Bloomberg News | December 4, 2024 |
US President Joe Biden during its visit to Angola. (Image: Joe Biden Twitter (X) account)
President Joe Biden is rounding off his trip to Angola by announcing $600 million in new financing for a multi-country railway as the US looks to bolster its investment in critical minerals infrastructure in Africa and curb Chinese influence.
Today’s announcement builds on $553 million the US International Development Finance Corp pledged earlier this year in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, connecting the Central African copperbelt to the Angolan coast. The new investments will support not just the rail infrastructure but also agriculture, clean energy and associated supply chains, along with health and digital access in the country, according to the White House.
Copper exports from DRC to the US begin via Lobito Atlantic Railway
“The United States understands how we invest in Africa is just as important as how much we invest in Africa,” Biden said in Lobito, a port city on Angola’s Atlantic coast. “To help Africa lead the way. We need more capital, more infrastructure to deal with these real solutions. That’s why we’re here today.”
Biden, whose nickname is Amtrak Joe, during a speech in the capital, Luanda, on Tuesday joked that he is the most “pro-rail guy” in the US. He’s used the trip to highlight the importance of the Lobito project, a railway being revamped with the aim of expediting the shipment of critical minerals including cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia for technology including electric vehicles.
While in Lobito, Biden toured the port and met with companies investing in the project, including SunAfrica, US-owned mobile network Africell and Acrow Bridge, a Pennsylvania-based infrastructure company. Biden also met with African leaders including Angolan President João Lourenço, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Tanzanian Vice President Philip Isdor Mpango.
Biden’s trip comes as the US belatedly tries to play catchup with China, which has spent decades building influence on the continent — largely through tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure lending — and now dominates the region’s mining sector.
Angola has been among Beijing’s biggest borrowers, but since his election in 2017, Lourenço has sought to reduce its dependence on China. Still, Angola’s oil industry — which accounts for about 90% of the country’s export revenue — sells more than half its output to China.
The US has provided $2.9 billion in financing in Angola for its energy, infrastructure and telecommunications sectors, according to the White House. Biden, with less than 50 days left in office, has drawn a link between the investment in infrastructure in Africa and Angola to his landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Biden promised to visit the continent after hosting a 2022 summit with African leaders in Washington. His trip has been overshadowed by his late Sunday evening announcement that he would pardon his son, Hunter Biden, and last month’s election of Donald Trump.
(By Skylar Woodhouse and Mario Parker)
In Angola, Biden promises to invest differently to China
By AFP
December 4, 2024
US President Joe Biden is the first US president to travel to Angola - Copyright AFP/File -
Aurélia END
President Joe Biden will make the case on Wednesday in Angola that the United States must do better rather than more than China to regain influence in Africa.
Biden is on the second day of a visit to the African country, where the United States is showcasing a major infrastructure project aimed at countering China’s investments on the continent.
“The investment from the United States versus from others, it’s not about more or less, it’s about (being) different,” a senior US administration official told reporters.
“Others (are) coming in with very large checks, building a lot of stuff, but that is with high interest rates on debt… and it doesn’t come with any of the commitments to their society,” the source added.
The outgoing president had promised to visit sub-Saharan Africa during his time in office and is the first US president to travel to Angola, a former Portuguese colony once allied to the Soviet Union.
But the trip takes places as the 82-year-old readies to leave the White House with little political weight left, raising questions about the impact of the visit.
On Tuesday, Biden met his counterpart President Joao Lourenco, 70, who was elected in 2017, and delivered remarks at the National Slavery Museum where slaves were once shipped to the Americas.
The Democrat’s schedule on Wednesday will be focused on the economy and a visit to Lobito port, around 500 kilometres (310 miles) south of the capital, Luanda.
He will also visit a food processing factory before attending a summit on infrastructure with the leaders of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Tanzania.
The US president is expected to announce fresh investments worth $600 million for the Lobito Corridor, a massive infrastructure project aimed at transporting critical minerals from inland countries to the Angolan port for export.
The White House has said the initiative would also help develop communities around the railway, including boosting agriculture and business in general.
– Reducing 45 days to 45 hours –
The Lobito railway, also funded by the European Union and others, will reduce the time needed to transport minerals from the DRC and Zambia to Angola from 45 days to 45 hours, according to the US administration.
Biden’s team said it was confident that President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in on January 20, will support the project that is widely seen as an alternative to Chinese investments on the continent.
“You can’t stand up and say, I want to compete with China… and not support what’s happening here,” the senior administration official said.
The Republican president-elect is known for wanting to be “tough” on China and has promised blanket tariffs, raising concerns of a trade war.
During his first term, Trump did not pay much attention to Africa, a continent he once reportedly described as home to “shithole countries”.
For the Lobito Corridor to be a real success, the United States will have to cooperate with China because it “dominates the mining sector” in particular in the DRC and Zambia, according to Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Critics of the (Lobito) project,” he said, “charge that it is as extractive and exploitative as the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative” — China’s flagship international infrastructure project.
By AFP
December 4, 2024
US President Joe Biden is the first US president to travel to Angola - Copyright AFP/File -
Aurélia END
President Joe Biden will make the case on Wednesday in Angola that the United States must do better rather than more than China to regain influence in Africa.
Biden is on the second day of a visit to the African country, where the United States is showcasing a major infrastructure project aimed at countering China’s investments on the continent.
“The investment from the United States versus from others, it’s not about more or less, it’s about (being) different,” a senior US administration official told reporters.
“Others (are) coming in with very large checks, building a lot of stuff, but that is with high interest rates on debt… and it doesn’t come with any of the commitments to their society,” the source added.
The outgoing president had promised to visit sub-Saharan Africa during his time in office and is the first US president to travel to Angola, a former Portuguese colony once allied to the Soviet Union.
But the trip takes places as the 82-year-old readies to leave the White House with little political weight left, raising questions about the impact of the visit.
On Tuesday, Biden met his counterpart President Joao Lourenco, 70, who was elected in 2017, and delivered remarks at the National Slavery Museum where slaves were once shipped to the Americas.
The Democrat’s schedule on Wednesday will be focused on the economy and a visit to Lobito port, around 500 kilometres (310 miles) south of the capital, Luanda.
He will also visit a food processing factory before attending a summit on infrastructure with the leaders of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and Tanzania.
The US president is expected to announce fresh investments worth $600 million for the Lobito Corridor, a massive infrastructure project aimed at transporting critical minerals from inland countries to the Angolan port for export.
The White House has said the initiative would also help develop communities around the railway, including boosting agriculture and business in general.
– Reducing 45 days to 45 hours –
The Lobito railway, also funded by the European Union and others, will reduce the time needed to transport minerals from the DRC and Zambia to Angola from 45 days to 45 hours, according to the US administration.
Biden’s team said it was confident that President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in on January 20, will support the project that is widely seen as an alternative to Chinese investments on the continent.
“You can’t stand up and say, I want to compete with China… and not support what’s happening here,” the senior administration official said.
The Republican president-elect is known for wanting to be “tough” on China and has promised blanket tariffs, raising concerns of a trade war.
During his first term, Trump did not pay much attention to Africa, a continent he once reportedly described as home to “shithole countries”.
For the Lobito Corridor to be a real success, the United States will have to cooperate with China because it “dominates the mining sector” in particular in the DRC and Zambia, according to Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Critics of the (Lobito) project,” he said, “charge that it is as extractive and exploitative as the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative” — China’s flagship international infrastructure project.
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