Africa: The Chinese Presence in Africa - A Good Thing or Bad Thing?

opinion

Chinese have an appetite for the African market. The country is now Africa's largest trading partner. There are more than 10,000 Chinese firms across Africa according to a 2017 study by McKinsey. Africa's population stands at 1.2 billion and Chinese people living in Africa is at a population of about one million, some temporarily based as construction workers and the latter, legal or illegal business people. Their presence expands across the continent, even with countries like Djibouti, with a population of 972, 344 people, a little below a million.

Earlier this month, Djibouti commissioned a $3.5 billion International Free Trade Zone, being built and financed by china, as part of its Belt and Road initiative. The ten-year project would be managed by the Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority, together with China Merchants Holdings. Aboubaker Omar Hadi, who is the chairman of the Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority in March, 2016 told Reuters the free zone would create 150,000 direct and indirect jobs, calling it the country's first employment reservoir. Much like it, China now hosts a military base in the same country, along with countries like France, USA, Japan also occupying military bases in the small country of Djibouti. Perhaps another feat in China's infrastructure agenda in Africa is the construction of the $3.4 billion Djibouti- Ethiopia railway, completed in October,2016. The electric railway was 70% financed by the Exim Bank of China, built by China Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction. Getachew Betru, chief executive officer of Ethiopian Railways said it would be cheaper and more reliable than travelling by road to Djibouti, as reported by the BBC.

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