Chinese President Hu Jintao capped a two-day visit to Zambia by inaugurating a massive mining investment partnership that has been heralded as a model for Beijing’s growing business interests in Africa. Hu, who arrived in Zambia on Saturday, was traveling Monday to Namibia — his fifth stop on an eight-nation African tour intended to boost Chinese investment in the impoverished continent.
Zambian Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande described Hu’s visit as “one of the most successful visits by a foreign head of state.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that other donors “tend perhaps to be very political.”
“People come here and talk about U.N. reform and conflict zones. China has decided they will take a different route, they will take an economic route,” Magande said.
China — seeking to supply its economy’s appetite for energy and natural resources — has gained a reputation for offering countries like Sudan and Zimbabwe assistance and investment without the political conditions, such as respect for human rights, that are imposed by Western donors.
But rising Chinese domination has spurred charges of exploitation in Zambia, a southern African nation of 11.5 million, and became a hot political issue in September’s presidential elections.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who has cultivated close ties with the Chinese government, was all smiles Sunday, as he and Hu launched an economic partnership zone centered around the Chambishi copper mine in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. The partnership is designed to draw US$800 million (€615 million) in mining investment from scores of Chinese companies, and create 60,000 jobs.
China already has poured hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) into Zambia’s copper sector, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s exports.
Addressing a crowd that included hundreds of Chinese managers and Zambian miners in orange suits and red helmets, Hu and Mwanawasa said the new economic partnership zone would be first of several around the continent.
“The Zambia-China Economic Trade and Cooperation Zone is the first of its kind established by China in Africa,” Hu said, speaking through an interpreter, calling it “a showcase for a higher, new level of China-Africa business cooperation.”
The walls and stage at a local conference center where the event was held were festooned in red, featuring a huge sign reading “Hail to Sino-Africa New-Type Strategic Partnership,” red banners in Chinese lettering, and a huge map of the proposed economic zone. Zambian and Chinese dance troupes performed outside. A member of the Chinese delegation cued the audience when to applaud.
Mwanawasa said that “the people of Chambishi and the surrounding area, in particular, and the people of Zambia in general, are expected to benefit greatly from the investments earmarked for the this zone through employment creation, technology and human resource development.”
He said the zone would “change the face of the Copperbelt and, indeed, the Zambian economy in that our raw materials will now have chance to enjoy value addition of unimagined proportions.”
Mwanawasa sounded one cautious note, however, asking Chinese investors to partner with local Zambian firms and to give priority to local suppliers for goods and services.
“It will not do for foreign investors to give priority to foreign suppliers as this will adversely affect the growth of local industries,” Mwanawasa said.
Business leaders in Zambian mining towns regularly complain that foreign mining companies import most of their equipment, hobbling local companies that are struggling to establish themselves.
Zambia has seen a backlash against Chinese influence, fueled by workplace accidents, concerns over poor working conditions and low pay at Chinese-run copper mines, and resentment over an influx of Chinese traders into the apparel industry.
Zambian and Chinese official canceled earlier plans to hold the Sunday event in Chambishi, where a 2005 explosion at a Chinese mine killed 51 Zambian workers.
The issue triggered political debate in September elections, with opposition challenger Michael Sata winning support in urban areas after criticizing what he called “exploitive” Chinese investors.
Officials from Sata’s party were not invited to events during Hu’s visit.
China’s involvement in Zambia, which was the first African country to recognize China’s Communist government, dates back to the early 1970s, when China built a railway linking central Zambia to the nearest port city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Since the late 1990s, Chinese investments in the southern African nation have soared and now total US$500 million (€384 million) — the third largest after those of South Africa and former colonial master Britain.
Source:The Associated Press
Well, two things here: First, this looks like a really good deal to me on the face of it. 60 000 job creation! Folks , that is huge for zambia. The entire ZCCM at it’s peak, the glory days of Zambia, had about 64 000 jobs, so if this deal is going to add 60 000 jobs to the existing ones , then we are talking about a real turn around folks in the work here. Zambia is back, I would say. And we have to thank the opposition PF for making the chinese unease and making their explotation of zambians known world wide . I believe the chinese are out to correct this, hence making this kind of heft pledge. They want to show the world that they are not exploting zambia as they match on to feed the apetite of their fast growing economy.
Secondly, having said that people of Zambia, these are politicians making these statements and if you know a thing or two about politics, you should have figured out by now that in politics what is delivered tends to negatively deviate from what was promised during the campaign, once a vote is cast. So, will this really happen? Well, the answer is …I don’t know. Only father time will tell. Nobody cheats or beats father time, not even women. Father time always reals the truth in the end. Lets wait and see.
Hey! whats going on folks? it like someone is urinating on our heads telling is that it is raining. I wonder what sort of picture the goverment is trying to paint with this highly contraversial chinese investment. The creation of 60 000 jobs in Zambia by the chinese investor in the mining sector seem to be too cosmetic to me and a void political utterance. I don’t expect one single mine to employ such a huge work force no matter how big it is.
If these 60 000 jobs will be created, the Zambian people desreve to know what other mines will the Chinese invest into. We dont expect the goverment to work behind the curtains with these investors who have risen a lot of dust and are at the center of contraversy . Are there some other sectors of the economy which these guys are going to invest into which the goverment has not publicised for fear of the people to protest because their known poor working conditions as shown at Mamba and other mines owned by the Chinese?
Infact, if at all this 60 0000 jobs will be created by the Chinese investors, it is important for the goverment to renegotiate with the them and come up with new investment policies that will benefit the Zambain workers because entrusting a work force of 60000 people under unfavourable and disatisfying working conditions will have a negative effect on the economy
The Chinese labour is known to be the cheapest in the world and of course this should not be tranfared to Zambia . We are an indepedent country with our own labour laws and not a province in China of which I foresee this happening if we get so excited by the so called chinese investment. Well lets waite and see the 60 000 jobs coming for the many loafing Zambians. After all who doesn’t want ot be employed.
Francis Ng’andwe
Canada, Edmonton