Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Round-Up

1. General

Investors wake up
Walmart's entry into Africa through the purchase of a majority stake in Massmart reflects a significant change in the attitude of global investors to the continent. African nations are being recognised as consumers -- modest consumers in the global context, but consumers nonetheless.
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2. China in Africa

China's 2010 investment in Zambia tops $1bn
Chinese direct investment in Zambia exceeded $1-billion in 2010 and created more than 15 000 jobs, Zambia's vice president said on Monday. China has invested billions of dollars into African states such as Zambia, the continent's biggest copper producer, hoping to secure the resources it needs to fuel its booming economy. Vice President George Kunda, who met visiting Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liang Yu, said he expected Chinese direct investment to top $1-billion again in 2011. The recent signing of an agreement with China's privately owned Zhougui Mining Group would attract more than $5-billion into Zambia's mining sector over the next few years, Kunda said.
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Uganda gets $350 mln Chinese loan for airport road
China is providing a $350 million concessionary loan to build a multi-lane toll road linking Uganda's capital with the country's Entebbe airport, 54 km (34 miles) away, Ugandan officials said on Thursday. The east African nation's parliament is expected to ratify the loan agreement soon and construction will begin in July once the money is officially allocated in the next financial year (2011-2012) starting in the same month.
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China, Mauritius sign about 9 million U.S. dollars economic cooperation accord
China has signed an economic and trade cooperation accord with Mauritius worth about 9 million U.S. dollars, including 6 million dollars grant and 3 million dollars interest-free loan. The accord was signed on Friday and the signing ceremony was attended by visiting Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu and Mauritius Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Development Pravind Kumar Jugnauth. According to the accord, the grant and loan will fund projects agreed on by the two governments in the future. Hui and Jugnauth also agreed on boosting cooperation in science and culture and implementing the programs of the accord signed by the two sides.
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The Chinese vice Minister discusses with Minister of Transport
Mr Gao Hongfeng came to Cameroon to strengthen cooperation ties with Cameroon. The cooperation has been labeled in with the 2006 China Africa cooperation summit. According to the 2006 China Africa cooperation summit, the government of the Peoples Republic of China undertakes to help the African continent develop its infrastructure. In relation to this, the Chinese Vice Minister of Transport held a working session with Cameroon’s Minister of the Economy Planning and Regional Development. The Minister of the Economy, on the occasion, presented the country’s vision in the development of the sector. The Chinese vice Minister of Transport later met with Cameroon’s Minister of State for Transport, Bello Bouba Maïgari. Bello Bouba Maïgari during the session, presented priority projects in the transport sector.
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China pledges to help Angola in diversifying exports in bilateral trade
Visiting Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said here on Thursday that China would help Angola in diversifying its exports to China as part of the efforts to boost trade relations between the two countries. Zhong made the pledge during his meeting with Angolan Minister of Trade Maria Idalina Valente to explore ways of further expanding trade and economic ties between the two countries. Zhong said China has attached importance to developing ties with Angola, the largest trading partner of China in Africa, and the 2010 visit to Angola by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping brought Sino-Angolan ties to new highs.
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'We need Chinese investors'
Vice-President George Kunda has called for more Chinese investment in Zambia. And Zambia is among the African countries to benefit from the US$5 billion China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund), the bank has announced. Mr Kunda said Zambia remains a prime destination for investment because of its economic and political stability. “Zambia has arable land and other natural resources, which the Chinese investors can exploit. There are a lot of opportunities in the agricultural and tourism sectors,” he said.
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China, DR Congo see great potentials for further co-op
Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Wednesday met here with President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) Joseph Kabila with both saying that there are great potentials for further cooperation between the two countries. During the meeting, Hui said the development of bilateral ties between China and DR Congo has been maintaining good momentum, and the two sides have built political mutual trust and expanded cooperation in all sectors which have scored great achievements. DR Congo has become one of China's important cooperation partners in Africa, Hui said. Hui said as of developing countries, China and DR Congo are complementary in economy and there are great potentials for further cooperation.
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3. India in Africa
South African, Indian trade taking off faster than hoped
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma proposed on Monday that the target for bilateral South African/Indian trade be increased to $15-billion a year by 2014. Speaking in Johannesburg, he reported that bilateral trade is growing so fast that the current target of $10-billion annually, which was meant to have been achieved by 2012, will actually be achieved by the end of this financial year (March 31). “The balance of trade is happily and heavily in favour of South Africa and will remain so,” he highlighted. This is due to large-scale Indian imports of South African gold, diamonds and coal, among other products. He praised South Africa for providing leadership within the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) in the negotiating of a preferential trade agreement between Sacu and India.
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Coal India seeks 10 mln tonnes from Mozambique
State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) plans to export 10 million tons of coal from Mozambique to India in the next 10 years from its two mining concession blocks in the southern African country, a top official said on Sunday. CIL's director for central mine planning Marinder Khurana also said his company would ask Mozambique for five more licence blocks in a strategic bid to meet India's fast-growing domestic demand for energy. "We have two blocks now and we will ask for five mnore blocks," Khurana told Reuters on arrival in Maputo as part of an Indian delegaton that included Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal.
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Indian puts food security at heart of Africa agenda
With barely months to go before the second India-Africa Forum Summit, India Monday said the Indian model of 'green revolution' had an appeal for African countries across the board and underlined that boosting agriculture and food security were at the heart of its engagement with the 53-nation African continent. 'Agriculture is without doubt at the forefront of India's engagement with Africa in the current transformation phase,' Gurjit Singh, joint secretary in charge of east and southern Africa, told experts at a seminar on exploring twin themes of food security and India-Africa relations in the context of South-South cooperation. 'The Indian model of agriculture growth has attracted Africa across the board,' said Singh, while stressing that agriculture and food security are going to be high on the agenda of the second India-Africa Forum Summit that is expected to be held in an African country in April-May this year.
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Rwanda comes to Gujarat to seek investment
With robust 8.5 percent growth since 2006, the east African nation of Rwanda is seeking to put behind the ugly civil war of 1994 that claimed a million lives, calling upon Indian and global investors to invest and benefit from its progress. Prime Minister Bernard Mazuka led the country's sales pitch at the two-day Vibrant Gujarat conclave here and spoke about the opportunities, especially in agriculture, energy, tourism, information technology, mining and realty.
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India boosts influence across Africa
The Indian government is raising its diplomatic profile in Africa, with Indian companies striving to keep up with China’s business profile in Africa, taking advantage of historical ties with the continent, analysts have said. Last year the continent witnessed the conclusion of one of the biggest deals when India’s Airtel acquired Kuwait’s Zain that had operations in 16 African countries. The change probably meant little to the average customer, but for the continent, it’s another sign that India is moving in. It underscores the rise of India in Africa, at a time when much of the focus on foreign investment here has been on China.
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4. In Other Emerging Power News

South African farmers look for greener pastures abroad
Thousands of white South African farmers are leaving their homeland due to post-apartheid land reforms, a shortage of affordable territory and severe water shortages Thousands of white South African farmers are leaving their homeland to work abroad due to post-apartheid land reforms, a shortage of affordable territory and severe water shortages. Lance Spear is among those in neighbouring Mozambique who are renting land at a fraction of the cost paid back home and where he can also pay lower wages to workers and make better profits. “The big incentive is the availability of land and water,” the 39-year-old says, as he strolls across the dark brown, rain-soaked soil of his 200-acre (81-hectare) banana plantation in Mozambique. “South Africa doesn’t have any land or water. It’s all gone,” he adds, watching 20 workers pack freshly-picked bananas into boxes headed across the border to South Africa or to markets in the local capital Maputo.
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5. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

Is India ready to refuse UK aid?
Aid is a subject vulnerable to a near continuous identity crisis. What is it for? Who should get it, and what should they use it for? All these questions are thrown into sharp relief by India. Here is a country which, as Andrew Mitchell, the UK secretary for international development, puts it, "is roaring out of poverty". It is the 11th largest economy in the world. It is spending $31.5bn on its defence budget and $1.25bn on a space programme. So why, in these cash-strapped times, is the British government giving aid to India?
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Referendum in Sudan: India’s Predicament
Sudan, Africa’s largest country by territory, is at the crossroads. On January 9, 2011 its semi-autonomous South began a week-long referendum to decide whether to remain part of Sudan or secede. For the Sudan Liberation Movement (SPLM), the main party in the South led by Salva Kiir, it is the culmination of half a century of struggle for recognition against successive regimes in Khartoum. By the time fighting stopped in 2005, Africa’s longest war had cost 2.5 million lives and displaced many millions more. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war set up the semi-autonomous region of South Sudan, to be ruled by SPLM, as well as a Government of National Unity (GoNU) in Khartoum led by President Omar al Bashir. The CPA also mandated a referendum in the South. At the moment public opinion in the South is building towards independence. According to the latest survey 95 per cent of Southerners voted for secession. There are fears that the North may try to manipulate the results. However, chances of electoral fraud are minimal, given that around 14,000 Sudanese along with 2,000 Chinese are monitoring the elections. Sudan’s referendum has attracted interest among the international community. The United States and European Union have in the past few months been pressuring the National Congress Party (NCP) government to meet the referendum deadline. China and India, with considerable investments in energy and other sectors in Sudan, are equally keen on a smooth and stable referendum process.
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China: A force for peace in Sudan?
As the world anxiously watches the southern Sudanese vote on whether to secede, one country has more to lose than most if civil war returns to Sudan. With an estimated 24,000 of its citizens living there and billions of dollars worth of investments in the country, China is the key foreign player in Khartoum. When the US oil giant Chevron pulled out of Sudan - beginning in 1984 when three of its employees were killed and culminating in 1992 when it finally sold all of its Sudanese interests - the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) stepped in. It now has controlling stakes in the biggest energy consortiums operating in Sudan, giving China an estimated 60 per cent share of the 490,000 barrels of crude oil produced daily. It also constructed the 1,500km pipeline that connects the oil fields of the south with Port Sudan in the north - from where the oil is exported. But with oil accounting for more than 90 per cent of government revenues in the south, compared to just over 40 per cent in the north, there is a possibility that Khartoum could close the pipeline should the south vote for independence. This decision would not only be devastating for the underdeveloped and oil revenue-dependent south, but would also disrupt China's oil supply.
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China: A strategic partner
Relations between Saudi Arabia and China are mutually strategic in nature. China is the second largest economy in the world. Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa region and plays a unique systemic role in the global energy market. Saudi Arabia today possesses 70 percent of the world's extra capacity in oil. Both countries are members of the G20. As China's demand for oil increases so will Saudi Arabia's importance in providing sustainable and secure amounts of the black gold. Security of supply for China is equal to security of demand for Saudi Arabia. As China's role in the global economic landscape increases, trade being an essential part of that role, assures a sustainable foothold in Saudi Arabia. The relationship until now has been marked by the roles the two countries attained respectively in the world.
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Chinese wooing in Africa: Boom without democracy
Once again, China has scored points in Africa. Beijing wants South Africa to become the fifth member of the Bric countries -- the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China, the world's leading newly advanced economies. South Africa is flattered, since Turkey, Indonesia and Mexico have markedly larger economies. South Africa's growth rate is also well below the Bric level. But China's initiative is yet another example of Beijing's offensive in Africa, a continent succumbing to China's wooing.
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South Africa and the BRICs: A Crisis of Identity in Foreign Policy
South Africa has edged closer to finally becoming a member of the ‘elite’ grouping of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), following recent expression of support by China and Russia for Pretoria’s bid. It is expected that South Africa will be accepted formally as a new BRICs member at these emerging powers’ next summit in April this year. The BRICs wield significant diplomatic and economic clout and have become crucial powerbrokers in the evolving, albeit volatile, multipolar world order. They are the four biggest economies in the developing world and Goldman Sachs has predicted that, thanks to their rapid growth rates, the combined economies of the BRICs could overtake those of the current wealthiest countries in the next four decades.
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