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Published September 4, 2018

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered to double funding for infrastructure projects in Africa, signalling unrelenting interest on the continent despite criticism of debt enslavement.

In a speech at the start of the Beijing Summit of the Focus on China-Africa Cooperation, President Xi on Monday announced there will be another round of funding worth Sh6 trillion to go the construction of roads, railways, ports and energy generation projects— all part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

$60 BILLION

The amount means Beijing will be sending an equivalent amount to the one it released three years ago when FOCAC Summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

President Xi argued the money, besides fuelling his pet project of the Belt and Road Initiative, will also help strengthen ties with Africa.

“Anyone who isolates himself on an island has no future," he said. 

“We will fully honour the promises we have made to our African brothers," Xi said in a speech translated and circulated to African media houses.

The Chinese leader who recently whipped members of the China Communist Party to remove term limits for his tenure, said the money Beijing released in 2015 (Sh6 trillion as well) had already been disbursed on agreed projects or was in the pipeline.

The new $60 billion will be channelled to the countries with diplomatic relations with Beijing, indicating that despite the apolitical stand, there were still strings to attach to the aid and loans.

But President Xi, speaking to African leaders who included President Uhuru Kenyatta, indicated the funding channelled to Africa, mostly as loans and grants, can already speak for itself.

"No one could, out of imagination or assumption, deny the remarkable achievements made in China-Africa cooperation.

SH2 TRILLION

“No one can stand in the way or obstruct international efforts to support Africa's development. China takes as its mission making new and even greater contribution to mankind,” he said.

Beijing says it is will disburse a quarter of this money as grants, another quarts as “interest-free” loans and some Sh2 trillion as credit lines.

The rest will be channelled as funds to support Chinese imports from Africa, which are often mainly raw materials to fuel Chinese industries.   Read more

 

Source: The Daily Nation