GENERAL
New AGOA: Merely Recycling Old Ideas?
A few weeks ago, the AGOA Action Committee - a group consisting primarily of U.S. companies, U.S. academics, and Washington-based NGOs - recently released its six-pronged policy proposal that allegedly signifies a new U.S. policy approach toward Africa. This comes at the time of the 10th anniversary of the passage of AGOA and when a general stock-taking is underway in Washington. However, many of the policy proposals put forth are merely the repackaged ideas of old and, more importantly, reflect a failure to understand how both U.S. and African stakeholders need to and have changed in this post-recession new world order. Read more [2]

African Development Bank is seeking to triple the amount of funds it has available to invest in roads and power plants
The bank’s 77 members will meet in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, on May 27 and 28 to approve an increase in the capital base to about $100 billion. The investment funds may help Africa offset the impact of the Greek debt crisis, which threatens to stall the global economic recovery and spark another wave of risk aversion that sent emerging market currencies tumbling late in 2008. The bank, based in Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, more than doubled lending to $12.6 billion last year. Read more [3]

Investment in Africa: All to Play For
When many western people think of Africa a set of stock images comes to mind: starvation, poverty, corruption, violence. No matter how many television programmes, articles and campaigns try to change perceptions, these views dominate. In this context, you would have to be mad to call for greater private sector investment. Yet increasing numbers of emerging powers are doing just that. This gulf between western perceptions and modern African realities is doing growing damage to the economic prospects of countries like Britain, just as global competition for resources and power heats up. Read more [4]

African leaders urged to spread the wealth
Africa's growing wealth needs to be spread beyond the confines of powerful elites and goverments must come clean about opaque mining and oil deals, a leading think-tank said on Tuesday.
In its annual report, the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, identified poor governance and creaking transport and power infrastructure as the main impediments to the continent of a billion people. Read more [5]

Africa: a new economic frontier
This is an important year for Africa. The World Cup is putting the continent at the centre of global attention. Its strengths and frailties will be under greater international scrutiny than ever before. What will the story be? Read more [6]
CHINA in AFRICA

In Africa Town, everything to gain
This place is not really China, nor is it Africa; it lies in the midst of major highways in Guangzhou, southern China (formerly known as Canton). Officially, 20,000 Africans – probably more like 100,000 – live in or pass through the 10 square kilometres of “Africa Town,” where Igbo, Wolof and Lingala mingle with Mandarin and Cantonese. Some Chinese call it “Chocolate Town.”
In this roaring city of 18 million inhabitants and tens of thousands of micro-factories, the commercial activity is very different from the oil deals and huge public-works contracts the Chinese have secured in Africa. Read more [7]

“China has genuine desire to help Africa”
Aside from Africa’s economic and strategic importance to China, the Beijing Government “has a genuine desire to help” the continent, said Zhiqun Zhu yesterday. On the other hand, added the international relations expert, China represents, for Africans, “a counterweight to Western pressure” and an alternative model of development. Read more [8]

China short-term boost could become a long-term threat to Africa
China’s trade and investment has created a positive boost for Africa’s growth, however in the long term the continent could face over-dependence on aid and growing unemployment. The warning was made yesterday by various speakers at the “China-Africa: New Types of Exchange, Cultural Identity and Emerging Relations in a Globalized World” conference. Read more [9]

Chinese buy control of Wesizwe
JUNIOR miner Wesizwe Platinum said yesterday it had secured an $877m (R6,6bn) financing package from Chinese investors, in a deal that will see the investors gaining a majority stake in the company.
The capital injection will also revive Wesizwe’s ambition of transforming from an exploration company to a mining company.
Jinchuan Group and China- Africa Development Fund will pay $227,5m for a 51% equity stake and provide $650m in loans to finance Wesizwe’s flagship Frischgewaagd-Ledig project, near Sun City in North West. This equates to a subscription price of R2,07 per Wesizwe share. Read more [10]

West Africa to become China's key source of crude oil
Figures released by General Administration of Customs of China shows Angola remained China's largest source of crude oil in April and exported 4.3 million tons of crude oil to China, up 181 percent compared to the same period last year.

In April, Saudi Arabia ranked second with 3.1 million tons of crude oil exports to China, down 14.8 percent. Iran ranked third with 1.7 million tons, declining 21.2 percent.

Read more [11]
China committed to strengthening cooperation with Africa
The Chinese government is firmly committed to strengthening its friendly cooperation with Africa and supporting the continent in achieving peace and development, a senior Chinese diplomat said here on Tuesday.
"China is the largest developing country and Africa is home to most developing countries. China-Africa cooperation is an important part of the South-South cooperation," said He Yafei, China's ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva.
Read more [12]

China: recapitalising global mining
This has been a benchmark week for the mobilization of Chinese capital, with the announcements that USD 2.7bn will be invested in infrastructure to enable an iron ore development in Guinea to get its goods, ready only some good years hence, to the Atlantic coast, and that in a mix of equity and debt, USD 877m has been earmarked for building a mine at a platinum group metals (PGM) deposit in South Africa. Read more [13]

Africa should take lessons from China
The model of agriculture applied by the People’s Republic of China during the last 30 years is an example that the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa should follow in their quest for development and growth and to eradicate poverty, according to agricultural experts.
Dr Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and co-author of the study titled "China’s Agricultural and Rural Development: Implications for Africa", told IPS that there is consensus on the importance of agriculture and rural development as an engine of growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more [14]

China sweeps the board in Africa
Across Africa, the Chinese are outdoing themselves in scooping up deals that secure the lion's share of the continent's immense mineral treasure house, eclipsing their main competitors, the United States, India and Europe, while leaving Japan trailing far behind. Read more [15]

INDIA in AFRICA

EXIM India to open office in Ethiopia next month
In a bid to support Indian companies' growing investments in East Africa, the Export and Import (EXIM) Bank of India will open an office in Ethiopia next month, officials said.
Ethiopia's Minister of Finance and Development Sufian Ahmed and EXIM bank officials are expected to sign the agreement Tuesday, which will further boost ties between India and East Africa.
The bank and the Ethiopian ministry have been in negotiations for the last couple of months about the opening of the East African office in Addis Ababa. Read more [16]
India to tap African markets to boost exports
India will focus on making Africa a major export market and increase trade with African nations amid the fragile global economic recovery and persistent financial woes in Europe.
"We are preparing a strategy paper on Africa with an aim at increasing our exports to the continent,"a Commerce Ministry official said.
The Department of Commerce will come out with a strategy paper to increase exports to Africa, which accounted for USD 8.36 billion, or less than six per cent of India&aposs exports, in the first 11 months of the 2009-10 financial year. Read more [17]
Address of External Affairs Minister at the ‘Africa Day’ Lecture on “India-Africa Relations”
„In a rapidly changing world, an important dimension of India-Africa Partnership is our meeting of minds on pressing global issues. These issues include the reform of the United Nations, combating International Terrorism, Climate Change, WTO, reform of international financial institutions, combating diseases, eradication of hunger and poverty and promotion of inclusive democratic societies and polities.“ Read more [18]

India's opportunity in Africa
With the potential of development, Africa is in need of investment in areas like ICT to improve governance, overcome poverty and deal with critical infrastructure gaps. And the continent can look at India as an example to learn from. Because, India and Africa have similar problems, therefore, the solutions can be similar. What's been tried and tested in India, and with the technology readily available to transfer knowledge and experience from our country, it could actually be quite an African safari. Read more [19]

India backs Africa for Security Council
India Wednesday backed Africa’s demand to get a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and sought closer collaboration with the continent over a slew of global issues ranging from terrorism and climate change to eradication of poverty and hunger. Read more [20]

'Sulabh toilets can help reduce global warming'
An Indian innovator who plans to promote cheap toilet technology in 50 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East region says his technologies could also help developed nations reduce global warming. Read more [21]

Other Emerging Actors
Russia ready to invest $1 Billion in Namibian Uranium
Russia, the fifth-largest uranium miner according to the World Nuclear Association, signed a cooperation agreement with Namibia on exploration and production during Pohamba’s visit, a move that may allow them to challenge the top three producers, Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. Read more [22]

Israel denies South African nuclear weapons agreement
A UK news website claims Israel intended to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa, but Jerusalem denies the charges. The Guardian news website, citing the work of an American academic, has reported that declassified South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to the apartheid regime in 1975. The office of Israeli President Shimon Peres, who was defense minister at the time of the alleged agreement, has vehemently denied the claims. Read more [23]
Southern Africa: Responsible mining companies?
Corporate responsibility, as this new study from Southern Africa Research Watch (http://www.sarwatch.org [24]) notes, is much more widely honored in word than in practice. Nevertheless, the authors argue that standards in place, along with greater efforts for governments and civil society to monitor compliance, can potentially have significant impact. Their studies, including South African mining companies operating in Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the role of South African Banks, show that this promise is still far from realization.
Read more [25]
Algeria says no Orascom sale in site for South Africa
Algeria's foreign minister ended speculation Wednesday that South Africa's MTN group might try to buy Djezzy, the local subsidiary of Egyptian Telecom giant Orascom. Mourad Medelci said during a visit to this North African nation by South African President Jacob Zuma that "concerning Orascom, the page is turned with South Africa." Read more [26]

Blogs&Opinion

South Africa and the continent
The other theme that came out during the Cape Town conference was the idea of SA playing a role as the “Gateway into Africa”. Here there was an increasing worry that SA’s influence on the continent was declining. This is natural. As more countries outside the continent find their feet in dealing with Africa , they’ll go directly to African partners and governments.
Read more [27]

Making Africa's Dam Deals Public
International Rivers announces the 2nd edition of the 2010 African Dams Briefing, which offers a summary of key public data on Africa's proposed large dams and creates accountability regarding these deals. Read more [28]
South Africa Should Join the BRIC bloc - but needs better selling skills
South African needs to market its "highly attractive value offer" better and improve the country's brand so that it can be included in the Bric group of countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.
So says Kuseni Dlamini, Old Mutual chief executive for South Africa and developing markets, implying the country can benefit a great deal from inclusion in this well-regarded group of developing countries with high growth rates. Read more [29]

Cultural differences in business relations: the case of China and Africa
What does culture have to do with business? Many business majors and practitioners immersed in questions of financial forecasting, market studies, and management models have turned aside from the question of culture and how it affects business. But more and more organizations are finding themselves involved in communication across cultures, between cultures, among cultures; because they are doing business in foreign countries, perhaps, or because they are sourcing from another country, seeking financing from another country, or have an increasingly multicultural workforce Read more [30]

Did Indonesia miss the bus to Africa?

Do you know which African country has more foreign exchange reserves than Indonesia? Do you know which country was Indonesia’s biggest foreign investor in 2008?
The answer to the first question is Algeria, which currently holds US$149 billion in foreign exchange reserves. The oil-rich North-African country’s reserves exceeds the $72 billion held by Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
In 2008, many people were surprised to hear that the Indonesia’s biggest foreign investor was
Mauritius. The tiny country invested $6.47 billion in Indonesia — more than global giants such the US, Japan, China or Germany. Total foreign direct investment in Indonesia in 2008 reached $14.87 billion. In 2009, four African countries — Seychelles, Mauritius, Liberia and Mali — invested almost half billion dollars in Indonesia. Despite these amazing facts about Africa, awareness of the world’s second largest (and second most populous) continent is low in Indonesia. Read more [31]

China in Africa: Potholes in the road
Along the way it’s utterly transforming the infrastructure in many parts of Africa, bringing road and rail links that are often better than those in parts of China itself. So everyone’s a winner, right? Well, not necessarily – improvements in infrastructure aren’t always the foundation of a flourishing domestic economy. One of Richard Dowden’s most interesting points in his 2008 book Africa:Altered States, Ordinary Miracles was that nearly all the railways built by the European colonists led from a mine to a port; essentially, they were built to help get Africa’s mineral wealth out of the country as quickly as possible. It’s surely not overly cynical to suggest that much the same logic lies behind all this Chinese infrastructure spending. It’s generally accepted that the key to economic development in Africa is a move away from simple commodity exports towards manufacturing and services. But these new roads and railways will hardly help African countries to diversify if more and more of their resources are sent away to be processed in China. It all adds weight to Thabo Mbeki’s fears that China’s move into Africa could become “a new form of neo-colonialist adventure” Read more [32]

Building Africa: Where's The United States?
One promising trend is the emerging East African Community (EAC), a regional economic group with a population of over 126 million across the member states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and possibly the oil-rich nascent nation-state of southern Sudan. Currently, the U.S. role in this embryonic economic growth story falls far short of the level of engagement shown by its Asian counterparts. If the United States wishes to maintain its strategic interests in the East Africa region, it must seek to better engage with the continent’s emerging regional structures. This will require policymakers to move beyond the confines of military strategy and to embrace a more holistic approach to economic and security policy in the region.Read more [33]

CAD Fund to boost footprint in Africa
The China-Africa Development Fund (CAD Fund), China's largest private equity (PE) fund focused on African investments, has kicked off its second-phase of fund raising to raise $2 billion over three years. The fund's investment in 2009 alone was $140 million compared with China's total investment of $1.3 billion in Africa last year.Read more [34]

Sovereign wealth rewrites old-world rules
Sovereign wealth funds -- national vehicles created to grow state wealth for the future -- have long experience investing in exotic and lesser-known lands. To these funds, many of which originate in what the West calls the "frontier" region, it's a local market.This year alone, countries including China, Singapore, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi have invested easily more than $1 billion in frontier markets, in such projects as mines in Mongolia and companies in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.Read more [35]

4) Bharti seeks funds for Zain buyout
Country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel said it was seeking funds from its bankers to pay for the acquisition of Zain's African operations, the deal for which was negotiated by the company earlier in the year. Read more [36]

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Compiled by Sanusha Naidu, Director of the Emerging Powers in Africa programme.