, African and Asian states. The report blasts the joint UN and Congolese ...

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AFRICA | VIETNAM

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.



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