Building Bridges : China's Growing Role as Infrastructure Financier for Sub-Saharan Africa
China and Africa have a long history of political and economic ties, which have greatly intensified in recent years. Both bilateral trade and Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa grew about fourfold between 2001 and 2005, accompanied b...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000333038_20090413020329 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2614 |
| Summary: | China and Africa have a long history of
political and economic ties, which have greatly intensified
in recent years. Both bilateral trade and Chinese foreign
direct investment (FDI) in Africa grew about fourfold
between 2001 and 2005, accompanied by a major influx of
Chinese enterprises and workers into the region. The natural
resource sector, principally petroleum and to a lesser
extent minerals, has been the major focus for both Chinese
FDI to Africa and African exports to China. The report is
structured along the following sections. Section two
provides an overview of the growing economic ties between
China and Africa, in particular the extent of current
understanding of Chinese infrastructure finance in the
region. Section three examines the data available from
official Chinese government sources and discusses the
methodological challenges inherent in quantifying the extent
of official assistance for infrastructure finance. Section
four presents the headline estimates on the value of Chinese
finance based on the projects database developed for this
report. Section five details the economic complementarities
that exist between China and Africa, based on Africa's
need for infrastructure and China's natural resource
import requirements. Sections six and seven present a more
detailed profile of Chinese-financed infrastructure projects
in Africa on a sector-by-sector and country-by-country
basis. Section eight presents the available information on
financing mechanisms and terms, and considers the overall
impact on country indebtedness. Section nine places the
phenomenon of Chinese infrastructure finance into a broader
international perspective, comparing it with flows provided
by traditional Organization for Economic Co-Operation and
Development (OECD) financiers and other emerging players
such as India and the Arab countries. Finally, section ten
draws out the main conclusions and implications. |
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