With China, who needs the West

  Beijing City   

With China, who needs the West? 

The curtains have finally fallen on the much publicized China, Africa Summit with Beijing pledging to double aid to Africa in the next three years.

The summit ended on a high note for the two groups with deals worth $1.9 billion concluded and assurances from Beijing that it was not trying to monopolize Africa’s resources.  

This has come as a surprise to the European economic giants and the US who have put political pressure on China to appreciate its currency which stands at 8.28 Yuan per U.S. dollar, a rate that some economists suggest is undervalued by as much as 40 percent.  

The million dollar question is how China has managed to lure Africa into its feather and why the African begging hand has suddenly changed its course from the West to the East.

Unlike the traditional donors in the name of the US, European Union and the Bretton Wood institutions, China’s economic pledge to Africa comes with no or little strings attached.  

The agreements, signed between 12 Chinese firms and African governments and companies, followed Chinese President Hu Jintao’s pledge on Saturday to offer $5 billion in loans and credit, and to double aid to Africa by 2009.

Apart from aid relief and more cash injection, China has pledged to build expressways in Nigeria, in Ghana China is set to lay a telephone network and erect a smelter in Egypt.

In expense of these, China has set its eyes on the oil, gas and mineral resources from Africa especially in Sudan and Congo.

In Kenya, Chinese as busy exploring oil and they have majority share in Tiomin, a Canadian Company mining Titanium at the Coast of Kenya.  With the Volatile situation in Sudan, the Kenyan government knows very well that it seeks to benefit a lot as the Chinese are expected to make Kenya their economic base for East Africa and Sudan.

President Mwai Kibaki knows it well, and he has often been quoted saying, the country needs to look further East for emerging opportunities.