 |
With China as a partner, the nation is building up while focusing on its oil and gas assets. |
ALGIERS, Algeria - While still struggling with the aftermath of a decadelong Islamic insurgency, oil-rich yet impoverished Algeria is getting a makeover: a new airport, its first mall, its largest prison, 60,000 new homes, two luxury hotels, and the longest continuous highway in Africa.
The power behind this runaway building spree is China.
Some 50 Chinese firms, largely state-controlled, have been awarded $20 billion in government construction contracts, or 10 percent of the massive investment plan promised by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a nation in which jobs and housing are scarce and al-Qaeda has struck roots.
Algiers, the tense and rundown capital, now has something relatively new to the Arab world: a Chinatown.
The Beijing government has been a supporter of Algeria since the 1960s, after it won independence from France, and today the 35,000 Chinese in the country are the biggest foreign population after the French.
Trade both ways soared to $4.5 billion last year, from just $200 million in 2001, according to Ling Jun, deputy head of the Chinese Embassy in Algiers. China is now second only to France in exports to Algeria.
Algerian exports to China barely top $300 million because China is a latecomer to the North African nation's biggest asset, the oil and gas under its portion of the Sahara, which is dominated by U.S. firms. "But we're very active for the prospecting of new fields," Ling said.
African inroads
Meanwhile, they're earning a hefty chunk of Algeria's oil money.
The China State Construction Engineering Corp., is building two-thirds of Algeria's 745-mile east-west highway at breakneck speed and was on the verge of completing this winter after just three years, Ling said.
The Algerian story mirrors China's inroads elsewhere in Africa, which are helped not just by its bulging coffers but also by the fact that unlike some Western countries, China doesn't make human rights and corruption-free procedures a condition for investment.
It has drawn heavy criticism from human-rights groups accusing it of bypassing the arms embargo on the embattled Darfur region by trading weapons for oil with the Sudanese government. Elsewhere it is accused of failing to spread the jobs among local workers, and of mistreating those it hires.
Some feel that China's African footprint has gotten too deep.
A first riot
"Africa shouldn't have eluded one form of neocolonialism to fall head first into Chinese neocolonialism," Rene N'Guettia Kouassi, the head of the economic commission at the African Union, was quoted as saying in Jeune Afrique, the leading French-language weekly on the continent.
In Algeria, too, that footprint has not been trouble-free.
Last summer Algiers saw its first anti-Chinese riot, apparently touched off when an Algerian got into a scuffle with a Chinese trader in the capital's Chinese market over a parking space, and the confrontation took on Islamic overtones. Residents and local media say the Chinese beat up at least one man, whereupon an Algerian mob looted Chinese shops and vandalized cars.
The Chinatown in Bab Ezzouar, a suburb of Algiers, is now heavily patrolled by police cars, and the Chinese continue to sell their wares - bed linen, sports shoes, European fashion knockoffs - imported direct from China.
"Business is good around here, but it's not as good as it used to be, because there are too many of us now," said Qing Nei, a shopkeeper from Beijing who moved here two years ago and can haggle over prices in rudimentary Arabic and French.
Also last summer, anti-Chinese sentiment rose after Beijing repressed its Muslim minority in western China. Al-Qaeda and its Algerian branch, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), threatened retaliation.
The Chinese Embassy issued warnings to its citizens and heightened security measures, although no specific violence has yet targeted China's interests, Ling said.
In June, an AQIM ambush killed at least 19 police officers escorting Chinese workers near the highway construction site. No Chinese were hurt, and Ling said the ambush appeared to have been against the state, rather than the Chinese.
The Islamic violence today is scattered, sporadic, and nothing like the turbulence of the 1990s, when regular slaughters by rebels and government forces left up to 200,000 people dead.
And despite the lingering al-Qaeda threat, most Muslims in Algeria and elsewhere express no hostility to the Chinese as such.
"Islam accepts other religions," said Abdeljabar Saad, an imam with strong ties to Islamists. "And we don't mind that they come to build in our country."
Bahdja.us - February 15, 2010
Subscribe to this comment's feed
a guest
said:
 |
answer this post Following my monitoring, billions of people in the world get the loans at different banks. Thence, there's good possibilities to receive a consolidation loan in every country. |
a guest
said:
|
reply Every one acknowledges that life seems to be not very cheap, nevertheless different people require money for various stuff and not every one gets enough cash. Thence to receive quick business loans and just car loan would be good way out. |
a guest
said:
|
answer this topic That's good that we can take the business loans moreover, that opens completely new chances. |
a guest
said:
|
respond this post Don't you understand that it's high time to get the mortgage loans, which will realize your dreams. |
a guest
said:
|
reply It is well known that money can make people autonomous. But what to do if one does not have cash? The one way is to get the mortgage loans or auto loan. |
a guest
said:
|
respond Different people in every country take the mortgage loans in various banks, because that's simple. |
a guest
said:
|
respond this topic Lots of specialists say that business loans aid people to live their own way, because they are able to feel free to buy needed things. Moreover, various banks present student loan for young and old people. |
a guest
said:
|
reply this topic I had got a desire to start my company, nevertheless I didn't earn enough amount of money to do this. Thank God my close mate said to take the business loans. Thus I received the short term loan and made real my dream. |
a guest
said:
|
answer this post When you're in uncomfortable position and have no money to go out from that point, you will have to receive the loans. Just because that should help you definitely. I take commercial loan every year and feel myself great because of it. |
a guest
said:
|
respond this topic I will recommend not to hold back until you get enough money to buy goods! You can take the personal loans or secured loan and feel yourself fine |
a guest
said:
|
re Do you understand that it's correct time to receive the loans, which can realize your dreams. |
a guest
said:
|
respond A lot of specialists state that loans aid people to live the way they want, because they are able to feel free to buy necessary goods. Furthermore, some banks give short term loan for different persons. |
a guest
said:
|
re It is cool that we are able to take the personal loans and that opens new opportunities. |
a guest
said:
|
respond this post The personal loans are very useful for guys, which would like to ground their own organization. As a fact, that's very easy to get a car loan. |
a guest
said:
|
reply Don't you recognize that this is correct time to get the loans, which can realize your dreams. |
