Last week Wednesday, 31st October I attended a lecture at the London School of Economics named "When China Met Africa". The title was far too vague considering the that the film that was shown during the Lecture was entirely focused on Zambia, a small South African country with a population of 13 million people, just over 1% of China's 1.3 Billion population. The film/Documentary was made by brothers Nick and Mark Francis and it showed the political relationship between Zambia ad China by shadowing Felix Mutati, Minister for Trade and Commerce in Zambia. Whilst following the lives of Chinese farmers/Investors in Zambia and there frequent squirrels with there local workers.
These are some of the key points I gained from the film, with sprinkle of my opinions:
China win many African contracts for Roads and other Infrastructure
Chinese in building the Tutse Road in Zambia. Skilled Chinese workers have to be brought to Zambia in for it a very costly procedure for a small project. This should've been an opportunity for the Chinese to share their construction knowledge with locals so they to can become skilled workers too.
Chinese woman owning farm in Zambia - Private Foreign a investment
This means that much of Profits generated using Zambian resources are transferred abroad and don't actually stay in the country where I think it ought to. This occurs a lot in the Uk, where immigrant workers send much of the money they earn back home and not domestically. This reduces the multiplier effect as the leakages have increased, so there is less consumption at each successive round. This is particularly important in Zambia and other developing countries which needs as much consumption as possible to drive investment and growth.
"Need roads to become rich, like blood in the body"
This was a quote I picked up from a Chinese manager responsible for building the Tutse road. I agree with this very much, all the top economies have great transport infrastructures. As part of my A2 course I'm studying transport economics and it was after my first class that I realised how important transport really is, not only economically but socially too. We wouldn't be able to get anything or go anywhere. It really is a necessity.
During the film i noticed that the Language barrier problem was very apparent, many Chinese workers found it extremely hard to communicate with Zambian workers. This is very inefficient as its time consuming and therefore expensive. It's made even more expensive by the fact translators are needed frequently. Due to negative press about education in Africa, I wasn't surprised that hardly any locals spoke Chinese. Zambia has been trading with China for nearly half a century since it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964. Surely politicians should've realised that it would be wise to invest in labour by teaching them such languages, it would've made the country a much more desirable place for Chinese investors,. There are plenty of other African countries that are eager for foreign investment, China is set to become the biggest economy in a matter of years.
Many Zambian drivers don't have official licence, so it makes their employability for transport-related jobs very hard. So in order to get a job of the kind, employers have to test drivers, which can sometimes result in capital such as expensive imported trucks breaking if the supposed drivers aren't actually drivers. How else can employers find drivers? Also many of the workyers feel mistrusted as they are "never left alone" with Chinese equipment, causing resentment between Chinese workers and Zambian workers. On the 5th of March a Chinese miner was killed by a Zambian mob protesting for better pay.
China is a important foreign investment, not only in Africa but worldwide.
Some Chinese put money in banks overseas as they think the country is politically unstable.
This week I'll be posting another articles relating to this one called "what does China really want with Africa". SOOO WATCH OUT FOR IT!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment