Reuters columnist Wei Gu has an article out this morning discussing China’s and the CIC’s interest in Africa.
“A group of retired officials and think-tank researchers have come up with a plan to direct foreign reserves towards developing nations…The hope is that it might kick-start African economies, while also building China’s ties with a valuable source of raw materials…President Hu Jintao has said that building strong ties between China and Africa will not only promote development of each side, but also contribute to establishing a just and equitable new international political and economic order.”
I’m not sure why this is suddenly big news. China has been very interested in investing in Africa for some time. In fact, the China Africa Development Fund was set up in 2007 and actually invested more than 400 million dollars in Chinese firms operating in Africa in 2008. Anyway, I guess the news about CIC’s interest in China is worth thinking about.
However, since I’ve officially shut off my analytical brain for the remainder of the week–I’m hanging around DC for a bit of vacation after my conference–I thought I’d ask Africa guru and SWF follower Jason Mosley (also Senior Editor at Oxford Analytica for Africa) for his views on this:
“In contrast to Chinese (usually state-led) participation in infrastructure or extractive projects in Africa, it’s investment strategy has been more cautious — it’s stake in Standard Bank should allow it to explore new opportunities by taking advantage of that company’s much deeper knowledge of the region. Nevertheless, the opportunities available on the continent are fairly limited in relation to the size of CIC’s available cash.”
Thanks, Jason. Back to vacation…
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