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EIB Chief Warns About Aggressive Chinese Lending In Africa
Brussels (AFP) Nov 28, 2006 The head of the European Investment Bank on Tuesday warned of aggressive Chinese lending in Africa and said Europe should adapt by reconsidering the terms it lends on in the region. "Of course the competition of the Chinese banks is quite clear and they do not bother with social and human rights conditions," EIB President Philippe Maystadt told journalists in Brussels. He said the EIB had so far mainly seen Chinese competition in mining sector projects and that it generally reflected China's strategy towards Africa to gain influence on the resource-rich continent. China has pledged to double aid and offer five billion dollars (3.8 billion euros) in loans and credits to the continent by 2009. China and African countries also signed trade deals worth 1.9 billion dollars at a summit in Beijing earlier this month that saw the growing Asian giant deepen economic and political ties with the continent. However, China has faced accusations that it worsens repression and human rights abuses in Africa through support of countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe in a cynical drive to increase access to African oil and other resources. To adapt to competition from Chinese lenders, the EIB and its EU member states needed to review the social, labour and human rights conditions it imposes when it makes development loans in the region, he said. "We should continue to have conditionality, but we need to think about it," he said without out saying how lending conditions should be reformed. On the same basis as the World Bank, the EIB borrows on capital markets at favourable rates thanks to its backing from member states and then lends the funds for development projects in and outside the 25-nation bloc according to the objectives and limits set by member states.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links European Investment Bank The Economy
Hong Kong And Chinese Industry Could Face Devastation From Global Warming
Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 23, 2006Hong Kong and southern China's economic hinterland could be devastated by floods and storms by 2030 unless governments tackle global warming now, a liberal think-tank warned Thursday. The stark warning came in a report by Civic Exchange, which said stronger typhoons generated by rising global temperatures would inundate the heavily industrialised region with near constant floods and storms. |
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