China's railway diplomacy steams ahead in West Africa

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-05-09

Chinese premier Li Keqiang, left, meets Nigerian president Goodluck
Jonathan in Abuja, May 7. (Photo/Xinhua)

After visiting Ethiopia, Chinese premier Li Keqiang traveled on to Nigeria for his second stop in Africa to ink a 80.7 billion yuan (US$12.9 billion) project by a Chinese state firm to help development the country's railway network, evidence of China's push for "railway diplomacy" to improve its diplomatic, economic and trade relations with West African countries, the Shanghai-based China Business News reports.

Li is paying official visits to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya from May 4 to 11. This is the first time Li has visited the African continent since taking office last year.

Jim O'Neill, the retiring chairperson of Goldman Sachs best known for coining the term BRIC, the acronym that stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China–the four rapidly developing countries that have come to symbolize the shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies–has recently coined a new term, MINT, referring to Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, as the next investment hot spots.

Ethiopia and Kenya, which have good relations with China, are the main target for China's aid programs in Africa, while Nigeria, now the biggest economy on the continent, and Angola, which offers abundant oil and mineral resources, are China's main energy partners, experts said.

In April, after revising the calculation method of its GDP, Nigeria exceeded South Africa as the largest economy in Africa. The most populous nation in Africa also has the continent's most complete manufacturing industry chains. Currently, the European Union is negotiating with the Economic Community Of West African States, with Nigeria at the center of negotiations.

Nigeria has not as yet made many demands for assistance from China and it chiefly needs project cooperation and investment in its industries from China, said Wang Luo, director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a research and advisory arm of the Ministry of Commerce. The aim of Li's visit is chiefly to maintain good relations between China and African countries, Wang said.

Nigeria is China's second-biggest export destination, with Angola in sixth place and Kenya in 10th, while Ethiopia did not make the top 10. The top 10 African countries together account for 70.2% of China's exports to the continent.

China aims to help its labor-intensive industries diversify into Africa, expanding the "made-in-Africa" operations amid rising production costs on the Chinese mainland, the report said.

Li arrived at the international airport in the Angolan capital of Luanda to start his official visit to the country, at the invitation of Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on March 8, according to a report from Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po.