China's funding of giant projects helps goal of integration

China's affinity for funding mega infrastructure projects has buoyed the number of cross-border initiatives brought into the market, says a transportation expert.

Amos Phiri, who heads the coordination team at the New Partnership for Africa's Development, an African Union agency, is currently marketing 12 projects that require about $13 billion investment in nine countries across the continent.

This is in addition to 30 investment ready projects developed by foreign private investors in partnership with governments that were showcased during a two-day infrastructure summit held in May in Abuja, Nigeria. They included energy, natural resources and transportation projects. Commercial projects include Dar es Salaam Port expansion, autonomous Port of Cotonou expansion and power production and transmission line projects in Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya.

Phiri says the strategy borrows from China's strong interest in projects such as the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, that is expected to expand to Uganda, Rwanda and eventually the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Africa's ambition right now is to develop projects that accelerate integration. China is strongly supporting us," he says.

Phiri, who is heading the team promoting selected projects falling under the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa, reveals that Africa's transportation and energy projects have received overwhelming support from China. He adds that despite the projects being new, the team is optimistic of quick uptake by Chinese companies based on strengthening the China-Africa relationship.

Some of the PIDA projects have been articulated under the Belt and Road Initiative, like the new modern railway network in East Africa, says Phiri.

"We hope that Chinese investors will find these projects attractive," he says, adding that Africa hopes to latch onto the $124 billion Silk Road Fund.

He discloses that his team has made deliberate efforts to increase engagement between the AU and China. "In our recently-concluded investors' conference in March, we received a very big delegation from China. I think we are on the right path."

The pan-African initiative is anchored in the 2063 Agenda and was also promoted at the World Economic Forum in May 2014 as a strategy promising to deliver tangible solutions to the continent's infrastructure deficit while fueling industrialization.

The cross-border infrastructure promises to open up regional markets, link production clusters in different countries and promote free exchange of people, goods, services and capital across the borders.

Isatou Touray, Gambian minister of trade, regional integration, economic affairs and employment, says such projects will help countries that are emerging from conflict to integrate more quickly with neighbors and accelerate development.

"Instability in countries like The Gambia, South Sudan and others have destroyed institutions required to support governance and development. Young people are impatient and want change that takes time. But cross-border infrastructure will easily allow us to tap into regional resources," she says.

But the realization of these programs has been bedeviled by financial problems, sovereignty issues and delayed harmonization of policy and regulation among neighboring countries. Political instability has also been a hindrance.

But while acknowledging these challenges, the New Partnership for Africa's Development is slowly reaping success in some quarters. The Batoka Gorge Hydropower Project, jointly sponsored by the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe, has ironed out most of the political, social and environmental bottlenecks and is ready for financing.

Phiri says that the $6 billion project is expected to generate 1,600 megawatts once completed and plug the power shortfalls in the southern Africa region, with further prospects of exporting to Tanzania and Kenya.

lucymorangi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 06/23/2017 page16)