Chinese President Hu Jintao pledges $20 billion for Africa over the next 3 years

1. If the PF government was serious about attracting FDI, they should have seriously sent either Guy Scott or President Sata himself to this conference. All African leaders, including SA’s zuma , serious about getting FDI are there.

   I hope Chikwanda is there. If non of the big guys in Government are missing , this would be gross irresponsibility on the part of PF government. The line will be instead of looking for resources for developing the country , they are busy making unannounced private visits to who know where and for what.

   • its only zuma and the guy from equitorial guinea nguemo l think is his name represented at presidential level.

   • Man give the president a break. Our emancipation does not only lie in the chinese. You ever been to china or have chinese friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes and who have lived under this government? Get real academic bootlicker or is bootlicker academic. China has basically been giving us staff that we only use for a month. And Sata is no full like Rupiah Banda to put his eggs in one buscket. Say something positive for once.

2. There is no Zambian official there cause Breadwinner was not anywhere in sight to authorize.

3. HU JINTAO IS ONLY OFFERING MORE MONEY TO AFRICA SO THAT HE CAN SEND OUT MORE CHINAMAN TO AFRICA AND ESPECIALLY ZAMBIA. WE MUST REMEMBER CHINA CAN NOT GIVE ANYTHING FOR NOTHING TO ANYBODY.ZAMBIA MUST TELL THEM WE DONT NEED YOUR MONEY BECAUSE WE DONT HAVE ANY PLACE FOR YOUR PEOPLE. THANKYOU VERY MUCH

   • You can certainly ask Zambia government not to accept Chinese loan. I don’t think China is forcing Zambia to do so. I am sure other African countries will be very happy to use the loan to build their power stations, roads, railways, schools and hospitals which are badly needed.

   • The Sino – African relations have not started with premier Hu Jintao offerings. The history between the two regions go way back in history… and in this day and age the Chinese loans are more appearing to African states than the traditional conditionality attached Western loans. It’s what’s been termed as a WIN – WIN relationship, and I for one would be very much in gear for this friendship…

   • And all the more reason Micheal Sata is still looking elsewhere while his ministers are looking at what they have to offer. One child one family, most zambians have no idea what we will get into once the chinese have total control and you don’t run a country like that because you basically become a puppet, and corruption slips in.

4. Lubinda was there

5. What is the interest rate for these loans?

6. None of them were there because this is not the language they understand… its too complicated. Ukwa feels better at home were he can think in Bemba

7. NUMBER 3 MALIKOPO IS DEAD RIGHT ZAMBIA IS ALREADY INFESTED WITH CHINAMAN LIKE MOSQUITOS SO WE SHOULD BE BE SAYING NO TO CHINESE LOAN AS WE HAVE NO MORE SPACE IN ZAMBIA FOR CHINAMAN

8. Am not a supporter of anything from or by the chinks. They are well advised to keep their resources in their own courtyards.

   • Narrant with a pea size brain has a small mind.

9. Ba Lusakatimes! First sentence..”Chinese President Hu Jintao on today offered $20 billion in loans to African countries over the next three years”.  Editorial…

10. If I was president, I would send Guy Scott and Chikwanda over there right now to go and talk with President Hu Jintao. The objective of the meeting would be to bring the entire $20 billion to Zambia so that all their (Chinese) financing for all projects in Africa are handled by Bank of Zambia (BOZ) and the Chinese Central Bank (PBOC). 

    This means that funds will be held in Zambia where BOZ and PBOC would be a disbursement center for all projects. We are centrally located and BOZ is a very advanced institution with capacity to handle disbursements. We need to make Lusaka the Financial Capital of Africa, attract more companies at LuSE and create the Lusaka Mercantile Exchange as well. The Swiss learnt that secret at the beginning of the 19th Century and the rest is history.

    • Unfortunately the president is recovering from Jet lag and doesn’t want to be disturbed!!

    • The President better wake up and smell the coffee …

11. I would offer the Chinese an entire floor at Bank of Zambia for operations dedicated to their disbursement of these funds throughout Africa, I would call on their officials from PBOC to come and visit us in Zambia right away and make sure that 20% to 50% of approved projects are run by the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise.

    I would also ask my guys at Commerce to identify ways of how best we can accommodate the Chinese planner at our own ministry, give them an entire wing to operate from. I would ask them to bring the best of their best to Zambia so that we can work together. I would ask their project managers to move their underwriting center to Zambia so that all countries seek funding for their projects would simply fly into Lusaka.

    • UK learned pretty early in the game how to become a financial middleman and the Swiss took it to another level to their benefit. Good point. No African country has achieved this financial positioning but SA would probably want to compete for such a role if it came up, citing their financial history as a safe bet. 

    • Brave I know you are vested in this topic, but that’s like selling our souls to the chinese. I spent six months in zambia and basically every home you go to has a chinese equipment be it a stove, fridge, TV, fans, vehicles etc. Most of the house equipment lasts a maximum of 3 months. I even went to tunduma to help my friend get his car, crossed even into tanzania to look at the car. It was reaped with most car gudgets missing. Not that I disrepect them, what I question is their motive because they are bringing stuff to africa that they cant use in china and that we dont use here in developed nations. Like you, I was born when we had quality, not amagonga coming from china. they have already put in laws to dictate what size a family ought to be there. We better be careful.

    • A wolf mostly looks like a very nice big dog (an alsatian now called a germany shepard) but there is nothing good about it once it gets on you. I understand your economic assumptions and probably that’s why I like Sata a little bit more, though he’s an incumberance sometimes, his experience has entaled that he be more cautious. Much as what Hu Jintao is offering looks like manna, we cannot put all our eggs in one buscket. As he said before, better is the devil you know than the one you don’t. Whilst at home chinese workers were selling fish and vegetables at markets, drinking chibuku in shanty compounds. When I worked for ZCCM, an expatriate was just that, an expert brought in a field zambians are not well vested in. 

    • Coachez: Two things the Chinese know well, work for less and mass produce. If you work for less, you will always be busy than your competitor working for me but you will be able to eventually drive your competitor out of business.

      Mass production usually works against quality but the Chinese don’t care about quality, they care about quantity after all they work for less and therefore their production costs are low thereby translating into cheaper products. 

      If a low quality product breaks down, you just throw it away after all it would cost just as much to replace it with a new one instead of repairing. So, if a Chinese TV breaks down, you just buy another one after all you bought it for less than a Japanese one. Do you see the trend here, more sales and more repeat business.

12. #1 and 2, so you just critisise blindly. #1 and 2 please emmulate Mdiba Nelson Mandela. Chaps like you should be learning from Madiba to refrain from the hate deeprooted in yourselves. Be objective in thinking. You are always there praying that PF makes a mistake! Muli bana bandoshi.

13. #10 YOU ARE A GREAT THINKER AND HIGHLY AMBITIOUS. ZAMBIA NEEDS POSITIVE AND AMBITIOUS PEOPLE LIKE YOU.

14. Nothing is for free. This is just economic colonialism. Why can’t we sell our resources to china for the money other than coming in form of aid and loans? The chinese want to come out as if Africa needs them so much but if we look around they need our resources in Africa that is why they have infested our land just like the British, French did raping our resouces and developing their own land. The chinese will give you a loan for a road on conditions that you contract a chinese company that will come with it is own laberors and you still have to pay back for the shouldy works done. Look at Luanshya road.

15. Sorry to say that this isn’t something the PF govt will rush to.If it were something to settle political scores under the guise of fighting graft then they’d be in it,hook,line & sinker. Investment and economic development is not PF’s forte or focus area thus our more ambitious neighbours like Mozambique,Angola or Rwanda will gobble up these concessionary Chinese loans.

16. This is serious beggers syndrome. we should not pride ourselves of being beggers. This money comes with strings.

17. This is the DEAD AID Dambiso Moyo is always banging on about… 

    • Do you have an idea how much $20.00 billion would do to the BOZ balance Sheet? Dambiso is a great woman but I think you need to re-read her book before you comment on these pledges. In fact, she advocates for borrowing more from China than the IMF and World Bank because Chinese FDI is more of a partnership than the West’s.

      DEAD AID is more about developing countries looking to improve their own economic fortunes through organized capital inflows as opposed to donor funding. This $20.0 billion is designed to achieve just that … thanks a trillion

18. Ba Mwaba Sabi, where in this did you read about China giving hand outs. Beggers? Pleeeeaaaaasssssseeee!!!! These are funds for development projects!!!!! Funds for loans to be directed towards national development. Every nation borrows to advance it’s own agenda.

    The Current Outstanding Public Debt of the United States is $15,884,155,929,632.05 and every man, woman and child in the United States currently owes $52,281 for their share of the U.S. public debt. This is the break down: 

    Public Debt: $11,066,615,562,739.42
    Intragovernmental Holdings: $4,817,540,366,892.63 

    Total U.S. National Debt: $15,884,155,929,632.05, that’s well over $15.8 trillion in debt and you would like to pretend, talking about things you are not well vested in? Please!!!

19. Uncle Pipos: This is not DEAD AID either, these are loans for development projects. Who owns the US public debt? Answer: Mutual funds, pension funds, foreign governments, foreign investors, American investors, etc.

    Here is the list of the Top 10 Lenders (as of April, 2012)

    1. China, Mainland, $1145.5 billion dollars
    2. Japan, $1066.1 billion dollars
    3. Oil Exporters*, $252.4 billion dollars
    4. Carib Bnkng Ctrs**, $247.0 billion dollars
    5. Brazil, $246.7 billion dollars
    6. All Other, $209.8 billion dollars
    7. Taiwan, $188.3 billion dollars
    8. United Kingdom, $154.2 billion dollars
    9. Switzerland, $151.1 billion dollars
    10. Russia, $146.8 billion dollars 

    Of the $5.1 trillion dollars of US debt that is owned by foreign governments, China and Japan own nearly half.

20. Kudos BR. The idea of getting them to keep their money in Zed is a brilliant idea. There is no set rule for how a country in Zambia’s current economic standing will progress but there are many who have and will tell us one way or another is the only way. The cultural investment is invaluable alongside infrastructure, agricultural etc. but there are other options for sourcing investments, some may not be as transparent, some may have less or more strings. The reality is the world economic power shift began long before it was publicly acknowledged. A pretty neat idea so kudos again. I await the input of Independent Observer and a few others who generally have a finger on the finance pulse. 

21. #6 &15, typical of HH puppies always finding something negative. U chaps ll die of envy, jealous.

22. I know Brainwave you mean well for the good of mother zambia, but lets be careful before we become enslaved. Like you I understand a whole lot about the US and EU debt. However even the US is and cannot be pushed around by the Chinese. The world market economically is in shambles and the chinese owing to their 1.3 billion population, are doing everything possible to safeguard the interests of their people first and so should we. The USA is the biggest consumer of everything in the world with more than ten thousand chines companies dealing with it. It’s a give and take brother, not just a diplomatic takeover like koswe ngalekulya aman’ga. I know you are well vested in this topic but also look at the repercussions if things don’t work clockwork. 

23. Let it be….the package looks very inviting……. twachula pafuula…. nichibe chibe

24. Whatever you say bwana Mumba in your fervent support of the chinks won’t wash with the people on the ground in Zambia. The chinks have treated Zambians sharbly. The coal mines in Southern province, their tuntemba companies on the copperbelt… the list is endless. Don’t pretend you don’t know these things. Our experience with them has been negative. And so you can only fool the gullible. Putting up a spirited defence of these people doesn’t go down well, just want wash with the majority of Zambians, bwana. You are waisting your time totting up your statistics.

    • I bet you have a monkey brain.

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26. So donors are still making plans for us. This is what happens when you don’t make plans; plans will happen to you.Should China be planning to educate us, industrialize us, integrate us. We should be ashamed. Ideally, we as Africa should have a plan, vision, and then seek funding, first from oursleves (ADB, etc).
    – CNP

27. Enoch (Coachez): I appreciate your input but China has no imperialist motives for entrapment to be an issue. They are just investing where they think they would be able to get raw materials from for their own industrial base.

    Bwana Narrant: If the Chinese have mistreated the Zambians, then shame on the smart people of our Enterprise themselves. It’s normal human behavior to show all the bravado when in fact the perpetrator is intimidated. It is a defense mechanism for the weak. In this case the reason the Chinese mistreat the Zambians is because they expect to be mistreated themselves. So, before they are on the receiving side, they would rather be on the giving side. Now, I personally don’t take no squat from nobody!! No other Zambians should either.

28. Ba Maikalange: It is not that we don’t have plans for ourselves we do. Of course there was a time when FTJ squashed national planning. With his myopic rhetoric, he used to preach about the invisible hand of market forces.FTJ believed that we should leave everything to market to decide for us what kind of products and services we would have, devoid of planning, regulation, and supervision. Corruption and lawlessness became the order of the day as everything was free for all.

    You saw for yourself how the Zambian Enterprise degenerated in a space of 5 years to unprecedented levels. We tried to advise the rubble rouser but to no avail. When Levy took over, we reined on him and since he was a great listener he immediately implemented the 5TH National Development Plan.

29. Contd … Central planning has been part of the MMD starting with Levy after we made them understand the value of missed opportunities due to lack of planning. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail … PF is currently implementing MMD’s last plan. Now in case you don’t know, the Japanese had a plan but it was the US and Europe’s money that built that country after World War II. 

    In forty years, Japan rose from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the world’s top cities and Tokyo became the world’s third Financial Capital of the World. By 1985, exactly 40 years after the atomic/nuclear bombs 8 of the world’s 10 top banks were in Japan and Japan was the second largest economy in the world surpassing even all the European giants that financed it as a franchise.

30. Contd … In the late 80’s Mainland China beheld with it’s own eyes the development taking place around it in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. South Korea was attracting US and European capital like crazy, while it remained almost dormant and decided, Communism was not working for them. They kept the central planing side of things intact, while embracing capitalism on their manufacturing side and cash started flowing.

    They deregulated investment laws, changed their foreign policies and American firms started closing shop in the United States sending manufacturing to China due to low labor costs while keeping their corporate head offices here. In the last 30 years, China has lifted 300 million people out of poverty. Three of the world’s top 10 banks are now Chinese. 

31. Contd … Boris Yetsin started the privatization policies in Russia at the same time Chiluba started dismantling Zambian Conglomerates. ZCCM was the world’s largest conglomerate with its shares trading at the New York Stock Exchange as late as 1997.

    Today Russia is a G8 nation because of capital inflows from Europe and the United States. Also unlike Chiluba’s auctioning off all national assets to the highest bidder, Yetsin created the Russian Oligarchy of Russian that controlled actual sales and made sure Russian individuals owned up to 80% equity in the privatized enterprises.

    There is a direct correlation between capital inflows and economy prosperity and with proper central planning, you can move mountains. When I advocate the $20 billion coming through BOZ I know what I mean.

32. Coachez: Two things the Chinese know well, work for less and mass produce. If you work for less, you will always be busy than your competitor working for more but you will be able to eventually drive your competitor out of business.

    Mass production usually works against quality but the Chinese don’t care about quality, they care about quantity after all they work for less and therefore their production costs are lower thereby translating into cheaper products. 

    If a low quality product breaks down, you just throw it away after all it would cost just as much to replace it with a new one instead of repairing it. So, if a Sino TV breaks down, you just buy another one after all you bought it for less than a Nippon one. Do you see the trend here, more sales and more repeat business.

33. Is it only me detecting a condensing and patronising mien in all this?

    • I am sure you have a pea brain.

34. Good stuff ba B R Mumba Jr……….just wondering are you by any chance working for the government ?

35. Ba Umuntu Mutwe: Thanks a trillion, no I don’t work for the government … I work for myself.

36. This is the most important factor you want to consider. Anything that deals with one’s health has to be accurate. It’s the only way to go. You don’t want to go rushing in to the ER (Emergency room) just because your machine tells you got super high blood pressure. You don’t want that kind of problems and worries.

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