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Maputo

The Mozambican Tax Authority has announced the seizure of 900 cubic metres of logs that were about to be illegally exported to China.

According to a statement from the Tax Authority, the customs services in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, seized the logs in the small port of Mocimboa da Praia. They filled 52 containers, and were owned by a company called TM International.

All the logs were ironwood, one of Mozambique's best known species of precious hardwoods.

The export of unprocessed hardwoods is illegal, but it continues with the connivance of corrupt forest wardens and staff in the ports. In most of the cases that have been uncovered the destination of these illegal cargos is China.

In July, two officials of the Zambezia Provincial Directorate of Agriculture were detained on charges that they had been involved in an elaborate scheme in 2007, which culminated in the export of 30 containers filled with illegal timber.

In January, seven truckloads of logs were held by the police at Meconta, in Nampula. They were on their way to the port of Nacala, where they would have been packed into containers and exported to the Far East.

The legal proceedings that have now been begun are likely to result in the definitive apprehension of the logs, and a heavy fine for TM International.

The company told customs that the logs have a value of 137,000 meticais (about 5,700 US dollars). This is an absurdly low figure (109 dollars per container).

The head of the Tax Authority's public relations office, Fernando Tinga, told AIM on Wednesday that customs does not accept this figure, and asked the Cabo Delgado agriculture authorities to make their own valuation of the cargo.

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Mr. Horst Köhler
Managing Director
International Monetary Fund
Washington, D.C. 20431

Dear Mr. Köhler:

1. On June 12, 2002, the IMF Executive Board approved a three-year arrangement for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). This arrangement was designed to support the Government Economic Program (PEG) for the period April 1, 2002 - July 31, 2005. In accordance with this arrangement, the government of the DRC carried out, together with an IMF mission, the first program review covering the period April 1, 2002 to September 30, 2002. This review examined program execution during this period, as well as the outlook for, and the economic and financial measures to be implemented during, the remainder of 2002. The review also covered the prospects for 2003, and, specifically, the preparation of the 2003 budget and its main aggregates. The government of the DRC remains determined to implement the policies and measures described in the interim poverty reduction strategy paper (I-PRSP) and the memorandum attached to this letter, which supplements its letter of April 13, 2002.

2. We are pleased to note the generally satisfactory execution of the PEG during the first six months of its implementation, but we are aware that further efforts continue to be needed in several areas, in particular with regard to better control of public spending, as well as to the implementation of transparent accounting standards at the Central Bank of the Congo (BCC), the fight against corruption, and the promotion of good governance. Furthermore, we will strenghten the far-reaching structural and sectoral reforms that are in progress to create an outward-oriented environment conducive to sustainable economic growth and the promotion of poverty reduction throughout the country.

3. During the first nine months of this year, annualized inflation fell to 11 percent, compared with 135 percent in 2001. After 13 years of decline, economic growth is rebounding. Despite these encouraging results, we recognize the urgent need to further stabilize our macroeconomic environment, and to avoid any fiscal or monetary slippage that could jeopardize the results of the efforts and sacrifices made by the Congolese people over the last 18 months in extremely difficult circumstances—first, under the enhanced interim program, which ended at end-March 2002, and currently under the PEG. We are pleased to note that our efforts to strengthen the peace process are leading to lasting peace and the formation of an all-inclusive national government. The year 2003 will, therefore, be the year in which peace returns and our country is reunified, which, in turn, will pose new challenges to the government. We propose a "pro-poor" budget for 2003, with an increase in social and infrastructure spending to address the concerns of the people. We are determined to prepare free and transparent elections after a two-year transition period, while vigorously pursuing our efforts toward economic and financial rehabilitation and adjustment.

4. The review of the quantitative performance criteria at end-September 2002 shows that one out of the nine criteria of the program was not observed, namely the ceiling on net domestic assets of the central bank. With regard to the three structural performance criteria, the BCC audit has been carried out, the list of public commercial banks to be liquidated, privatized, or restructured has been drawn up, and the process of putting the Nouvelle Banque de Kinshasa (NBK) and the Banque de Crédit Agricole (BCA) into liquidation has started. The government has decided to consider the case of Banque Congolaise du Commerce Extérieur (BCCE) in more detail without calling into question the principle of putting it into liquidation in its present form, and a decision will be made by end-January 2003. The Code of Ethics and Good Conduct, which is to apply without exception to the entire civil service, was published a little over a month late as it was necessary to reach a broad consensus on it. The two structural benchmarks at end-September 2002 were met, namely the preparation of an overall strategy and an action plan for combating corruption, and the completion of the formulation of a strategy for restructuring the mining company (GECAMINES). In spite of these good results, we are aware that additional efforts are required to improve expenditure management and control so as to increase the share of social and investment expenditure. In addition, there has been an accumulation of payments arrears on utility outlays. Finally, the net financial position of the central bank has continued to deteriorate. We have implemented additional measures to correct these slippages. Taking into account the corrective measures that are described in the attached memorandum, the government solicits waivers from the IMF Executive Board for the nonobservance of the one quantitative and two structural performance criteria mentioned above.

5. We would like to express our gratitude to the entire international community, and the Fund in particular, for the support and show of confidence in our country demonstrated by the normalization of our relations, specifically with multilateral creditors and bilateral creditors of the Paris Club. We hope that the government's determination and its firm resolution to rigorously implement our wide-ranging program, supported by the PRGF, will enable our country to benefit from additional debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in the first quarter of 2003. We also hope that the external financing of the priority investment projects and programs in the social sectors and infrastructure, defined in cooperation with World Bank staff, will be disbursed without further delay. Indeed, resumption of growth and poverty reduction could be seriously jeopardized unless these investment projects and programs are implemented in a timely manner.

6. The government will submit all the information requested by the Fund on the progress in implementing its financial and economic policies, and the attainment of its program targets, as described in the attached memorandum of economic and financial policies (MEFP) and the technical memorandum of understanding (TMU). As in the past, the government authorizes the publication of this letter, the MEFP attached to this letter, and the associated IMF staff report. In addition, the DRC will undertake with the IMF the second six-monthly review of its economic program supported by the PRGF, which should be completed by the Fund by July 15, 2003, at the latest.

7. The government of the DRC considers that the policies and measures set out in the attached memorandum are adequate to achieve its program objectives. The government is prepared to take any further measures that may be necessary to this end. Moreover, the government pledges to consult the IMF, whether on its own initiative or upon your request, on the adoption of any measures that may prove necessary.

8. I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that the Fund's assistance over nearly two years has been a key factor in consolidating the peace process in my country and in the Great Lakes region.


Sincerely yours,

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How many Congolese must die to illuminate one hand-held computer game? Nobody knows, but five million have already been slaughtered in the greatest mineral extraction grab in the history of the planet. The best known mining companies and richest men in the world are directly complicit in ten years of genocide in Central Africa, where chaos is deliberately imposed as a cover to smuggle billions of dollars in minerals out of the country. Local government officials, small but greedy players in the systemic looting of their own country, have no clue as to which companies actually have contracts to do business in Congo. When billions can be scoured from the earth through slave labor, law ceases to exist.

Five million Congolese have died in the last decade or so in order to make billionaires even richer. If there were such a thing as international law, this holocaust in the Democratic Republic of Congo should have already resulted in the public hanging of hundreds of the world's richest men - and rightfully so. If the Nuremberg laws that sent ten Nazis to the gallows for crimes against humanity and peace were applied to the Congo, we could quite easily find the names of the defendants in the columns of the world's financial press - the richest men on the face of the earth. These men conspired to murder millions so that there would be constant war in Central Africa - but no law to inhibit theft on the grandest industrial scale imaginable.

The so-called government of Congo is just now getting around to beginning a review of which companies are mining what and where in the country. Since the many invasions of Congo began a decade ago, corporations like De Beers, BHP Billiton, Anglogold, and the American giant Freeport-McMoRan have caused five million people to die so that they could use the chaos as a cover to smuggle billions of dollars in precious metals out of the country. These mining companies all have their own private armies to defend their stolen goods, or join with the armies of U.S. allied countries such as Rwanda and Uganda to establish free-fire and steal-whatever-you-can-carry-away zones. It is accurate to say that the holocaust in the Congo is a collective crime by all of the Euro-American mineral extraction industries and the governments that serve them. True justice for the Congo would require the imprisonment or execution of many tens of thousands - most of them white men.

The Africans involved, including Congolese officials are relatively small fry, but they prosper from the table scraps of the cannibalization of the Congo. According to the commission to review the state of mining in Congo, various branches of the government protect some companies from paying any taxes at all on profits that range up to 600 percent. It's not clear who even has a contract to do business in Congo. None of the gold rushes of modern history bore any similarity to the violence of industrial capitalism scouring the earth for coltan, diamonds and cassiterite. The Congolese death toll already exceeds those killed by forced labor under the Nazis - but not one rich white man in a suit has been punished.

Congo is proof that those nations that claim to be the civilized powers of the world are in fact the opposite; they are the guardians and bankrollers of hell. While these men live, let no one dare speak of morality as anything other than a wishful hypothetical. Certainly, it does not exist anywhere in Congo.

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Hi.

My name is Eddie Cross and I am the grandfather in this photograph of my family taken in early 2004. We are a Zimbabwean family with deep roots in Africa.

My own great grandfather, G.W.Cross, came out to South Africa in 1867 from Belfast as a Baptist missionary and his wife came out a year later. My wife, Jeanette, has her roots also in the Eastern Cape where her forefathers arrived in 1840. Our respective families have lived in southern Africa since that time and have made a significant contribution to the region in their own way.

My father, George Cross, came to Zimbabwe in the early 30’s and died in the 90’s after a lifetime of work and retirement in the country. I was born in Bulawayo in 1940, was educated here and have worked all my life in Zimbabwe.

My two children - Gary and Susan, are also living in Zimbabwe. Gary is a Pastor in a Church in Harare and Sue has moved to Bulawayo where she works mornings only. Gary and his wife Sarah, have four children - all girls, Rebekah, Alana, Deborah and Tilitha. Sue’s husband Antony died in January 1993 of heart failure and she has one child - Keith.

My own career has been mainly in Agriculture in one form or another. I farmed for two years after leaving school in 1957. Then took a diploma in Agriculture from Gwebi College and then worked for government on land resettlement in the Gokwe district before going to University in Harare where I received an honors degree in Economics. After that I worked as an economist eventually becoming Chief Economist in the Agricultural Marketing Authority in 1976.

After Independence in 1980, I was appointed first to head the Dairy Marketing Board and then the Cold Storage Commission. The CSC was the largest meat-marketing organisation in Africa and I ran this for four years. I was then CEO of the Beira Corridor Group, which promoted the rehabilitation of the Beira Corridor as an export outlet to the sea for land locked Zimbabwe.

After this I started my own group of companies and I now run this group on my own and look after the families interests in this field. In 1999 I joined the Movement for Democratic Change and was appointed to the National Executive in 2000. I am currently the Policy Coordinator General of the Party.

I regard myself as a white African and am totally committed to the country of my birth and to the future of the continent. I feel very strongly, as a white African, that we have to earn the right to stay in the continent and to be heard as respected and valued citizens. I was apposed to white minority rule during the Smith era and have also been very much involved in opposition politics in Zimbabwe since 1990.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful, potentially rich country with wonderful people and a good climate. One day we will have a government, which reflects this, and which will respect our right to the basic freedoms that others take for granted in the more developed countries. Africa suffers from poor leadership and bad policy, once these problems are addressed, its real potential will emerge and we want to play a role in getting there.

The problems of Africa cannot be addressed from the outside - only from within and we hope and pray that by staying here and joining the fight for justice and basic rights for all Zimbabweans, we can make a small contribution to progress in the continent as a whole.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 17th October 2006.

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HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe urgently needs to form a new government in order to address a food crisis in the nation and prevent starvation, newly designated Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters Saturday.

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Ministries given to Tsvangirai's MDC would include constitutional and parliamentary affairs, economic planning, health, labor, and sport, arts and culture, the paper said. Mutambara would oversee education, industry and commerce, and regional integration and international cooperation.

The ministry of finance, the paper said, remains in dispute.

The MDC accused the ZANU-PF of trying to undermine the work of former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who helped broker a deal to end months of violence following a disputed election.

The paper said Mbeki was due to to go Zimbabwe to resolve the question of the finance ministry

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Risk Assessment

Based on factors known to encourage rebellion, whites in Zimbabwe have a reasonable likelihood of doing so. They have a history of past protest and have a good basis for organization because of their territorial concentration, strong group identity, and preexisting organizations. In addition, the lack of democracy in Zimbabwe and the lack of efforts for reform may make other options seem fruitless. Furthermore, the example of serious armed conflict in neighboring countries may make violence seem like a reasonable option. However, there has not been regime instability that typically is associated with rebellion. The government, however, has increased its anti-European policies in recent years. Mugabe has instituted and reinforced a land reform policy, which strips European farmers of their land. This has resulted in worsened economics for European farmers as well as a decrease in the amount of food available to the country as a whole. Mugabe has also taken measures that make it difficult for Europeans to vote in the country as he has targeted dual citizens, many of whom are European. In order to maintain their Zimbabwean citizenship, a dual citizen is required to renounce his or her other citizenship within six months. This increasing lack of rights may lead the Europeans to leave the area, as neighboring nations have extended their invitation for white farmers or it may put the group at risk for rebellion against Mugabe’s regime. In addition, the transnational support for an equitable solution to Zimbabwe’s land problem should help pressure the government into finding some sort of solution.

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Analytic Summary

Whites in Zimbabwe live separately from blacks (REGIONAL = 1), mostly in urban areas (GROUPCON = 1). They have not migrated broadly within the state (MIGRANT = 1). Whites are ethnically very distinct from other Zimbabweans (ETHDIFXX = 8). Besides being a different race (RACE = 3), whites also have different customs (CUSTOM = 1) and speak a different language (LANG = 1).

Europeans came to Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe, in the 19th century (TRADITN = 3). They dominated the area politically and economically from the turn of the 20th century until 1980 (ATRISK3 = 1). The British allowed the white settlers full control over the area. The settlers implemented racist policies that advocated separate development for whites and blacks. In the 1960s, the British encountered both international pressure and internal rebellion regarding these policies. Therefore, they sought to give more rights to the majority African population. White nationalists, led by Ian Smith, protested, and in 1965, Smith illegally declared independence from Britain. Rhodesia, much like South Africa, was considered a pariah state in the international community, and pressure was brought to bear on it by the United Nations. Beginning in 1966, Smith also faced an internal rebellion from two groups, the Shona-dominated Zimbabwean African National Union and the Ndebele-led Zimbabwean African People's Union. A war of independence ensued. It lasted until all sides reached an agreement in late 1979 leading to black majority rule.

Whites in Zimbabwe did not suffer political discrimination until the dual citizenship policy has resulted in the loss of the right of some Europeans to vote (POLDIS03 = 4) and they do not suffer cultural discrimination, but they do suffer economic discrimination in regards to land reform (ECDIS03 = 4). Whites own one-half of the arable land in the country (one-half of the total) and they dominate business and industry. Zimbabwe is a food-exporting country and the large commercial white-owned farms account for 80% of the nation's agricultural production and 40% of it foreign exchange earnings. In 1993, President Mugabe announced that he was expropriating 70 large commercial farms for redistribution. The Land Acquisition Act of 1992 allows the government to seize white-owned land with little compensation and no right of appeal. In 1999, the government passed further legislation to seize large farms for redistribution without compensation. In 2000, black squatters, with clandestine government support, took over 1,600 farms. Many whites fled to other countries. In 2001-2003, Mugabe even more severely imposed his land redistribution policy -- in 2001 85-90% of European farmers were displaced. This practice of sending notices of eviction to white farmers continued through 2003.

Subsequently, the only two grievances of the white community are protecting people from squatter attacks and protecting resources from government redistribution and squatter take-overs. Whites are somewhat organized to attain these goals. Although they belong to several political parties from left to right, there is a single group to represent farmer interests (Commercial Farmers Union, GOJPA03 = 2). In addition, whites in Zimbabwe are a strong identity group (COHESX9 = 5) and are not hampered by any violent internal divisions (INTRACON01-03 = 0). Furthermore, there has been international condemnation for the government’s land re-distribution policies and its refusal to remove the squatters. The World Bank has even offered funding to help compensate farmers and accomplish redistribution fairly.

Because of the land issue, tensions between whites and blacks in Zimbabwe, and whites and the government in Zimbabwe, are high. Five farmers were killed in 2000; others were beat up, and property was destroyed (INTERCON00 = 1). In 2001 the Zanu-PF youths beat Europeans indiscriminantly (INTERCON01 = 1). There also continued to be murders of white farmers (CULGR501-03= 2). There is evidence that the military was directing some of the invasions and that the ruling party paid some of the squatters. Furthermore, President Mugabe has increased his anti-white rhetoric. Many analysts feel the issue is being used by Mugabe to focus attention away from his own failed economic policies and the worsening living conditions throughout the country. So far, whites have reacted peacefully (PROT99 = 1, PROT00 = 3, PROT01-03 = 0). They have used the courts to protect their rights. The courts continue to vote in the favor of white farmers but the orders have gone unheeded. Whites have also participated in work stoppages and general strikes.

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Originally posted by TheAmericanPatriot:
Western Industrialists are not working against the third world. They want the resourses and cheap labor to be found there. It is not their job to develop the third world, their job is to produce profits for their shareholders and nothing else.

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Originally posted by HuggyBear:
The 1st is long gone. Good riddance to the 2nd. Welcome to the 3rd World.

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Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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The world's resource companies could be lining up to rebuild Zimbabwe's once mighty gold mines and metal refineries if President Robert Mugabe's government falls.

"It is often painted as a treasure trove for miners, and with solid reason," said Anne Fruehauf, analyst for southern and east Africa at a consulting company, Control Risks. The southern Africa country, once a big producer of minerals, is hardly undiscovered ground for the world's miners.

Rio Tinto digs for diamonds there, while the country's platinum reserves, among the largest on the planet, have attracted Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, which are the two largest miners of the metal.

The company that later became BHP Billiton was active in the precious metal until the end of the 1990s, while Zimbabwean rock also contains chromite, coal, cobalt, copper, iron ore, nickel, palladium and tin - a rich spectrum of mineral wealth.

By far the main event in Zimbabwean mining is gold, and with prices on world markets close to all-time highs, miners are looking forward to start digging again.

"At its peak, Zimbabwe produced about 25 tons a year of gold," said Magnus Ericsson, senior partner at Raw Materials Group, a research firm based in Stockholm.

Using current prices, 25 tons of gold would be worth nearly $750 million, no small prize for miners willing to take a risk on the country.

"Not all the problems in Zimbabwe are just political," Ericsson said. "The majority of mines were small scale, run in an industrial way by entrepreneurs."

First movers are likely to be small and medium-size companies rather than multinational giants, which generally require huge deposits to justify investments.

"The likelihood of finding an elephant in Zimbabwe is not that high because of the geology there," Ericsson said about finding a huge deposit of metal. After establishing that there is metal to be drawn from the ground, the biggest concern for commercial miners is the legal framework which governs where and for what they can dig, how they sell it and how much revenue the government will claim.

"Potential investors would want to see a good mining law, with security of tenure and a right to export metal," said George Rogers, head of commodities and resource finance at Investec. "They would also want a stable tax environment."

Under Mugabe, stability has been rare.

"A general concern with much legislation is, it has been used by the government as an extortion tool," Fruehauf said. "It leaves the government with a lot of room for maneuver, and confronts miners with a lot of seemingly arbitrary and capricious decisions."

Most mining houses have delayed expansion decisions because they need stability to make long-term investment worthwhile.

Those who have been able to operate have done so in the face of adversity that would scarcely be imaginable in "safe" mining countries like Canada, Australia or Chile.

"Under Mugabe, firms have operated under the threat of nationalization, gold has had to be sold at artificial prices through the central bank, and spares and diesel have been difficult to import," said Rogers from Investec.

Though damaged, infrastructure has not been completely ruined, and investment would probably go a longer way than in a war-scarred economy like Mozambique's, Fruehauf said. He noted that Zimbabwe also has a more skilled work force than nearby countries.

"Despite significant brain drain, the foundation of human capital is still solid, compared with the rest of the Southern African region," she said.

There are other sub-Saharan success stories to hearten investors.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, once viewed as untouchably dangerous, recast its mining code with the help of the World Bank, recently completed a review of previously agreed contracts with mining firms, and is now firmly on the radar for majors like Anglo American, BHP and FreeportMcMoRan.

"If countries like the DRC can attract investors, so can Zimbabwe," Rogers said.

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Originally posted by TheAmericanPatriot:
Doug, They cannot say F You to the west. The west has all the money. They cannot develop their nations without it and the only way to get it is to sell resources. Most of them are too corrupt to do much. Look at Hati for god sake. There is nothing you could do for them even if you wanted to. Colonialism would be a blessing to Hati and many of these other dumps.

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Originally posted by Doug M:

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Originally posted by TheAmericanPatriot:
Doug, They cannot say F You to the west. The west has all the money. They cannot develop their nations without it and the only way to get it is to sell resources. Most of them are too corrupt to do much. Look at Hati for god sake. There is nothing you could do for them even if you wanted to. Colonialism would be a blessing to Hati and many of these other dumps.

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You have it backwards. The WEST and everyone else needs Africa's resources. The PROBLEM is they don't want AFRICANS to PROFIT off of those resources. Africans don't NEED the West. Economics is based around supply and demand. If there is a DEMAND for something then it has value and that VALUE is what drives pricing and profit for companies and industries who sell that item. So there is DEMAND for the resources from Africa, but AFRICANS are not ALLOWED to OWN the mines and industries that PROFIT from that demand. The WEST (and everyone else) does not want to simply BUY the resources from African OWNED companies and industries. They want to CONTROL those industries and PROFIT off the demand of African resources for THEMSELVES, using Africans as SLAVE LABOR and not putting ANY of that money or resource BACK into the African economy or infrastructure. That is not economics or free trade. Free trade is when Africans own their OWN resources and SELL them on the open market to buyers who PAY the Africans for that resource. But what the west and the rest of the global economy practices in Africa is SLAVE trade not FREE trade, where the ONLY role Africans have in the buying and selling of their resources is as the PEASANTS who get paid little to nothing for extracting the resources while EVERYONE ELSE gets the benefit, both in terms of the PROFIT off the trade AND in terms of the products and goods MADE with those resources.

And that is the problem. NO other country on EARTH operates like that. NONE. ONLY in Africa is this supposed to be a "economic policy". This isn't something created by African politicians, this is something created by a global economic system that PUTS INTO PLACE politicians in Africa who will DO THEIR BIDDING.

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Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by TheAmericanPatriot:
Doug, You are eaten up with victim ideology. Look, its a hard brutal world out there. The strong survive and the weak die and suffer. That wuill NEVER change as it is a part of the human condition and has been since the caves.
You guys seem to think something is owed or that there is some sort of utopian moral value that is going to transfer these places into Switzerland..
The worst thing that happened to the third world was the end of colonialism because many are incapable of governing themselves.

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Angola is Africa's second largest oil producer, behind Nigeria. Angola currently produces 1.4m barrels of offshore oil per day; the sector accounting for 90% of exports and 75% of government revenues. Last year, it generated an estimated $l4bn and its oil production is predicted to reach two million barrels by die end of 2007.

As well as importing oil, China is now a partner in several of Angolas oil blocks. Sinopac, China's state-owned oil company, made a huge bid, winning 50% of Block-18 and begins oil production this year. There were rumours that Sonangol gave the block to the Chinese as part of a credit deal.

China also wants to expand into new markets, binding its companies into Angola. The credit deal specifies that 70% of Angola's reconstruction work must be done by Chinese companies.

On the other side of the coin, Angola chose China because it wanted to diversify its partnerships to include non-Western players. A big benefit to Angola is that China's foreign policy is non-interference - its credit, therefore, comes with no conditions.

After the war, Angola desperately needed more money but did not want to reform its fiscal transparency to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conditions. But high oil prices and Chinese credit have enabled it to manage its own post-war reconstruction, without IMF loans. "In addition, the IMF would not have provided the amount of money China did, with the technology and human resources included," says Adalberto Fernandes of BP Angola.

Transparency of oil revenues is an acute problem in Angola. "There has been no real progress on transparency in terms of knowing exactly how much money the Angolan government gets from oil and how it is spent. We know they are raking in billions but apart from some press reports about signature bonuses paid in the last licensing round, these funds cannot be tracked through a transparent budget process," says Sarah Wykes of Global Witness.

As well as providing credit, the Chinese offer technical power, which Angola lacks. China trains more graduate engineers than anywhere else in the world, and despite their standard being different to the West, it is hoped they will transfer their skills to the Angolans.

The Chinese also have a productive labour force. They are quick and cheap and they work long hours. They are improving Luanda by rebuilding construction sites that have been stalled or abandoned for years - taking complete eyesores and making the city look better.

China also provides a role model for Angola, its economic growth gives Angola hope that diey can achieve the same, especially as both governments have socialist backgrounds. The Chinese work is particularly important, ahead of Angola's overdue elections. Originally scheduled for last year, the government maintains that roads and bridges must be rehabilitated first, before the elections.

The Chinese are building at a capacious rate all over the country as Angola is planning the biggest urban project ever attempted in Africa - a mega city which will be built by the Chinese south of Luanda.

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They will also build houses in 23 cities across the country over the next five years, a project which is being launched in Cabinda, Angolas main oil area, where the construction of 44 tower blocks starts this year.

CIF, a Chinese company based in Hong Kong, is rebuilding Angola's railways which will soon operate again, linking Luanda to Malange, Benguela to MoxSco and Namibe to Menongue. The Benguela railway will allow transport of Zambia's copper to Angolan ports. China is now the world's largest copper consumer and has mining concessions in the area. Some argue this is done out of self-interest but it is the Angolan government which chooses the projects.

Xiao Ping Zhuang heads up the railway project. Sitting at his desk, within a compound of Chinese workers, a colourful, ornamental Chinese dragon beside him, he explains: "We have a lot of experience in building railways in China, but the work here is difficult. Angola has nothing, we have to import everything. Thete are also landmines."

The Chinese are also building hospitals, schools and water systems in most provinces. There is now regular running water for the first time in Luanda's peri-urban areas. They are building new hotels, soccer stadiums and shopping centres. They have invested $400m in telecoms and are fixing Angola's electricity supplies, as well as installing new lines. All the existing cables are from Portuguese times.

The Chinese are also building roads, including one from Lubango to Ondjiva and Lobito to Luanda. Ju Lizhao, the project's boss, says: "We are glad to bring technology and people to help Angola rebuild their country; we are both developing countries. Many more Chinese will arrive this year."

The Chinese also plan to become more involved in Angolas agriculture, tourism and fisheries this year. And die investment for a new oil refinery in Lobito is coming from SSI, a joint venture between China's Sinopec and Angola's Sonangol in which Sinopec holds a 75% stake.

There are, however, some concerns about the Chinese presence in Angola. "They happily build the infrastructure, but seldom consider how it will operate," Raul Francisco, a member of the coalition Jubilee Angola, laments. Many of the new hospitals, for example, are now standing but do not have any doctors or equipment. The Chinese promise they will send over doctors this year but exact numbers are not yet known.

Other concerns are that with Angola's low level of technology, many of the projects will be set up without the Angolans having the capacity to maintain them once the Chinese leave, promoting long-term dependence.

The Chinese are also criticised for not helping employment in Angola. Although they employ some local people, the majority of the work is done by Chinese workers.

After years of war, education is low in Angola so there are few skilled locals, although many maintain that most of the jobs could be done by Angolans. "There is little manufacturing in Angola (just cement and breweries)," says Michel Botomazava, a UNDP economist. "Agriculture is only just beginning again and the oil industry is capital-intensive, only providing a small number of jobs, so unemployment is a serious problem," he adds.

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The Chinese are almost entirely self-contained, bringing in their own materials as well as workers. They ship over vast containers of machinery and cement. Another critique is the quality of Chinese work. There is no formal surveillance of their work, as Angola does not have the facilities to regulate them.

As there are no schools in Angola teaching Chinese or a cultural understanding of China, a problem of communication exists. In the new Chinese-built hospital in Luanda, for example, all the manuals for the imported machinery are in Chinese so the Angolan doctors had problems operating them.

As well as sucking in Angolas raw materials, China, the factory of the world, dumps its own manufactured goods. Trade between the countries is rising fast. Angola's stunted industry means it relies on cheap imports from China. China is important to Angola, yet it does not want to be tied to the Sino superpower alone. It plans to maintain a relationship with Europe and the US. Angola joined the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in January - the second African country after Nigeria, to do so. This will give it multilateral leverage.

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Originally posted by TheAmericanPatriot:

The worst thing that happened to the third world was the end of colonialism because many are incapable of governing themselves.

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In Angola, much of the reconstruction is an Asian affair, with Chinese and South Korean companies, along with the possibility of Japanese companies in the future. The work is done by a variety of people from Asia, including Chinese, Indians, Indonesians and Pakistanis. The funny part is that Angolans are no major player in this at all.
The new construction is creating exclusive enclaves PRIMARILY occupied by foreign expatriates working for FOREIGN owned Oil companies like BP and Total. There are many Pakistanis and Indians moving in and creating businesses for themselves. And of course, as usual, the lowest class of maids, servants and other sorts of "hospitality" workers is made up of local Angolans.

Indonesian workers at the Namkwang (south Korean) construction project in Angola:



Mess Hall:


Workers at the Talatoona convention center:


From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aris/

Blog by the same person behind the photos on Flicker:

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Angola is an exotic country. Even one of my friend that originally from Pakistan, already claimed that Angola is his country, after living in Luanda for seven years. He enjoys the beach and excellent food here in Luanda. And he just came back from Portugal to visit his departed original culture. Although he fell in love with Barcelona instead.

Luanda, the capital of Angola is changing very fast during last few years. My Indonesian friend that working for a short stint here in Luanda in 2002, said that he cannot even walk out from the hotel due to the situation. Now, foreigners are freely roaming around the city, albeit with some minor disturbances. They are also crowding the Ilha de Luanda every weekend. Even some of them running around the city and marginal every morning and afternoon. Palos will always crowded until early morning. And Miami Beach Restaurant in Ilha provided disco music sponsored by Heineken with a proper live music stage. Even the Salsa Class always full of people that want to shake their butt.

The construction is almost everywhere. Aptly described and photographed by Lara Pawson, a BBC journalist in Luanda in her blog. Even the house next to her is demolished in order to built new structure. It happens all around the town, maybe quite a disturbance to the neighbours but it is necessity to built new Luanda. However, they need to be more cautious to avoid the catasthropic accident.

New hotels will be sprawling Luanda in the next few years. One new Alvalade Hotel already open to public. In Miramar, hundreds of Indonesian workers from Korean Namkwang Company are busily working on the construction to built new Continental Hotel and three office towers. Another office towers will be built behind shining new Talatoona Convention Center. Total already owned their own building near end of the Marginal. BP will finished their twin towers building sometimes this year, a new landmark for Luanda.

The new housing complex mushrooming to the south of Luanda, in the new suburban called Luanda Sul. Even you can browse and search in youtube.com for design architecture for he upcoming modern and exclusive townhouse in Luanda Sul, Condominio Adelaide.

Albeit the cost is exorbitant, the development still going strong. Leslie Santamaria reported that the rent for housing in downtown Luanda is unbelievable, forcing her to move the office. The rent for decent apartment in Luanda will be starting from USD 5000/month and will reach more than USD 10,000/month for proper house. And you still need to add the cost to fetch the water every day from water truck, diesel for your generator and other utilities. The land price are skyrocketing.

But, most of the people are happy with their own lifestyle, albeit differently. Expatriates like Nadia Febina will enjoy the beautiful beach, Mussulo Island and restaurant, and probably will start to hit the high-class Belas Shopping Mall that recently open last week.

Chinese and Vietnamese independent traders already busily trading in the open market of Roki mercado. They sell everything from instant noodle, fruit, and even live turtle. You can fetch the original (hopefully) Levi's for USD 20 only with good bargaining strategy. There are at least four or five upmarket Chinese restaurants for your tongue exploration. Even the Chinese massage are available near Mussulo Island.

The businessman from Pakistan also venturing the humongous opportunities in Luanda. Part of the profit can be sent back as new PDA, high tech mobile phones, laptops and Playstation 3 to their relatives in Karachi or Islamabad, the status symbol of wealth from brisk business in Luanda.

New companies sprungout every day, try to secure new contract, lease, and buying opportunities. It seems every Angolan have their own business to take care of. Albeit some of them might have difficulties to find the desired jobs. But most of Angolan are hardworkers, and will do anything to fetch the kwanzas, by doing money changer, street sellers, security guard and other informal businesses.

The people who earn USD 200/month like Rita that working as maid, they also happily enjoying the sunshine and beach during this long weekend.

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The red, white and blue helicopter soared through streaming white clouds and sunny blue sky. Below, tiny Lego-like platforms jutted up from the shimmering Cabinda Bay. But as we neared the Takula oilfield, dozens of towering flares breathed huge swirls of fire. The tides of the Congo surged into the waves of the Atlantic, and the ethereal cloud formations were engulfed by a yellow-brown haze.
This is the heart of Angola. Although separated from the rest of the country by the Congo River and a strip of land that's part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Portugal only incorporated the province of Cabinda into Angola in 1956), the twenty-four-hour oil operations that suck coffee-colored crude off the coast of Cabinda are the country's economic engine. They are what financed the government's army during a civil war that ended just two years ago. And they're the most obvious sign of the West's relentless tentacles reaching into Angola today.
The constant cough of noxious black fumes is the least of their consequences. Twenty-seven years of civil war fueled by a lethal mix of oil, diamonds and cold war enemies have left one of Africa's potentially richest countries a shambles. Although its own kleptocratic leaders and homegrown revolutionaries deserve much of the blame, it's impossible to divorce what's happened from the constant manipulation of outsiders-from the Portuguese, who kept Angola under the thumb of colonial rule for 500 years, to the United States and white-led South Africa, which bankrolled Angola's rebels during the cold war, to the multinationals draining the country of its natural resources today.
I went to Angola to try to understand how a country so rich in the most coveted resource of our time-oil-can fall to the bottom of almost every scale of human development. Angola pumps almost a million barrels a day; the United States imports more oil from Angola than from Kuwait. But 70 percent of Angolans live in poverty. Eighty percent have no access to basic medical care. Average life expectancy is only forty years, and three in ten children will die before reaching their fifth birthday.
It 's no secret that Angola's leaders are siphoning off huge amounts of state money. But lurking beneath the sinister statistics and corrosive corruption is the murky involvement of Western governments and multinational oil companies. What role are they playing in the postwar transformation of Angola?
Luanda's Hotel Tropico, a favorite among oilmen and World Bank and IMF officials, offers a clue. When I arrived in Angola's capital bleary-eyed early one morning in mid-October, the slick new lobby was packed. While the Angolan staff scrambled to confirm reservations on malfunctioning computers, middle-aged white men elbowed their way to the long mahogany counter demanding to know why their rooms weren't ready. Others dozed in overstuffed armchairs among stacks of suitcases, waking intermittently to drink espresso or whiskey and smoke cigarettes. It was 5 AM, and although Angola has no tourist industry, the hotel was full and our rooms wouldn't be ready before noon. Until then, no one seemed to be leaving the building.
In fact, I'd been warned not to walk outside, and I quickly understood why. Exploring the streets of Luanda is harrowing. It requires careful maneuvering among fragments of broken sidewalk and heaps of reeking garbage. Reckless drivers on rough dirt roads kick up a choking dust that sticks to your sweat in the sweltering heat. And it's almost impossible to make it five blocks without being splashed by sewage. Frequent petty crime in Luanda casts a pall of fear that only ratchets up the tension. This once-thriving "Paris of Africa," now a mix of broken-down colonial villas, 1960s-style apartment blocks and sprawling shantytowns, has essentially been abandoned by the government. Built for a population of about half a million, it's now home to eight times that many, mostly refugees who fled the ravaged country-side during the civil war. They arrived in the capital and built a vast maze of musseques-clusters of cement-block hovels with rusted-scrap tin roofs, held down by stones and patched with plastic sheeting. The government has thrown up its hands: It doesn't provide electricity or running water in much of the city, let alone maintain the roads or pick up the garbage.
To avoid this unpleasantness, most foreigners-whether working for oil companies, aid organizations or the United Nations- travel around the city in chauffeur-driven SUVs. Those who work for ChevronTexaco, which dominates the Angolan oil industry, aren't even allowed to drive themselves. They're also forbidden to venture into the countryside. The limit is the golf course in nearby Luanda Sul, where the company maintains a gated, guarded compound of Southern California-style homes for its employees.
Still, even the most privileged in Luanda can't completely avoid its conditions. When I caught a ride to Luanda Sul with a BP oil executive, the driver had to navigate the Range Rover over jammed mud roads and crater-sized potholes, swerving to avoid the children who picked through mountains of roadside garbage. Men hawked sundries from car to car while women sold produce in the dirt alongside open sewers.
It wasn't always this way. The Portuguese were first drawn to Luanda in 1575 because its port offered access to legendary silver mines. But the slave trade soon became the main attraction: In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Portuguese captured and shipped up to 2 million Angolans to South America and the Caribbean. Even after slavery was outlawed, the Portuguese used forced labor in Angola's countryside to grow cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco for export; others reaped riches off the country's vast diamond reserves. Luanda boomed in the 1930s, and by the 1970s it was among the continent's most modern and picturesque cities, its wide avenues boasting stunning examples of the finest Portuguese colonial architecture.
But all was not well. Angolans were agitating for independence and, after a military coup overthrew Portugal's forty-eight year dictatorship in 1974, found themselves suddenly free. The bulk of the Portuguese elite professional and middle class abandoned the country. With no foundation for democracy and only the example of half a millennium of exploitation, Angola fell prey to vicious factional fighting. The Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, representing urban, middle-class, mixed-race Angolans, quickly won control of the government with the backing of the Soviet Union and Cuba. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, led by Jonas Savimbi, was supported in most rural areas of the country.
But if Angolans viewed the conflict as a civil war over ethnic, geographic and resource control, the West saw it as yet another domino to be defended in the cold war. UNITA quickly won support from neighboring South Africa and the United States.
By the time the war ended, with the assassination of Savimbi in 2002, more than 500,000 Angolans had been killed. Two million more had been driven from their homes. The countryside was scorched and the economy in ruins. Angola has gone from being the breadbasket of Africa to producing almost nothing; its sole successful industry is the manufacture of artificial limbs. Although in 1991 Angola officially abandoned Communism (the United States recognized the MPLA government soon afterward), its overnight transition to a market economy has done little to bolster living conditions. The only difference most Angolans notice is that they no longer get free education or healthcare.
For the mostly foreign elite, though, Angolan-style capitalism provides a warm welcome. Although prices are astronomical-a basic one-bedroom flat can cost twice what it would in London or New York, and the electricity and water go out several times a day-most company employees have all their expenses paid, and generators cushion the inconvenience of power outages. While some foreigners live along the palm-lined Marginal, Luanda's crumbling waterfront promenade, the oil companies maintain separate walled compounds of suburban-style houses for their employees on the outskirts of the city. Most foreign workers, including US Embassy employees, earn more money in Angola than they would almost anywhere else, due to extra "hardship payments." And while just a few years ago there was nothing to buy, a new sporting-goods store filled with Nike products and a Range Rover dealership have opened downtown.
For those willing to leave their homes, Luanda can be fun. Every Friday afternoon the US Embassy hosts a happy hour. Afterward, mostly American and South African embassy workers and businessmen head for the Ilha-a skinny strip of land that juts out into Luanda Bay. There, oceanfront cafes like Miami Beach and Coconuts offer Portuguese wine and South African beer, Brazilian cocktails and a dozen different preparations of prawns, an Angolan delicacy. After a gourmet dinner, expats will hit Bahia, a tasteful open-air Brazilian nightclub, or one of Luanda's all-night dance spots, where middle-aged foreign businessmen have their pick of young Angolan prostitutes.
Much of the fuel for this enclave of opulence comes from California-based ChevronTexaco. Pumping 60 percent of Angola's oil-more than half of which is exported to the United States-the company expects to double its oil production there by 2008. "Angola has been a terrific place to do business," Jim Blackwell, the director of ChevronTexaco's operations in Angola, told me. That's because the horrors of Angola's civil war never really touched ChevronTexaco, which pumps most of its oil from platforms far out in the ocean.
To understand exactly how that works, I went to visit the company's compound, known as Malongo, in Cabinda-the only part of Angola most ChevronTexaco workers ever see. (Although some stay at Malongo, others are ferried by helicopter out to massive steel oil platforms in the ocean, where they spend twenty-eight days before being shuttled back home.) Built in the 1960s, Malongo is a campus of ranch houses, manicured green lawns and smooth paved roads. ChevronTexaco's own well and private filtration system supplies drinkable tap water-a rare luxury in Africa. Spacious dining halls offer a stunning array of fresh seafood, imported meats, salad and dessert bars. The vegetables are all grown in an organic greenhouse on the compound, set up by Norwegians, and bright green Granny Smith apples are flown in from South Africa. For entertainment, there's baseball, basketball, volleyball and tennis, a cricket pitch, horseshoes and a rolling green golf course. Unlike the rest of Angola, where the official language is Portuguese, the language of Malongo is English. If workers still get homesick, they can dial direct from their rooms to the United States-no need for international dialing codes. Indeed, except for the extraordinary bats that hang in ominous clusters from the branches of the compound's mango trees, you'd never know you were in Africa.
ChevronTexaco does everything it can to keep it that way. No one enters or leaves the compound without special permission. And there's no way to avoid the tightly guarded security gates, because the entire compound is surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire that encloses a ring of anti-personnel land mines.
The mines, planted by the government during the war, are just one manifestation of the long-standing relationship between the Angolan government and the oil company. Gulf Oil, as the company was then known, first discovered oil in Angola's waters in the mid-1960s. Although the ascension of the MPLA scared off most Portuguese investors, the oil operations were largely offshore and therefore untouched by the ensuing bloodshed. Despite the new government's Marxist ideology, it signed a contract granting the American corporation drilling rights. (Gulf Oil became Chevron in 1984, which then merged with Texaco in 2001.) The MPLA played its part by guarding the compound, and used Cuban troops to do it. Back in the United States, though, Ronald Reagan was hailing rebel leader Jonas Savimbi as a "freedom fighter" and funneling millions of dollars to UNITA to support its bloody war against the Angolan government. As a result, Chevron in the 1 980s was in the unlikely position of being an American oil company allied with a Communist government and guarded by Cuban troops from potential attacks by US-funded rebels. (Mysteriously, the company's compound was never directly attacked, leading to speculation that the United States paid off UNITA to spare the oil operations.)
The government still maintains an armed base on a hill just outside Malongo's gates to coordinate with the company on security. (In addition to local hostility against the oil company, some Cabindans have been waging a separatist campaign against the government for decades, claiming they're not reaping any benefits from Angola's oil, the bulk of which is in their territory.) But the benefits of the company's relationship with the government these days go well beyond security. When I visited, ChevronTexaco officials told me that the company is working closely with the government to develop the environmental, tax and other regulations that will govern, well, ChevronTexaco. "For a long time there were no real regulations in Angola," Artur Custodio, who holds the bold title of "operational excellence champion" for ChevronTexaco, told me as he showed me around Malongo. "So the government is asking ChevronTexaco to create them." The lack of regulations is why ChevronTexaco has flares burning off the natural gas that's produced during oil extraction, and why it can routinely spill oil into the ocean-there were sixty-nine oil spills reported in just the first ten months of 2003-without any public disclosure. (The company does report spills to the government.)
ChevronTexaco nonetheless insists it is a good corporate citizen, and officials were eager to show me the charitable work it does in the area, along with a group of other international oil companies (most significantly the French company Total, the Italian ENI-Agip and of course the Angolan state-owned oil company, Sonangol) that own a share of the fields it operates. Together, the companies have spent about $24 million on development projects in Cabinda in the past five years. (ChevronTexaco won't reveal its profits in Angola, but the company netted a record $7.2 billion in 2003 worldwide.) "This is part of our corporate responsibility," said Feliciana Ngada, a spokesperson for ChevronTexaco. "We sit down with the government. They tell us we need a school or a health center. Then they are invited to participate in the opening ceremony." Once the project is built, it bears a large plaque with the names of its corporate sponsors. That is the end of the companies' involvement. They do not check to make sure the schools are being used or the clinics are staffed or stocked with medicine. "That's the government's responsibility," Ngada told me.
The consequences of that policy became immediately apparent on a daylong tour. As we drove north, we passed villages of broken clapboard shacks, mud-caked barefoot children and the occasional stray chicken. We stopped outside one of those villages to visit a Catholic boys' school where the companies had built a dormitory. At the end of a rugged dirt road was a one-story stucco building, freshly painted creamy white with a brick-red Spanish-tiled roof. But for 10 AM on a Thursday, it was strangely quiet. I asked Padre Policarfao Futi, who runs the mission connected to the school, where all the children were. "The school is closed," he said, smiling at my surprise. "We have no teachers." Indeed, the schools in Cabinda hadn't had teachers for months. They were all on strike because they hadn't been paid by the government.
Later, we drove to see a small health clinic. Francisco de Amaral, a lanky, bearded medical technician in a white lab coat, was inside alone. Where were all the patients? I asked him. "There were some earlier," he said, "but I couldn't do anything for them. We don't have a laboratory, so I can't determine what disease they have. Usually they have symptoms of malaria. But I don't have any medicines for malaria."
The only project I saw that was functioning well was a blood bank funded by the oil companies housed in Cabinda's decrepit municipal hospital. ChevronTexaco has also committed about $11 million to supporting agricultural projects elsewhere in the country.
Of course, oil companies don't operate in Angola to provide social services. "Our responsibility is to efficiently develop resources in the country for our shareholders and our partners," ChevronTexaco's Blackwell told me. A Louisiana native with a broad, freckled face and reddish-brown hair, dressed in a Levi's shirt and bluejeans, Blackwell oozes corporate American cowboy. "There's an optimism that's capturing the whole country," he said. "We have an opportunity to capture that." To do that, ChevronTexaco has invested more than a billion dollars a year in the country for the past five years, making it one of the company's most significant investments in the world. With the latest deepwater technology giving the company access to ever more reserves of oil, Blackwell and others expect Angola to become Africa's top oil producer-surpassing Nigeria-within five to eight years.
To take advantage of the new technology, it helps to have good relations with the government. The schools and clinics in Cabinda are part of that. So are the contributions by ChevronTexaco to the Eduardo Dos Santos Foundation, ostensibly a charitable foundation run by the president that's long been rumored to be a means for pilfering oil money. More recently, the president's wife has set up a similar organization, supposedly to support disabled.: Angolans. ChevronTexaco contributes about $50,000 per year to the Dos Santos Foundation, and has given another $50,000 to the First Lady's foundation. Blackwell said he was unaware of any concerns about corruption.
But the most widely cited problem in Angola, pointed out not only by advocacy groups but by the World Bank, the IMF and even the US State Department, is that close to a third of the oil revenues that come into the country never make I it into the public budget. No one outside the government knows where the money is going. Organizations like Global Witness have documented that at least a billion dollars has ended up in Virgin Islands bank accounts of close associates of the president.
Blackwell doesn't seem to believe the repeated reports about Angola's financial mismanagement. "I think the government's really taking it on the chin with transparency," he said. "My sense is the government is doing the best it can."
Rosa Maria Joao, a mother of five whom I met as she waited outside a crowded UN-funded health post in a northern bairro of the city, doesn't have the same faith. As she cradled her 6-month-old daughter, who was sick with diarrhea and a high fever, the skinny 28-year-old told me she makes a meager living cleaning homes and washing clothes for Luanda's wealthy. Although she's seen changes in Angola since the end of the war, "they're only for those who have money," she said. "For those who don't, there is nothing." Indeed, the government wants to bulldoze the village where she lives-a former refugee camp where residents have built small homes and a school-to make way for new construction. "I know the country has a lot of money from selling petroleum," she said. "The government can keep most of it. But shouldn't at least some of it go into improving people's living conditions?"
Justine Pinto de Andrade, director of the economics department at Catholic University in Luanda, agrees. "You see some buildings that are improved, like Endiama (the state-owned diamond company), Sonangol and De Beers," he said. "But these are not places for the people to live. There is nothing for them." And the expansion of Luanda Sul, with its sprawl of guarded compounds? "Luanda Sul is the opposite of development," Andrade said with irritation. "Sure, it's creating something, but development is creating works for people, like jobs and houses. This is nothing. It's only for rich people who have houses."
The Angolan government's response to such criticism is that its coffers have been drained not by corruption but by the cost of fighting a brutal civil war. "The government is very concerned about social issues," Manuel Nunes Junior, Angola's deputy finance minister, told me. "But Angola had a terrible, terrible war. We need massive international help." Of course, international aid, which totals about $300 million a year, is dwarfed by the sums paid by oil companies to the government that go missing each year. But Junior denied that the money had been siphoned off. "There is no proof that this money has disappeared," he said. He said the problem is merely that payments made to international creditors by Sonangol, which makes "quasi official expenditures on behalf of the government," were not recorded in the budget.
Benjamin Castello, director of the Angola chapter of Jubilee 2000, a coalition of advocates focused on debt relief, notes that despite their purported charity work, the oil companies give nothing to local pro-democracy organizations, which provide the only hope for holding the government accountable. "Oil companies know that if they support civil society, in the future they won't receive new petrol blocks," he said. (The United States has apparently decided such funding isn't in its interest either: The Agency for International Development has virtually eliminated its prior support for pro-democracy organizations that were critical of the government.) Oil companies are also resisting a campaign initiated by the Open Society Institute and Global Witness, and supported by more than 100 organizations worldwide, that asks companies to publish the payments they make to governments, under the theory that this would make it harder for government officials to steal the money. The companies say it would violate their contracts with the government of Angola and put them at a competitive disadvantage. \
The United States has shown no interest in either making demands on oil companies or pressuring the Angolan government. On the contrary, with its interest in diversifying its sources of oil and staying on the right side of one of the most powerful military forces in Africa, Washington is publicly strengthening ties to the MPLA government. In 2002 the Bush Administration welcomed President Dos Santos to the White House, and that same year Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Angola. The United States is now building a mammoth, $40 million fortified embassy high on a hill overlooking Luanda; a low cement wall across the road hides the musseque built into the slope below. American officials say they prefer a carrot rather than a stick approach. "It's a partnership," said a senior US Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Angola can be a force for democracy, stability and economic development. It could be one of the wealthiest countries on the continent."
Hoping investors will see it that way, the Angolan government is beginning to talk about changing its ways. It has said, for example, that it will publish a complete budget that includes all of the state oil company's expenditures. But it won't allow any independent auditing, so if the private oil companies continue to hide payments, there will be no way to verify the government's revenues.
In the meantime, conditions for most Angolans continue to worsen. In 2002, despite the war's end and an increase in oil profits, Angola slid down the UN's Human Development Index, compared with the three years before. According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, spending on social programs is now less than 3.5 percent of the national budget-significantly lower even than in neighboring Chad, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For Angola's elite, though, things are looking up. Shortly before I left in November, the Council of Ministers had just declared its support for a $600 million project to build two brand-new islands in Luanda Bay. They would boast a shopping mall, luxury hotels, apartments, restaurants and casinos.

Daphne Eviatar writes frequently about development. She went to Angola as a Pew fellow in international journalism.

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Petra Diamonds Limited ("Petra"), the AIM listed mining group, has redeployed an exploration team on the Alto Cuilo concession in the Lunda Norte province of Northern Angola and has completed reconstruction of its base camp on the concession. In 1998, Petra discovered the first new kimberlite orebody in Angola following two decades of civil war. The discovery, on the 3000sq kl Alto Cuilo concession in the Lunda provinces in north-eastern Angola, was recognised as a major find by Endiama, the Angolan diamond authority, and heralded as the most important exploration project in Angola.

The promising initial results from Alto Cuilo may indicate the potential for a major diamond mine. Renewed rebel activity forced Petra to abandon the Alto Cuilo concession in 1998, but the company returned to the concession with the formal end to hostilities last year.

There are, in addition, six other known kimberlites on the property and a further 31 anomalies that will be explored.

These geological anomalies were identified by an extensive geophysical survey undertaken by Petra in 1997.

Petra's 2003 work programme, approved last year by Endiama, envisages two drill rigs: one operating on the kimberlite discovered by Petra and the other traversing the concession to explore the other known kimberlites and anomalies.

After visiting the concession, Petra chief operating officer David Gadd-Claxton said: "It is very exciting to be back on Alto Cuilo. We are picking up on work undertaken prior to the force majeure and are looking forward to rapid progress on what we believe is one of the best diamond projects in the world."

The team is lead by Giglio Rader, a veteran of 30 years of identification, development and beneficiation of gold and diamond properties throughout Africa, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Mr Rader was appointed as chief geologist for Petra's Angolan operations in early May 2003.

The team has initiated base-line geological analysis in preparation for resumption of diamond drilling shortly.

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Observations On Doing Business in Angola
by Maria da Cruz

During my trip to Angola this past July, I noticed a number of changes in Luanda since my previous visit in December 2006. I mention them because they demonstrate how quickly things are changing and evolving, especially in Luanda and its environs. Some of the changes I noticed include:

The large office and apartment building on the Marginal for BP, Esso and Sonangol built by American Worldwide Inc. with Portuguese construction companies is in its final stage of completion, and is a great addition to the Marginal's landscape. Sonangol is also building its new headquarters at the Baixa (downtown Luanda), designed by EDI Architects, to be completed by the end of the year. Another project on the Marginal is called "Luanda Waterfront", a construction renovation project aimed at widening the Marginal, but from what I could see, the project appears to be at a stand still. Odebrecth is widening roads and installing a drainage system to stop Luanda from flooding every time it rains. The Chinese population has noticeably grown in Luanda. In December 2006, I could count how many Chinese workers I would see in a day. On this visit I lost count by midday, even though most Chinese work outside of Luanda.

Luanda Sul, a developing suburb located twenty-minutes south of Luanda, is growing by leaps and bounds. This unique subdivision has become a prime location for the wealthy and many in the expatriate community. I had the opportunity to visit a condominium in Luanda Sul where the smallest unit was on sale for US $1.2 million. Right next door, residents can shop, eat, and watch a movie at Belas Shopping, the first shopping mall of its kind in Angola; although prices there are like the surrounding real estate - expensive! I saw the condominium on the third day it was advertised. By the fifth day all the units were sold. This is a reoccurring situation in Luanda Sul’s real estate market.

Angola's economy is booming! New businesses are being set up every day, fostered by the environment of peace and stability in the country and the new private investment law, which has created more incentives for investors. Although, the intervention of most US companies remains primarily focused on the extractive industries, especially the oil and gas sector, other sectors are seeing a boost of participation from US companies. Coca Cola operations continue to expand; Barloworld markets Caterpillar machinery; The Boeing Company completed a major sale of aircrafts to TAAG, the national airline; Menshen represents Microsoft; American Worldwide Inc. and EDI Architects are involved in a number of architecture and construction projects; other US products and services can be found in the Angolan marketplace. But one gets the sense that more opportunities can be exploited by US companies.

The growing question becomes, "Why aren't more US companies outside the oil sector looking for and finding success in Angola?". I spoke to a number of Angolan business owners and members of the government about this subject during my visit. One of the main issues is US companies entering the Angolan market do not always have a sound understanding of the country’s business and cultural realities. This lack of understanding provides a limited grasp of the risks and opportunities in doing business in Angola.

It is important for any company interested in operating in Angola to understand the country's economic and social landscape and its corporate culture. This knowledge will assist in identifying the best opportunities and managing risks associated with doing business in the country. One thing to keep in mind is yes, TIA- This Is Africa but it is important to think TIA- This Is Angola! The model a US company may use to operate in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa or other African countries may not always apply in Angola. In this context, the advisable strategy for a company entering the Angolan market is to partner with a credible local company that understands how to do business in the country, and has developed and nurtured relationships in the public and private sectors.

US companies should also try to have a better understanding of the Angolan culture by building relationships based on trust and openness. Angolans like to get to know their business partner on a personal level first. If an Angolan partner does not know much about you except your name, position and the company you work for, then it is unlikely you will do business together or, at least, not for very long. The interpersonal relationship is very important. You simply cannot do business in Angola effectively by email, fax, or telephone. Direct personal contact and representation are critical.

US investors can provide what very few companies are offering: technical know-how and full service packaging. Business opportunities are needed from the simplest to the most complex programs. One Angolan businessman stated that if his copier is broken, he has to either purchase another one from South Africa or wait until his nephew can come from Paris to fix it. Only too often, he purchased another copier. In fact, in one year, he purchased 4 copiers. This example could be replicated many times in other areas of business activity in Angola.

In sum, I came away realizing more then ever before that Angola is a country in transition. In this rapidly changing environment, it is important for companies to work closely with business organizations to understand the current landscape and identify reliable prospective partners to be successful. Now is the time for US companies to find ways of benefiting from business opportunities emerging in the Angolan market.

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Facts

Angola is one of the fasted growing economies in the world. It has estimated reserves of 10 billion barrels of oil, and is the fourth largest producer of diamonds in the world; has million hectares of arable land; many valuable minerals and one of Africa's largest water reserves. This country was once the world's fourth largest coffee producer, a major iron ore producer and an exporter off high-quality marble , food and sisal. Now, following the advent of peace, the GoA plans to restore Angola to its former position in the global economy. Inflation has been extremely stable in recent years, and continues it's downward trend while the exchange rate has stabilized.

* Oil is the country's major product and source of foreign currency.
* Angola is a source of top quality gemstones.
* The Lundas region is one of the most important diamond-producing areas in the world.
* The country's subsoil contains 35 of the 45 most important minerals in the world trade.
* Angola's fishing industry is in the process of being re-established.
* Ministry of Hotel and Tourism plans to build 40-50 new hotels in Angola before 2010 when Angola hosts the African Soccer tournament.

Thanks to its extensive river systems and varied environment, Angola has enormous potential for production of tropical and subtropical crops. Angola has great hydro electrical potential for the production of tropical and subtropical crops. Angola has great hydro electrical potential with its large fast-flowing rivers. Certain regions of Angola have ideal climatic conditions for productions of high quality coffee. The unexploited forests cover 43% of Angolan territory, with particular valuable timber species in Cabinda. The extensive river system facilities transport.

With record oil prices and production, the GoA has rightfully seized this opportunity to diversify the country's economy and promote private investment. the GoA has attempted to accomplish this challenge through policy reforms, particularly, the establishment of development zones. There are early indications that these reforms have had some success in improving the business climate and increasing investor confidence in the country. To this point, Angola has received lines of credit from China, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Spain, France and the E.U. GoA is offering incentive packages based on development zones.

GoA has identifies these development zones as eligible for financial incentives:

* Zone A- Province of Luanda, the capital-municipalities of the Provinces of Benguela, Huila, Cabinda and the Municipality of Lobito
* Zone B- Remaining municipalities of the provinces of Benguela, Cabinda and Huila and the Provinces of Kwanza norte, Bengo, Uige, Kwanza Sul, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul
* Zone C- Provinces of Huambo, Bie, Moxico, Cuando Cubango, Cunene, Namibe, Malanje and Zaire

Development zones offer opportunities for wide range investments. Targeted industry sectors are selected based on the abundant natural and human resources available in each zone. Government incentives vary in accordance with the province in which the investment is made

Industrial Tax Exemption Regime

* 15 years exemption - Investors will be free from paying tax on the capital invested, for a period of 15 years, when they invest in the provinces of Huambo, Bie, Moxico, Kuando Kubango, Cunene, Namibe, Malanje and Zaire.
* 12 years exemption- Investors will be free from paying tax on the capital invested, for a period of 12 years, when they invest in the provinces of Kwanza Norte, Kwanza Sul, Bengo, Uige, Lundas and inland municipalities of Benguela, Cabinda and Huila.
* 8 years exemption- Investors will be free from paying tax on the capital invested, for period of eight years, when they invest in the provinces of Benguela, Cabinda and Huila, and in the muncipality of Lobito.

GoA = govt. of Angola.

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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The first thing I wanna say is...

There's nothing worse than crowing foreigners coming to South Africa and moaning about the place. Particularly white Europeans and North Americans, shocked at 'how White it is'. If you're one of them, you need to remind yourself that South Africa is (yes, present tense, because it is still, very much) a magnifying glass on the state of the rest of the world: a tiny minority of people who are disproportionately white, living a far higher standard of living than (almost) everyone else. If you're sitting in London cussing the white South Africans, remember that you are probably every bit as bad as they are. As one Afrikaner lady put it, succinctly: 'The difference between you and me is I have to look at it every day.' That 'it', so very loaded. So, perhaps, the wealthy here - and they aren't just white, remember I used the word disproportionately - can't put their head in the sand as the wealthy living in the Northern hemisphere manage to do so well. We (from the North) can pretend we don't belong to the poverty and grime largely associated with the South. But we're only pretending. The wealthy down here, can't even pretend - although if I'm really honest, quite a lot of them do a remarkably good impersonation of someone pretending they live in a place without inequality.

Scream: Inniwot?

Talking of honesty. It's hard to be very honest here. I feel that the problem that is going to present itself in this re-emerging blog is self-censorship. It is hard to say what you think here: I've heard a lot of wealthy Anglo South Africans (by Anglo, I mean those of British origin) boast, 'As a Brit, you'll have to get used to the fact that we're awfully un-politically correct here!' , and then proceed to laugh about the fact their dogs are racist.
Guffaw. Guffaw. By un-politically correct, I think what they mean is they talk about the colour of people's skin more easily than their fellow middle-classes in England. Black. White. Coloured. Coloured. Black. Black. Indian. Coloured. White. Black. They also make jokes about the colourful tribes of the Rainbow Nation
- cute little generalisations, for example, about the fact that Cape Coloureds have rotten front teeth - without a hint of a blush. Fine. But the boast of non-existent P.C. is complex, and reveals something about the psyche of this nation that I'm not sure I want to know all about.

Because I don't think it's true that you can be frank here. Really, candid. I feel that people are very nervous about saying what they think - on all sides and both ends of the Rainbow. People speak very softly, very quietly, as if there is a shame that they are hiding, guarding and controlling. Perhaps years of shame and guilt have left many attempting to speak themselves out of existence. I've met so many people here who almost whisper, and some who speak so softly I'm sure they'd prefer not to speak at all. If I just keep very quiet, maybe no one will notice me at all...

But I'm not sure anyone here says what they really think, ever. It's all coded. For example, the ANC government is described politely as 'the New government'. This allows you to speak far more freely, as a white, than if you pined for the apartheid system. 'Since the New government has come in...' blah blah blah. 'They' and 'they're' is another one. That's how many Whites talk about Blacks. For example, a waiter at a wedding I attended in whiter-than-Persil-white Cape Town, said: 'They don't like vegetables...' This was in response to my comment to another of the guests, a black South African lady, as we stood in the food queue: 'Why don't you take a larger plate so you can fit more food on!' Before she had time to reply, the young white waiter butted in with her delightful comment. Astounded, I turned back to my fellow guest: 'Would you prefer a larger plate?' But she was a wise old bird, 'Oh leave them,' she said, employing the same abstracting and pluralising technique, 'I can always come back if I want more.' Later, the same woman asked me if I would get her and her sister some champagne from the drinks table because the drinks waiter (a fat white man) was refusing to serve them.

Oh yes, what a lovely way to behave at a wedding. All that lurve just coming on through.

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Doug M:
There are many things that can be done different.

Bottom line, development and industry MUST be based around LOCAL ownership and control in order to create jobs and CAPITAL for the local economy. The name of the game in capitalism is to generate capital and capital is generated from profits. This means that he who makes the most money wins. It isn't about altruism or generosity. And that is explicitly the problem with it.

But more than that this is about communication. Africans should know the TRUTH about what is happening in Africa, not the half baked nonsense they most often get.

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Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by akoben:

quote:

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Originally posted by Doug M:
There are many things that can be done different.

Bottom line, development and industry MUST be based around LOCAL ownership and control in order to create jobs and CAPITAL for the local economy. The name of the game in capitalism is to generate capital and capital is generated from profits. This means that he who makes the most money wins. It isn't about altruism or generosity. And that is explicitly the problem with it.

But more than that this is about communication. Africans should know the TRUTH about what is happening in Africa, not the half baked nonsense they most often get.

---

I asked you how would you practically do it, not what should be done. Predictably you give same answer: rhetoric and more rhetoric.

You are like an impatient child screaming against "exploitation" thinking there are simple solutions to complex problems.

Yes the west needs Africa's resources, but Africa needs the finish products just as much too. Where are the African companies that can produce these products and compete globally with the foreign ones? The extracted resources for the most part go outside Africa to be processed. Creating viable local industry then will take time - a long term strategy. How would you do this given the growing crisis in Africa? that's the question. You cannot answer this only rant about the problems.

If you are thinking short term (taking over the foreign mines) you think you can just walk in there and take it over? You think the global market operates like that? Since Africa doesn't have any industries to process the base metals into products what will you do with them once you extract them? Eat them?

Lets say a country has industry to process the resources into finished products. Africa doesnt have a sizable middle class (like in West and China) to absorbe these products to earn companies large profits, so you will have to sell it globally to earn enough capital for infrastructure development etc

You think if you take over foreign companies by force their governments will in turn import from you? They won't sanction you at the UN like theyre doing now? How would you go around this "Doug M"? Thats the question.

Also, if you just "take over" foreign companies, are you going to pay black workers same low wages in order to be competitive internationally? In order to make enough money to build infrastructure etc? And if local blacks aren't willing to work for these low wages how will you get them to? Abolish trade unions? FORCE them to work?

As for the Chinese, are you saying Mugabe should pressure the Chinese and hence risk BOTH west and Asia squeezing his regime? If he does this and is sanctioned by BOTH economic power houses, who will provide alternative investment and capital? Local industries? Which goes back to problem #1: Where are the African companies that can produce these products and compete globally with the foreign ones?

Capitalism isn't about "sentiment" and ranting which is what folks like you do best. You’re the typical wild eyed radical: long on outlining the problems, short on practical solutions. News flash Che, everyone knows what needs to be done the challenge is how best to go about doing it. In this respect you have offered no alternative. This is why fools like you can only rant against Mugabe, "sell outs" etc

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by akoben:

quote:

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Originally posted by Doug M:
There are many things that can be done different.

Bottom line, development and industry MUST be based around LOCAL ownership and control in order to create jobs and CAPITAL for the local economy. The name of the game in capitalism is to generate capital and capital is generated from profits. This means that he who makes the most money wins. It isn't about altruism or generosity. And that is explicitly the problem with it.

But more than that this is about communication. Africans should know the TRUTH about what is happening in Africa, not the half baked nonsense they most often get.

---

I asked you how would you practically do it, not what should be done. Predictably you give same answer: rhetoric and more rhetoric.

You are like an impatient child screaming against "exploitation" thinking there are simple solutions to complex problems.

Yes the west needs Africa's resources, but Africa needs the finish products just as much too. Where are the African companies that can produce these products and compete globally with the foreign ones? The extracted resources for the most part go outside Africa to be processed. Creating viable local industry then will take time - a long term strategy. How would you do this given the growing crisis in Africa? that's the question. You cannot answer this only rant about the problems.

If you are thinking short term (taking over the foreign mines) you think you can just walk in there and take it over? You think the global market operates like that? Since Africa doesn't have any industries to process the base metals into products what will you do with them once you extract them? Eat them?

Lets say a country has industry to process the resources into finished products. Africa doesnt have a sizable middle class (like in West and China) to absorbe these products to earn companies large profits, so you will have to sell it globally to earn enough capital for infrastructure development etc

You think if you take over foreign companies by force their governments will in turn import from you? They won't sanction you at the UN like theyre doing now? How would you go around this "Doug M"? Thats the question.

Also, if you just "take over" foreign companies, are you going to pay black workers same low wages in order to be competitive internationally? In order to make enough money to build infrastructure etc? And if local blacks aren't willing to work for these low wages how will you get them to? Abolish trade unions? FORCE them to work?

As for the Chinese, are you saying Mugabe should pressure the Chinese and hence risk BOTH west and Asia squeezing his regime? If he does this and is sanctioned by BOTH economic power houses, who will provide alternative investment and capital? Local industries? Which goes back to problem #1: Where are the African companies that can produce these products and compete globally with the foreign ones?

Capitalism isn't about "sentiment" and ranting which is what folks like you do best. You’re the typical wild eyed radical: long on outlining the problems, short on practical solutions. News flash Che, everyone knows what needs to be done the challenge is how best to go about doing it. In this respect you have offered no alternative. This is why fools like you can only rant against Mugabe, "sell outs" etc

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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imagine you are the president of Zimbabwe today. What practical solutions or alternatives would you be engaging in if you were in Mugabe's shoe right now? List these and the expected challenges envisioned for each alternative solution you give and how would you practically deal with these challenges if and when they come.
Thanks.

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Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by akoben:
"Doug M" you are truly the typical wild eyed lefty radical. Spend all your energy complaining about the unfairness of the system that you have little time left to come up with practical solutions if you had the chance to do so.

Did I say that capitalism was free and fair? Or that the Asians and Europeans in Africa are not looking out for their own interest? No. You are simply looking for another excuse to rant about the problem some more.

The nature of the capitalist system and foreigners in Africa is not the issue or up for debate. Yes we should want our own, who is disputing that? Yes most of our economies are controlled by the Dutch and British, followed by other Europeans, Chinese and foreigners, by "a few rich racist industrialists". Yes, we have to feed, clothe, house and educate ourselves but the question was how would you change the current situation given the challenges:

quote:

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imagine you are the president of Zimbabwe today. What practical solutions or alternatives would you be engaging in if you were in Mugabe's shoe right now? List these and the expected challenges envisioned for each alternative solution you give and how would you practically deal with these challenges if and when they come.
Thanks.

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Predictably you completely avoided the question only to rant some more! It's not so easy when you are in the shoe is it? Much easier to sit in the comfort of your home behind a computer and cut and paste all the problems of Africa. But put you in Mugabe's shoe right now and you go blank ......huh....what to do now?

So you want to give it another try "Doug M"?

This time don't tell me about the unfairness of the system, what IMF is doing and what we need to do, but how would you go about changing the situation and meeting the expected challenges.

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Ed Hurst Frost:
A lot of progress is happening in West Africa today.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=692906



AfricaRail is a project to link the railway systems of Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo. All these systems are 1000 mm gauge.

A future stage would link Mali, Nigeria and Ghana which are of 1000 mm, 1067 mm changing to 1435 mm and 1067 mm respectively.


Estimated cost : 2 billions US $ (building 2,000 Km lines).

Target and objectives :
- Opening up the landlocked countries to the transport of passengers, goods and equipments from inside the Burkina Faso-Niger area to the bordering regions such as South-East Mali and North-West Nigeria.

- Enabling a better exploitation of agricultural and mining resources from the inside areas.

- Providing a train service between the ports of Lome and Cotonou.

http://www.africarail.org/

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Posts: 2688 | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by kenndo:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ed Hurst Frost:
A lot of progress is happening in West Africa today.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=692906



AfricaRail is a project to link the railway systems of Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo. All these systems are 1000 mm gauge.

A future stage would link Mali, Nigeria and Ghana which are of 1000 mm, 1067 mm changing to 1435 mm and 1067 mm respectively.


Estimated cost : 2 billions US $ (building 2,000 Km lines).

Target and objectives :
- Opening up the landlocked countries to the transport of passengers, goods and equipments from inside the Burkina Faso-Niger area to the bordering regions such as South-East Mali and North-West Nigeria.

- Enabling a better exploitation of agricultural and mining resources from the inside areas.

- Providing a train service between the ports of Lome and Cotonou.

http://www.africarail.org/

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Posts: 2688 | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

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Is Rwanda about to invade the Democratic Republic of Congo? That was the big question last week as tension and military activity continued to build up rapidly in eastern Congo.

It is clear that relations between Kigali and Kinshasa are worsening by the day, with the two parties trading accusations and the rhetoric between leaders of the neighbouring countries becoming more strident by the day.

Alarm bells were ringing loudly last week when Congo's representative to the United Nations, Ateku Ineka, claimed that DRC authorities had seen concentrations of Rwandan troops gathering at the border.

This was promptly denied by President Paul Kagame's envoy to the Great Lakes region, Richard Sezibera, who described the claims by Ateku as "ridiculous."

The developments were taking place against the backdrop of intense military activity by a rejuvenated Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.

On Wednesday, troops loyal to his Congress Nationale pour le Defense de Peuple overran a military camp in Rumangabo, causing heavy damage.

Clearly, eastern Congo is on the brink of a major humanitarian catastrophe.

Although Kigali insists it has nothing to do with the escalation of military activity around Goma, it was noteworthy that the country had in the wake of the attack on Rumangabo engaged in a new diplomatic and propaganda offensive whose aim was to give tacit justification to Nkunda's activities during the week.

On Tuesday, Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminali told a meeting of Kigali-based diplomats of an alliance between DRC forces and remnants of Ex-FAR (the Rwanda army of the late president Juvenal Habyarimana) and Interahamwe militiamen who spearheaded the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Meanwhile, newspapers in Kigali, quoting anonymous sources, gave details of the Rumangabo attack, suggesting that elements within Nkunda's frontline troops and intelligence were indeed in touch with Kigali.

Reports claimed that following the attacks, DRC commanders had fled Rumangabo to link up with the Ex-FAR and Interahamwe forces under the command of Lt Col Ndinzimihingo in Rutare.

Reports from Kigali gleefully detailed how Nkunda's forces had vanquished their opponents -- and, more curiously, gave out details of the arms and ammunition Nkunda had acquired from the Rumangabo attacks.

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More than 150,000 people have been driven from their homes in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past two months by fighting on two fronts, with dissident Congolese and Ugandan rebels, the United Nations refugee agency reported today, announcing efforts to boost relief aid.

Over 50,000 people have been forced to flee in the Ituri region due to intense fighting between the Congolese army and Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which has caused heavy loss of life since last month.

"The rebels have caused widespread destruction of houses and public buildings," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva. "Local authorities in the area say that the bodies of some 100 civilians were reportedly dumped in a river, while 80 children are reported missing. Parents fear their offspring have been forcefully recruited by the LRA."

People have found shelter with relatives and friends, as well as in churches and public schools and a UNHCR team in the Dungu region reports that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are in dire need of basic humanitarian assistance with the displacement placing a huge strain on host families.

"In response to the unfolding crisis, we are gearing up to send additional emergency staff to beef up UNHCR's presence in the Ituri region and to help meet the basic needs for shelter and water," Mr. Redmond said. "Our teams will be also bringing in blankets, high energy biscuits and hygiene items."

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The World Bank, in its Doing Business in 2009 report ranks Rwanda as one of the top 20 reformers on a global basis. Besides Rwanda, other African countries that are reforming their business environment faster include Botswana, Liberia, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

Rwanda reformed its business environment to such an extent that it climbed an impressive 9 places in the 2009 Doing Business index.

The Ambassador of Rwanda in South Africa, His Excellency Mr. Eugene Munyakayanza, is a guest speaker at the upcoming Intra-Africa Business Executive Breakfast on Thursday, 23 October 2008 at the Hilton Hotel, 138 Rivonia Road in Sandton. He will enlighten delegates on why Rwanda is increasingly becoming the new frontier of business opportunities in Africa. Moreover, he will highlight the key business sectors that have been identified by the Rwandan government to further spur this country’s economic growth.

Other speaker

Mr. Ntsekhe Moiloa, an economist at Argon Asset Management with extensive knowledge of Africa.

His presentation will focus on macro-economic forecast: Central Africa region.

NOTES:

Ntsekhe has been a regular contributor to various media. He has regularly given economic and business insight on Africa, on both radio and television broadcasts reaching throughout the African continent, and also to the print media. Within the past month he has also presented a course to senior personalities in the Zambian pension funds industry on various facets of pension funds management.



Intra-Africa Business Executive Breakfast Meeting : A platform where South African- based businesses with broader African strategies can be educated about the rest of the continent, its economic performance; and most importantly be informed of various business possibilities that may be available.

An initiative of Upbeat Marketing in partnership with AllAfrica.com.

For more information: www.upbeat.co.za

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The persistent rebellion in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo calls into question Joseph Kabila's presidency and who wants him out.

It appears that the forces that were behind the assassination of his father, Laurent Desire Kabila, are regrouping after realising that he is asserting himself.

Kabila was pushed into the leadership of Africa's third largest country in 2001 at the age of 31 following the assassination of his father, who owed his ascent to power to Uganda and Rwanda.

But it is the same forces -- who perceived him as a transitional president -- that have kept Kabila busy.

He has always maintained that Rwanda and Uganda, who have maintained a presence in the eastern Congo, either directly or by proxy, have to leave to allow an inter-Congolese dialogue.

But now, his main headache is his attempt to distance himself from the West, which was instrumental in his elevation to power.

Kabila has progressively moved towards China, thereby alienating the West, especially former colonial power Belgium.


DRC experts point out that Kabila is simply responding to the strong public feeling that Congo has always been a victim of the West, which habitually installs puppets there to do its bidding in as far as the country's vast resources are concerned.

These sentiments stem from murder of the independence hero Patrice Lumumba, who was seen to be fighting for the resources of the country to be used to benefit the Congolese people; and the excesses of Mobutu Sese Seko, who was seen as a puppet of the West.

Having maintain a low profile for some years, Kabila now does not want to be seen as a pawn of the West, and wants to satisfy the wishes of his constituents.

The assassination of his father did not help matters since his death was seen as having come from his refusal to co-operate with some mineral barons out to fleece the country of its resources.

Joseph Kabila's handlers feel that while the Lusaka agreement signed in July 1999 forced him to incorporate rebel leaders such as Jean Pierre Bemba into his government, it is now time for him to rule freely after winning the first democratic general election in 40 years.

This, however, has not been easy. Besides its vast size, DRC has always attracted immense interest from the neighbouring countries and the West. Kabila is also under pressure to restore the dignity of the Congo and its military, after years of battering by Uganda and Rwanda.


Born to a Tutsi woman while his father was in exile, he communicates more easily in the English and Kiswahili languages, which are spoken in much of East Africa than in the French and Lingala languages that are spoken in Kinshasa. He cuts an unassuming figure compared to his extrovert father.

In one of his first trips to the US after taking power in 2001, Kabila in an interview expressed strong feelings against the undue interference by Uganda and Rwanda in DRC and appealed to his neighbours to recognise the country's sovereignty.

Still, he has to battle against forces who contend that Congo is too vast and too rich to remain as a single entity and would rather it were divided for peace to return.

The armies that are occupying eastern Congo have as their goal the ending of his rule, with other observers arguing that the rebellion will not end as long as he is seen as continuing his father's policies.

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Posts: 8901 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by Doug M:

quote:

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Originally posted by akoben:
"Doug M" you are truly the typical wild eyed lefty radical. Spend all your energy complaining about the unfairness of the system that you have little time left to come up with practical solutions if you had the chance to do so.

Did I say that capitalism was free and fair? Or that the Asians and Europeans in Africa are not looking out for their own interest? No. You are simply looking for another excuse to rant about the problem some more.

The nature of the capitalist system and foreigners in Africa is not the issue or up for debate. Yes we should want our own, who is disputing that? Yes most of our economies are controlled by the Dutch and British, followed by other Europeans, Chinese and foreigners, by "a few rich racist industrialists". Yes, we have to feed, clothe, house and educate ourselves but the question was how would you change the current situation given the challenges:

quote:

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imagine you are the president of Zimbabwe today. What practical solutions or alternatives would you be engaging in if you were in Mugabe's shoe right now? List these and the expected challenges envisioned for each alternative solution you give and how would you practically deal with these challenges if and when they come.
Thanks.

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Predictably you completely avoided the question only to rant some more! It's not so easy when you are in the shoe is it? Much easier to sit in the comfort of your home behind a computer and cut and paste all the problems of Africa. But put you in Mugabe's shoe right now and you go blank ......huh....what to do now?

So you want to give it another try "Doug M"?

This time don't tell me about the unfairness of the system, what IMF is doing and what we need to do, but how would you go about changing the situation and meeting the expected challenges.

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But the point you are making is silly. If you LIKE things the way they are then just say so.

I never said I had a comprehensive problem for all the ills on this planet. This planet doesn't need a savior anyway.

The point I am making is that many people do not know the REAL situation in Africa and buy into the HYPE that is fed to them. No, everything is not ALL BAD in Africa. However, at the same token colonialism and exploitation are not dead either. So the point is to communicate the ACTUAL issues as food for thought.

Like I said, if you simply LIKE things the way they are and you AGREE with the agenda of foreigners, then why even FAKE the funk? You don't CARE about a solution, so why ASK for one.

For those who really CARE about a solution, it is multifaceted but really boils down to the following SIMPLE statement: the majority of wealth generated from the land, labor and industry of Africans can and SHOULD go to Africans before anyone else, in terms of goods produced as well as profits generated, not as HANDOUTS from foreign companies making ALL the money, but as DIRECT profit into the hands of black Africans. It is that simple and does not require extra clarification.

As I said, if you don't LIKE that idea then stop pretending that you can't understand it and admit you simply DON'T LIKE the idea of Africans making MOST off the resources of their OWN continent.

Don't play charade games with me.

ALL countries promote the economic interests of THEIR OWN countries and their OWN industries. The Americans promote THEIR OWN companies and WORKERS in Africa. The French promote THEIR OWN workers and companies in Africa. The Chinese promote THEIR OWN workers and companies in Africa. ALL of these interests are AIDED and SUPPORTED by their respective governments as KEY to economic growth for their OWN countries. Yet where is the African government promoting the interests of THEIR OWN industries and workers in all of this??? THAT is the disconnect. In all of this talk of development this and development that, it always boils down to the FOREIGN interests gaining the UPPER hand over the native governments of Africa, which means that the locals are left ON THEIR OWN with NOBODY defending THEIR INTERESTS.

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Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged |