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3 - Infrastructure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2020

Xiaoyang Tang
Affiliation:
Tsinghua University, Beijing
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Summary

Infrastructure plays a crucial role in a country’s political, economic, and social development, but it is often accompanied by enormous costs and risks. This chapter examines the real impacts and sustainability of China-financed infrastructure in Africa. Learning from the lesson of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway and the experiences at home, China does not depend on either state sponsorship or pure market to carry out infrastructure cooperation. Seeing the interdependence between infrastructure and industries, Chinese mobilize multiple stakeholders and combine various resources to improve commercial feasibility of infrastructure projects in Africa. Meanwhile, diverse manners of coordination are flexibly adopted to address specific challenges in each project and country. Resource-for-infrastructure deals were made possible not only for national reconstruction of oil-rich Angola, but also for industrial empowerment of agrarian Ethiopia. As the volume of infrastructure financing soars, debt stress has also become a concern, especially regarding the monumental railway projects in Ethiopia and Kenya. Correspondingly, lending terms and coordination efforts for these projects are revised. Yet, China’s strategy of raising productivity through infrastructure construction to foster virtuous circle of development in Africa remain unchanged in spite of pragmatic adjustments.

Type
Chapter
Information
Coevolutionary Pragmatism
Approaches and Impacts of China-Africa Economic Cooperation
, pp. 74 - 101
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Infrastructure
  • Xiaoyang Tang, Tsinghua University, Beijing
  • Book: Coevolutionary Pragmatism
  • Online publication: 24 December 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108233118.005
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  • Infrastructure
  • Xiaoyang Tang, Tsinghua University, Beijing
  • Book: Coevolutionary Pragmatism
  • Online publication: 24 December 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108233118.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Infrastructure
  • Xiaoyang Tang, Tsinghua University, Beijing
  • Book: Coevolutionary Pragmatism
  • Online publication: 24 December 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108233118.005
Available formats
×