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Vol 3 (AAC) No 5

Published 1st March 2010


Angola

Reshuffling Luanda's Beijing connection

As the President rearranges his government and calls for another crackdown on corruption, Beijing’s friends can take nothing for granted

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.

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