15 May 2007
China’s offer to host the event, which brings together senior finance and development officials from African and donor governments, speaks volumes about changing Sino-African relations.
The African Development Bank’s Board of Governors is convening this week in Shanghai for its 42nd Annual Meetings. This is the first time the AfDB meetings have taken place in Asia, and only the second time the institution’s governors have gathered outside of Africa.
The conference is being billed as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between China and Africa and to consolidate their expanding commercial ties, which have seen a five-fold increase in the last six years. In addition to the official sessions of the governors’ meeting, where they will elect new executive directors for the AfDB, the event includes seminars on a range of topics, including regional integration, extractive industries, small enterprise finance, as well as discussions of China’s development lessons for Africa.
Many suspect, however, that the meetings’ major outcomes will be decided on the margins, in the corridors and behind closed doors, where private sector deals and bilateral agreements are likely to be negotiated. Although China is a relatively small shareholder at the AfDB – it has only a 1.12% stake in the institution - in recent years it has advocated for the AfDB to take on a more prominent role in Africa’s economic growth, through support for infrastructure projects and agriculture in particular.
China’s membership in the AfDB, which dates from 1985, provides the Chinese government with a forum within which to take the political pulse of the continent and cultivate diplomatic ties, as well as access to ample procurement opportunities. In 2005, China topped all other countries in procurement acquisitions, having won 15% of the total value of contracts offered by the AfDB that year, and nearly 25% of all works contracts.
The AfDB meetings this week come amidst growing interest in and concern about the impacts of Chinese finance and investment both within China and abroad.
Resources
- African Development Bank 2007 Annual Meetings webpage (AfDB website)
- China seeks to overcome credibility gap in Africa by Lindsay Beck, Reuters, May 15, 2007 (Reuters website)
- Investment from China to Africa expected to reach $2 bn, Xinhua, May 13, 2007 (China Daily website)
- Press Release: China not to repeat the West’s mistakes in Africa by Peter Bosshard, International Rivers Network, May 14, 2007 (IRN website)
- China's Role in Financing African Infrastructure, International Rivers Network, May 2007 (IRN website) (Acrobat PDF 200 KB)
- Press Release: Chinese banks still have a long way to go on environment, Friends of the Earth and Banktrack, May 9, 2007 (FOE website)
- Time to Go Green: Environmental Responsibility in the Chinese Banking Sector, Friends of the Earth and Banktrack, May 2007 (FOE website) (Acrobat PDF 1.15 MB)
- Re-Think: Chinese Outward Investment Flows, World Wildlife Federation, April 2007 (WWF website) (Acrobat PDF 1.74 MB)