China-Africa cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative -By Charles Onunaiju

On October 17 and 18, about 53 African countries along, with more than 100 countries from other parts of the world and 30 international organisations converged in Beijing, the Chinese capital, for the third forum of the Belt and Road International Cooperation. The third international forum of the Belt and Road, BRI, will mark the ten years anniversary since the initiative was outlined by the Chinese leader, president Xi Jinping, in speeches at Kazakhstan and Indonesia in 2013.

The Belt and Road Initiative underwrites in practical terms the historical turning point of the contemporary global community where the imperatives of communication and cooperation among peoples and nations is the defining trends of the time. To give concrete effect to this contemporary trend, the BRI set out to procure and provide the practical means to drive communications and cooperation among nations and peoples. While the Chinese wisdom systemised this process and identified the concrete and effective mechanism to actualise the means, the trend of broad cooperation and communication was nonetheless, the objective trajectories of mankind’s evolving historical process.

Therefore, any meaningful and utilitarian development of the BRI as the concrete expression of the emerging trend must proceed from a global ownership of the process through “extensive consultations, joint contributions and shared benefits; which happens to be the defining creed of the Belt and Road framework of international cooperation.

The Belt and Road mechanism is characteristic of five interlocking essentials-policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial cooperation and people to people bonds. While these five policy pillars have universal applications and derive from the existential reality of globalisation, it clearly mirrors Africa’s substantive dispositions to integrate into the mainstream of the globalisation process and access both its benefits and also contribute to enriching the process.

The Belt and Road Initiative is the concentrated expression of globalisation in its broadest sense of accommodation, inclusion and participation and carries Africa’s fervent historic wish and will. And in the past ten years, since the Belt and Road process hit the ground running, Africa has witnessed the most impactful revolution in infrastructure construction and facilities connectivity. Sea and air ports construction and rehabilitation, modern railways overland, road and bridge construction, power plants, industrial and special economic zones, stadia, water treatment systems, hospitals and schools through China- Africa cooperation hugely enhanced by the Belt and Road mechanism are common features in the continent.

The original framework of Africa integration through infrastructure connectivity and coordination of industrial clusters articulated at the historic meeting of the African heads of state and government in Lagos in 1980 and the historic document it produced the “Lagos plan of action” which was openly vilified by Western dominated financial institutions, take a life of its own as an idea, whose time has come and is now powered by China-Africa cooperation and energised by the Belt and Road mechanism. In West Africa, through the engagement of the Belt and Road process, key infrastructure projects spanning highways, ports, energy infrastructure are remarkably taking shape.

In Nigeria, Lekki Deep Sea Port, that would serve as maritime logistics hub in the sub region is up and running and is expected to cut by significant margin the time and cost of doing business. Ghana’s first gas processing plant and its associated gas pipelines has been completed through the Belt and Road partnership where China offered by financial and technical contributions. The gas plant would ensure effective utilization of natural gas for improving and expanding Ghana’s economic activities.

On highway infrastructure within the sub-region, the Belt and Road partnership plays critical and pivotal roles. For instance, the upgrade of 1,228km existing railway between Bamako in Mali and Dakar in Senegal at the cost of $2.2 billion is underway and China has played vital role in financing the railway upgrade through a $1.24 billion loan with Senegal, payable at 2% annually in 30 years and $1.49 billion agreement between China railway construction corporation and Mali.

The project will increase trade through transportation of goods and form an important new link between the two countries and facilitate Mali’s access to the sea, which benefits Mali’s gold mining sector. Also, through collaboration with China under the Belt and Road partnership, the4,500km trans-Sahelian highway no 5 (TAH5) has been completed. The lines run from Dakar in Senegal to N’djamena, chad. TAH5 is part of trans-African highway, which is a 60,000km network of 9 highways crisscrossing the continent as envisioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, in 1971.

In addition to providing an alternative seamless route from Senegal to Chad, the highway’s will allow countries on the route of TAH5 to tap into the markets in West and Central Africa, thereby promoting effective regional trade and integration, a key enduring feature of pan Africanism. Historically, Africa has consistently put on notice that its path to prosperity would be paved through trade and industrialisation and not aid and humanitarian sympathies.

The Belt and Road mechanism has given concrete expression to the abiding vision of African countries to boost trade investment and industry. At the 2018 summit of the heads of states and government of the Forum on China-Africa cooperation, FOCAC, president Xi Jinping proposed a permanent trade mechanism to drive the access of African products to the Chinese huge market.

The China – Africa economic and trade expo was established with a permanent site at a central Chinese province of Hunan and holds every two years. China has remained Africa’s largest trading partner for the past 14 years in a straight row and currently Africa’s agricultural products enjoy significant concessional access to huge Chinese market. In a report by the Atlantic council, a US think tank released in March with the title “China in Sub Saharan Africa: Reaching Beyond natural resources”, it noted that “over the past two decades, China has emerged as the leading trading partner with and investor in the region as the US and the EU have seen their share in sub Saharan Africa trade and investment dwindle. In short, China has become a main source of development. finance, technical assistance and even loans for the region presenting itself as a viable alternative to the world bank group and the IMF in the region.

In the white paper published by the state council information office of the PRC, just a week before the 3rd BRI in Beijing, it observed that “the BRI is a long term, transnational and systematic global project of the 21st century. It has succeeded in taking its first step on a long journey and continuing from this new starting point. the BRI will demonstrate greater creativity and vitality, become more open and inclusive and generate new opportunities for both China and the rest of the world”.

As African leaders converge in Beijing with other world leaders for the 3rd BRI forum, it should look beyond the glamour of summitries, digest and dissect the intricate layers of BRI, contribute to enriching the mechanism and engage in policy coordination and alignment that delivers value to Africa’s existential requirement of economic recovery and growth.

*Onunaiju is research director, Centre for China Studies, Abuja