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China creates jobs in Africa while the West continues to sleep
by Joseph Earnest April 23, 2012
Newscast Media HOUSTON, Texas—While western nations are reluctant to open up trade with Africa and prefer to support the Continent by donating money to poor countries, the Chinese have taken a different approach. There is an old Chinese saying that goes: "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for life." China is living up to that mantra and has dominated Africa in every aspect.
The West is baffled as to how deeply embedded China's tentacles have become in Africa, in such a short period of time. The Chinese have succeeded in investing in Africa's infrastructure and are also training African workers to prepare them for the job market. This approach has yielded trust between native Africans and the Chinese, because Africans do not view Chinese as attempting to recolonize them.
The West on the other hand is not trusted by native Africans. Every move is second-guessed. Every donation is looked at suspiciously with the recipients wondering when the strings attached to each donation will be pulled. The Chinese have refrained from sending any military-related assistance to the Continent. Instead, they are addressing how to get Africans out of poverty through hands-on training.
Take for example the recently-built shoe factory in Ethiopia. China is investing 2 billion U.S. dollars to create 100,000 local jobs over the next decade.
"We want Ethiopian employees who came from poor backgrounds to use the company as a platform to fulfill their dreams and to help them out of poverty," said Helen Hai, vice president of Hua Jian Industrial Holdings, during a panel discussion here on Saturday at the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
China is the largest trade partner of Africa, and in 2011, the trade volume between China and Africa reached 160 billion U.S. dollars, representing a 30-percent increase year on year, according this article by Xinhua News. (pop-up)
While the West was asleep, China invested heavily in the South Sudan oil sector providing jobs for the Sudanese, at the same time helping the country refine oil, creating a win-win situation. With the recent attacks by Sudan on its southern neighbor, Beijing has even spoken out and has asked both countries to protect the rights and interests of Chinese oil companies that have established projects in the two countries as reported by China Daily. (pop-up)
Yet even more lucrative than oil, are the vast underground water reserves upon which Africa sits, that have caught the attention of the West, particularly researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London.
Water is the new gold. These aquifers stretch from North to South Africa, and the reason water is lucrative is because it can be bottled, and sold back to consumers. In fact scientists say that the water reserves are over 100 times more than the water on the surface. Take all the rivers and lakes in Africa and multiply the volume by 100, that's what lies beneath the Continent (that geologists know of).
While the British are excited about these findings, it will be the Chinese who once again provide a win-win situation by providing irrigation schemes, boreholes, wells and so forth, to native Africans. In return, they will build bottling factories and hire the same African natives to run the plants. If the Chinese make a profit, it will seem a reasonable thing to do since they first and foremost showed concern for the needs of the natives. The water discovery can be read in this BBC article. (pop-up)
Why is China so far ahead of any other country in investing in Africa? Because China doesn't fight unnecessary wars. It invests that money in Africa, and is projected to surpass the U.S. economy in the next 5-10 years. Add Comments>>
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