China trade infrastructure for resources

China’s growth may have slowed down, but the country’s interest in Africa remains as strong as ever. According to project expert Duncan Bonnett, a director at Whitehouse & Associates, there is still a lot of interest in African commodities such as coal, iron ore and copper. “There are a lot of Chinese companies operating in Africa and they have a very strong presence on the continent still,” he told FTW. “But they are definitely not the only players by any stretch of the imagination and are facing real competition from countries such as India and Brazil.” According to Bonnett the Chinese presence is stronger in some countries. “In the DRC and Zambia for instance there are strong Chinese inf luences in the copper fields and in countries like Zimbabwe they have a very strong presence which is expected to increase in the coming years,” he said. “In countries like Mozambique and Tanzania, however, one sees far less involvement and in fact the presence of the Chinese is quite muted.” He said expectations were that the Chinese would continue to invest in Africa and remain interested in resources from across the continent. “There are a number of stateto- state agreements in return for infrastructure in place between African governments and the Chinese,” he said. Lars Greiner, managing director of Greiner Mendi Associates, who works across Africa says the Chinese have changed the way they operate in Africa in recent years which could give the impression of the Eastern giant being less involved in region. “The trends now are that when the Chinese become involved in a project they handle the entire project themselves,” he said. “They have also realised that their strength is not in mining but more in infrastructure so there are seemingly more agreements with governments to provide infrastructure in return for resources.”