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Published 1st November 2009

Vol 3 (AAC) No 1

Guinea

The junta rewards new friends

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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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 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.

FOCAC meets expectations

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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China’s newly announced Africa policy is more of the same, but with a lack of African consensus that is all that could be hoped for

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...

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...

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...

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...

More catalyst than juggernaut

A China-Africa scholar weighs the evidence on the effect China has on Africa’s industrialisation

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...

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...

Pointers

Xu Jinghu

China's Ambassador to Morocco

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...

René N'guettia Kouassi

Director, African Union Department of Economic Affairs

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...

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