Zambia-China bilateral relation and the visit of the Chinese VP Zambia’s importance to China’s African strategy is symbolized by the TAZARA railway built by China in the 1970s, and the Zambia–China Economic and Trade Co-operation Zone (ZCCZ) established at the beginning of the 21st century in Chambishi. And Zambia’s significance to China is in part due to Copper. Many observers talk about China as a new actor on the African and Zambian scene. This view is quite misleading. The historical ties between China and Zambia date back to the pre-independence period when the present-day Zambia was then a colony of Great Britain. At that time the relationship was in the form of Chinese assistance to the black Zambian opposition parties fighting for independence. The invitation of China’s vice president to Zambia by Dr Guy Scot and the meetings that characterized Dr Li Yuanchao visit can’t go without comment. And one meeting that stands out and needs to get most of us Zambians concerned is the meeting the Chinese Vice President with his delegation had with President Sata and cabinet ministers, in this meeting President Sata literally begged Dr Li Yuanchao for China to help us with an airline. Now, we all know what President Sata said about Chinese investment in Zambia when he was an opposition leader at one rally in 2006, and I quote “We want the Chinese to leave and the old colonial rulers to return. They exploited our natural resources too, but at least they took care of us. They built schools, taught us their language and brought us the British civilisation … at least Western capitalism has a human face; the Chinese are only out to exploit us” And the Post Newspaper in reaction to this statement wrote an editorial describing President Sata and I quote “[Sata] is a populist who will say what he thinks his audience wants to hear …. He has no morals to defend and no principles to fight for”. In as much as President Sata meant well in asking for help from china to establish an airline, we must understand that the Chinese are not stupid from the tone of our president begging they know we desperate and they are going to exploit that weakness. China our so called all weather friend is the world’s largest consumer of copper, and access to natural resources such as copper is crucial to the maintenance of China’s economic growth, so you can imagine how much bargaining chips the begging from the head of state gives the Chinese delegation here in Zambia. With such a gesture from our president the Chinese delegation never hesitated in implementing their game plan they straight away engaged Zambia to sign two economic and technical cooperation grant agreement totaling $128 million and eight loans. Of course with our natural resources as collat¬eral for loans, the loans that China provides often contribute to financing infrastructure and other projects that Zambia need. However, it is of concern that China is lending us when we already have large debts outstanding. It is not the lending per se that is problematic, since it seems that China’s lending occurs in resource rich countries like Zambia. What makes China a risk to debt sustain¬ability in poor countries like our nation is the lack of transparency in loan contraction processes. Loan contracts between China and African countries are not open to public scrutiny. These loan contracts and grant agreements are often made at the highest political level, and because of the lack of transparency, the agreements are not available to parliament or civil society. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess how much debt is being contracted and on what terms. It also increases the risk that funds will not be used for the intended purposes and might turn out to be cases of illegitimate debt in the future. In order to prevent irresponsible loan contraction, there is a need for responsible lending prac¬tices to be put in place. Although it is too soon to conclude, so far it would seem that China is likely to have a nega¬tive impact on debt sustainability and perhaps contribute to debt crisis in Zambia with this kind of weak governance. Unlike World Bank and IMF, with China lack of transparency and accountability to the inhabitants does not seem to stand in the way of Chinese lending if a country is able to use natural resources as collat¬eral for loans. This is what should be of grave concern to us Zambians especially the youth, as most of our leaders signing these loan contracts and grant agreements are already living in their future and the consequences will be for us the young generation to bare. This sad development should be fuel enough to exert our demands for a people driven constitution now! Recent Chinese lending underlines the urgent need to establish internationally recognised legal standards for responsible lending. The need for transparency, accountability and inclu¬siveness in loan contraction processes should be recognised by international society. The Zambian public should have a right to know about and question borrowing, from new and old lenders, before loan agreements are signed. It also recommends that oversight and watchdog institutions such as the parliament, the auditor-gen¬eral and the attorney general must have clear mandatory authority over the loan contraction process. The development of responsible financing and framework for implementation of such is therefore paramount to ensure the rights of future generations to freedom from vicious circles of indebtedness. BRING BACK OUR CONSTITUTION!! Perturbed Youth Kachingwe P Singoyi
Posted on: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 05:14:41 +0000
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