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[April 14, 2006]

Wooing Africa As It Grows Into Global Giant

(The Nation (Kenya) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Construction and more construction, that's what one sees in Beijing, China's capital and home to nearly 13 million people. The skyline is literally littered with cranes and scores of builders at work day and night on numerous skyscrapers and blocks of residential flats and on roads and bridges.

In Beijing, the host of the 2008 Summer Olympics, and in Qindao city, where the sailing events will be held, the construction has recently been further fuelled by the preparations for the Games. Other cities, such as Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, which is emerging as an industrial hub in the central region, are also going through a construction boom.

Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Olympic organising committee, said China would provide top-rate facilities, a beautiful environment and all-round services.

It's a tall order for a city whose infrastructure is groaning under the heavy weight of traffic - with two million cars and six million bicycles, and hordes of pedestrians. But to ease transport during the Games, new tram lines and roads are being built and new advanced traffic management systems installed.

Chinese authorities are upbeat about the economic achievements over recent years. They see their country on track to overtake Europe's largest economy, Germany, should it continue to grow at the current rate of nearly 10 per cent.

The rapid transformation of Chinese society from a largely rural, agriculturally based one into a highly urbanised one is a goal the government is braced for. Chinese cities and towns are expected to absorb about 300 million people migrating from the rural areas in the next 20 years, if the urbanisation growth of one per cent is maintained. Liu He, vice-chairman of the Office of the Central Leading Group of Financial and Economic Affairs, says the people moving into the towns will greatly contribute to the urban centres' development.

And the Chinese are forging trade and economic co-operation with other developing countries, including African countries, even as they seek to expand links with developed countries.

According to Mr Li Qiangmin, deputy director-general of the African Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China's fast growing economy has contributed 20 per cent of the global economic growth and 18 per cent of the international trade since China opened up to the outside world in the 1990s, and "in particular, stimulated the economic growth and recovery of its neighbours."

Mr Li was speaking at the Third Workshop for African Journalists hosted by the Secretariat of the Follow-up Committee of the China-Africa Co-operation Forum in Beijing last month at which the Chinese showcased their achievements.

However, the rapid development and aggressive search for international markets and co-operation with Africa are not being achieved on a silver platter. China, with 1.3 billion people, accounting for more than 20 per cent of the world's population, has over the years pursued a stringent one-child population control policy. It's now believed that India's population could surpass that of China in a few years

Analysts worry that the country is threatening the global economy with its massive energy consumption. Though admitting that China is a big energy consumer, Mr Li argues that it's equally a big energy producer, with 94 per cent of its energy demand being met from domestic supply.

Satisfying its increasing energy demand without compromising environmental safety standards is a major challenge for China. Energy planners are seeking, in the next five years, to raise China's coal output while at the same time reducing the large number of mining disasters.

In its quest to conquer world markets, Beijing has earned a bad name as a country intent on flooding foreign markets with cheap exports. The EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson proposed last month to levy an anti-dumping tariff on Chinese shoe imports.

Responding to questions on the failure by Chinese authorities to declare publicly the terms of agreements they enter into with African countries, its policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of host countries, which appears to endorse the dictatorial tendencies of certain African leaders, its reluctance to readily share technology and the influx of illegal Chinese immigrants into Africa, Mr Li said Chinese policy of opening up to the rest of the world, and especially to Africa, is motivated by the need for mutually beneficial co-operation and not hegemony.

Chinese officials insisted that even at the height of the war in Southern Sudan, both the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement and the Khartoum Government warmly welcomed them to explore for oil.

While the Chinese are determined to quickly increase their trade with Africa, which currently stands at only two per cent of its international trade, and say they want to help pull the continent out of economic stagnation, the flurry of activity inside China points to a determination to achieve something greater - to emerge as the next superpower, perhaps.

Khakhudu Agunda is Deputy Managing Editor of the 'Sunday Nation'

Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)

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