Namibia president says China not colonizing Africa -China state media

Namibia President Hage Geingob said China is not colonizing Africa and that growing cooperation between the world's No. 2 economy and Africa benefits both sides, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

Xi Jinping et al. standing in front of a flag: President Xi Jinping Meets Namibian President Hage G. Geingob

Xi Jinping et al. standing in front of a flag: President Xi Jinping Meets Namibian President Hage G. Geingob

© REUTERS President Xi Jinping Meets Namibian President Hage G. Geingob The report said Geingob, currently on a state visit to China, said "comments smearing bilateral cooperation" between China and Namibia are "doomed to fail."

"We are mature, we can choose our friends, we can choose what we want for, and what's good for us," Geingob said. Africa has been a region of focus for Beijing's quest for greater global influence, with billions of dollars being pumped into infrastructure projects in the continent. Some critics have questioned China's motives, however, accusing it of seeking to secure key raw materials such as oil.

In March, then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned African countries should be careful not to forfeit their sovereignty when they accept loans from China. He said at that time that if an African government "gets into trouble" after accepting a Chinese loan they could lose control of its infrastructure or resources through default.

China has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is only interested in Africa for its mineral resources and said its no-strings-attached aid programmes are widely welcomed. Geingob also told Xinhua that China-Africa cooperation is on equal footing and that China's investment in his country is not just "digging out resources."

""No country in the world has added so much value to our products as China has. China has done a lot of technology transfer and job creation," the Namibian president told Xinhua.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee and Lusha Zhang; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Comments

Facts The Economist Got Them Wrong on Magufuli

DAR ES SALAAM, East Africa: By Dr. Hernan Louise Verhofstadt* “ A BIT like President Donald Trump, Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, likes to fire employees on television. In November Mr. Magufuli used a live broadcast from a small town in the north of the country summarily to dismiss two officials,” this is an extract from a recent online article I came across from the newspaper that I admired when I was growing up in Europe back in 1990’s; the Economist . Before I venture into other serious issues, the excerpts above contains gross factual errors; my own fact-check indicates that in the named public rally during the opening of Kagera Airport, there was no summary dismissal of the two officials instantly on television, as alleged. Instead, the two, one District Executive Directors for Bukoba Urban and another for Rural were relieved their duties later through a press release from President’s Office. This is my prima impressio reading the Econom...

Tundu Lissu, a despot in the shadow?

By Masinde Masondore, Montreal, Canada, 01-04-2018: WHEN a learned politician brags of publicly embarrassing his President and counts it an honor while deliberately sabotages the nation's economic interests is a misfit in African traditions. 'Africans have had own ways of criticising the King, the way it happened in ancient Israel, however, in any case, the nation's interests were set apart from any sabotage," Gilbert Moshi. Tindu Lissu, a controversial Tanzanian opposition politician would be leaning on a wrong wall. He chose a road less travelled by learned individuals who mostly were rational. The road he walks and the philosophy he exhibit, only label him a tyranny of darkness. Any democratic leader, whether in opposition or ruling party ought to be totally enveloped in wisdom which prevents monumental errors of judgment. Lissu does not exhibit a minute of it. One of the pillars of customer-focused policies in the business world i...

Magufuli Honours Promise As Dangote Factory Gets Direct Gas Supply

Production on of affordable cement now to start next month By Correspondents Dar and Nairobi, 15:16 GMT Under his famed “delivery per se” policy, the government of Tanzania under President John Pombe Magufuli has finally confirmed that it has completed its phase mission of connecting Dangote cement plant in Mtwara, in the southern region of Tanzania, to the natural gas to generate the needed 35MW. Mr. Aliko Dangote in a tete a tete with President Magufuli at the inaugaration of the plant last year. Speaking at the end of his tour of the factory, the Energy Minister Dr. Medard Kalemani said the government was committed to supply the natural gas resource to enable Dangote cement plant access affordable energy for smooth cement production. The factory is one of the biggest cement plants in Southern Africa providing affordable cement to locals and countries in the vicinity. “I am telling you TPDC, if the factory delays to complete its i...

Pan African News Hub

Search This Blog