November 5, 2007

Ghana: EU Business Executives Confess

By Isabella Gyau Orhin, Berlin

European business executives, academics and politicians have admitted that paying lip service to Africa's development over the years has left a big vacuum which China is gleefully exploiting with infrastructural development and huge unconditional aid.

Speaking to a group of African Journalists in Berlin last week, the Head of the African division of the Association of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Hieko Schwiderowski, said as far back as 1971, a World Bank report cited lack of infrastructural development and energy supply as the key problems facing African countries.

"After all these years if the same problems still persist, it means we have not chosen the right focal point of our investments in Africa," he said adding, "this is the vacuum the Chinese have found."

European diplomats also say Europe is re-defining its relationship with Africa and this has resulted in a new European Union Strategy for Africa.

The strategy dubbed "From Cairo to Lisbon-the EU-Africa strategic Partnership" is set to be discussed at the upcoming EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

The draft states in its introduction that "Africa is now at the heart of international politics" and adds that the African Union (AU) in particular "is emerging not as a development issue but as a political actor in its own right."

The EU remains the first economic partner of Africa, with exportation of merchandise amounting to 91.6 billion euros and imports reaching 125.6 billion euros in 2005.

Again in 2006, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) from the EU to Africa amounted to 48 billion.

The EU Strategy also makes mention of the fact that China has rapidly emerged as Africa's third most important trade partner with a total trade amounting to 43 billion euros in 2006 and up from 30 billion euros in 2005.

The drafting of this strategy started in 2000 at an EU-Africa summit in Cairo, Egypt.

"The Cairo declaration and the Cairo Plan of Action signed at this summit contained a number of ambitious commitments including the return of stolen cultural goods and on Africa's external debts," the strategy said adding, "More important perhaps, the Cairo Summit set in motion more structured political dialogue between EU and Africa with regular meetings of senior officials and Ministers".

The strategy also says that in many ways 2005 became the international year for Africa. A number of high level events were held and important international initiatives were launched including major commitment on aid and debt relief at the G8 Gleneagles summit, following the Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness among others.

However, there are diplomats and politicians in the EU who are not happy about the way former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his vice Gordon Brown hijacked the Europe - Africa debt issue with Music and concerts all in an alleged bid to raise their party and UK profile both at home and abroad.

"We worked very hard during the Monterrey Summit in Mexico in 2002 and the G8 meeting in Kananaskis in Canada with African leaders on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Therefore it was not fair that Blair and Co, hijacked the whole issue with their own African initiative," an EU diplomat who refused to go on record told the African journalists.

Commenting on the current trends in Africa in Brussels last Monday, a Lecturer at the University of Brussels, Jonathan Holslag said "Africa is running out of red carpet these days. Not a month passes without some high-level delegation from a far-flung corner of the world;" he said adding "Re-emerging powers are in the vanguard of those rushing to gain new influence in Africa."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Chinese Leader Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have in the last year all trodden the same path to the African continent.

The United States he said is also pursuing Africa for its own interests. US has changed its policies towards Africa after September 11, and is said to be pursuing oil interests in Africa.

Germany in 2005 launched an African Initiative while Russia in 2006 also launched a New African strategy on gas and oil

Describing it as "a new scramble for Africa," Holslag says it has been a marked shift from the "Africa fatigue" of the 1990s, even if Africa's reappearance on the diplomatic map has not been entirely to its own credit.

Holslag also says these developments in Africa have clearly confirmed the way globalization is entering a new stage. He explained that the west as the world's main industrial powerhouse is outsourcing more ad more of its resource -intensive activities to Asia, at the same time, Asia's growth is strengthening the position of the world's large oil and gas producers in Africa.

This he said is what is threatening the longstanding Europe-African relationship of the 20th century.

"Africa is reorienting its economic focus and even if Europe still remains the main partner in terms of trade, aid and investment, its relative influence is shrinking," Holslag said.

He explained further that Africa's re-orientation is as much the consequence of actual changes in trade patterns as it is of the high expectations Africans have of more lucrative transactions in the years ahead.

"Now the EU is still Africa's privileged political partner, but China, Russia, India and Brazil are turning their African embassies into new diplomatic nerve centres." Holslag said.

Unlike the first scramble for Africa which was also about its natural resources, Holslag says Africa stands to benefit from the current scramble.

The only warning he said is to ensure that China does not influence the continent's domestic politics.