? Scramble-for-Africa 2010... Japan, Brazil join scramble! ???
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http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/05/05/Japan-Brazil-join-scramble-for-Africa/UPI-46531273077222/
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 5 (UPI) -- Japan and Brazil are joining the scramble for Africa's mineral resources. But they're trailing a long way behind China, whose cash-rich, state-backed conglomerates have locked up strategic supplies of oil and [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]raw [COLOR=blue ! important]materials[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] over the last few years.
The Financial Times notes that the Japanese are infinitely more cautious than the hard-charging Chinese, which may leave the Japanese at the back of the pack.
"With the Tokyo government behind them, Japanese trading companies and manufacturers are creeping rather than sweeping into Africa as they cautiously pursue some of the same goals as China, India and Brazil: capturing oil, minerals and markets."
Africa, although more stable than it was a decade ago, remains highly volatile and there has been a marked shift toward more authoritarian governance, particularly in West and Central Africa. This could present difficulties for the Japanese.
Still, the heir to the Japanese throne, Prince Naruhito, sought to compensate for Tokyo's late start in the scramble for Africa's riches by making a one-week tour of sub-Saharan Africa in March.
In 2008, Tokyo decided to double its development aid to Africa and to support Japan companies to double their investment to $3.4 billion by 2012.
So far this hasn't resulted in any of the big-ticket deals the Chinese have been scooping up in West and Central Africa, with its vast oil and mineral deposits.
But Toyota Tsusho, the auto giant's trading arm, has expressed interest in a planned $1.5 billion oil pipeline from southern Sudan to the Kenyan coast. The Chinese, with major holdings in the Sudanese oil fields, also want to access to the [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Indian [COLOR=blue ! important]Ocean[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] coast.
Southern Sudan votes in a referendum on independence from the northern Khartoum regime in 2011 and that's expected to be overwhelmingly in favor of separation.
But since the current pipelines from the oil fields all run north to government-controlled territory, the Chinese want to ensure that they have an independent outlet to the sea.
The Chinese, who are dealing with some unsavory regimes across Africa, appear far more experienced and adept at handling those kinds of situations than the Japanese.
"Questions still linger about whether Japan has the will to achieve its goals in a region where business conditions do not always play to the strengths of its bureaucrats or executives," the Financial Times observed.
But, it added, "having followed a model of engagement not dissimilar to the West for many years, Japan is reorienting its strategy to become more competitive and aid is getting less emphasis than before as attention turns to the private sector …
"There is no question of Japan matching China's level of finance for business ventures in Africa, nor Beijing's hand-in-glove coordination of the state and large companies," the Financial Times noted.
But it stressed that, even at this late date, Tokyo's focus remains on its "primary goal: securing oil and other minerals."
Brazil, a onetime backwater former Portuguese colony that is now Latin America's largest economy, appears to be more robust in its efforts to get its hands on Africa's wealth.
Mozambique, another former Portuguese colony, this time in East Africa, is Brasilia's primary target for now.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has visited Africa six times since he took office in 2003. He's also greatly expanded Brazil's embassy network across the continent.
Brazil's mining company, Vale, is about to start operations in Tete in central Mozambique, which sits atop some of the planet's largest coal deposits.
Vale estimates the project, which could transform Mozambique's aid-dependent economy, will need investment of $1.3 billion. But that could ultimately swell to several times that amount.
Vale is working with Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to develop the reserves, build a power station as well as rail and port facilities to export the coal.
In early 2010, Brazilian steelmaker CSN bought 16.3 percent of Riversdale, an Australian mining concern, in which [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]India's[/COLOR][/COLOR] Tata Steel has a big stake. This company too plans multimillion-dollar investment in the Tete region.
Odebrecht has become the largest private sector employer in the west African state of Angola, another former Portuguese colony and currently the top oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, is also active there, drilling in the Atlantic deep off the coast.
Nature is valuable and it is vulnerable. It has the potential to end poverty, but only conditional upon radical change in the way we exploit it. The economic activity that most powerfully impinges on nature is the extraction of natural resources. Nowhere are such natural assets as important as in the impoverished countries of the bottom billion. Even now, resource extraction dominates their exports, but it is going to get much bigger. Africa is the last frontier for discovery. With high global commodity prices, these assets will be discovered. We are at the early stages of what will, over the next decade, be the scramble for Africa, Mark II.
The extraction of these valuable natural assets will generate enormous revenues. But if history repeats itself, they will mostly be plundered. Plunder can take two forms. The obvious one is when natural assets that should belong to the many are expropriated for the benefit of the few. Africa has seen that often enough. The other form is less obvious: the present generation uses only for itself natural assets that should belong equally to the future.
The challenge for these societies is to ensure plunder does not happen again.
In a poor country, it is ethically right for resources to be depleted, as long as they can be converted into other assets that are more productive. If the oil of the Niger Delta can be used for schools, ports and factories, then future generations of Nigerians will prefer that to the preservation of natural purity. Of course the local inhabitants of the Delta must be fully compensated for the damage done in the process of extraction, and NGOs are right to demand it.
But local inhabitants do not have a valid claim to own the natural assets thousands of feet beneath their feet: Such assets have no natural owners and most reasonably belong to all the citizens of the country, alive and yet to be born.
The plunder of natural resources is at heart an economic tragedy, not an environmental one. Assets that should be harnessed for the future prosperity of the many are looted for the present enrichment of the few. Popular energy needs to be channelled into scrutinizing the economic decisions that harness nature, not into preserving it.
That struggle begins with the accountability of government to citizen.
Since 2003, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has been successful in pressing for the rights of citizens to know the details of resource revenues. That was the right place to start, but it would be the wrong place to stop. To harness natural assets for sustained prosperity a long chain of economic decisions need to be got right. Resource revenues have to be taxed in a way that captures value for the society without seriously impairing discovery. To date, governments have often managed to scare off prospectors without actually raising much revenue.
As natural assets are depleted, the society must accumulate other assets: Revenues must be saved and invested rather than used mainly for consumption. And merely investing the savings in foreign financial assets, until recently the advice of the IMF, is a council of despair: Poor countries are chronically short of capital and need the investment at home.
But if the investment is to be at home, then the capacity to invest productively must be built – the society must invest in investing.
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 5 (UPI) -- Japan and Brazil are joining the scramble for Africa's mineral resources. But they're trailing a long way behind China, whose cash-rich, state-backed conglomerates have locked up strategic supplies of oil and [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]raw [COLOR=blue ! important]materials[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] over the last few years.
The Financial Times notes that the Japanese are infinitely more cautious than the hard-charging Chinese, which may leave the Japanese at the back of the pack.
"With the Tokyo government behind them, Japanese trading companies and manufacturers are creeping rather than sweeping into Africa as they cautiously pursue some of the same goals as China, India and Brazil: capturing oil, minerals and markets."
Africa, although more stable than it was a decade ago, remains highly volatile and there has been a marked shift toward more authoritarian governance, particularly in West and Central Africa. This could present difficulties for the Japanese.
Still, the heir to the Japanese throne, Prince Naruhito, sought to compensate for Tokyo's late start in the scramble for Africa's riches by making a one-week tour of sub-Saharan Africa in March.
In 2008, Tokyo decided to double its development aid to Africa and to support Japan companies to double their investment to $3.4 billion by 2012.
So far this hasn't resulted in any of the big-ticket deals the Chinese have been scooping up in West and Central Africa, with its vast oil and mineral deposits.
But Toyota Tsusho, the auto giant's trading arm, has expressed interest in a planned $1.5 billion oil pipeline from southern Sudan to the Kenyan coast. The Chinese, with major holdings in the Sudanese oil fields, also want to access to the [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Indian [COLOR=blue ! important]Ocean[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] coast.
Southern Sudan votes in a referendum on independence from the northern Khartoum regime in 2011 and that's expected to be overwhelmingly in favor of separation.
But since the current pipelines from the oil fields all run north to government-controlled territory, the Chinese want to ensure that they have an independent outlet to the sea.
The Chinese, who are dealing with some unsavory regimes across Africa, appear far more experienced and adept at handling those kinds of situations than the Japanese.
"Questions still linger about whether Japan has the will to achieve its goals in a region where business conditions do not always play to the strengths of its bureaucrats or executives," the Financial Times observed.
But, it added, "having followed a model of engagement not dissimilar to the West for many years, Japan is reorienting its strategy to become more competitive and aid is getting less emphasis than before as attention turns to the private sector …
"There is no question of Japan matching China's level of finance for business ventures in Africa, nor Beijing's hand-in-glove coordination of the state and large companies," the Financial Times noted.
But it stressed that, even at this late date, Tokyo's focus remains on its "primary goal: securing oil and other minerals."
Brazil, a onetime backwater former Portuguese colony that is now Latin America's largest economy, appears to be more robust in its efforts to get its hands on Africa's wealth.
Mozambique, another former Portuguese colony, this time in East Africa, is Brasilia's primary target for now.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has visited Africa six times since he took office in 2003. He's also greatly expanded Brazil's embassy network across the continent.
Brazil's mining company, Vale, is about to start operations in Tete in central Mozambique, which sits atop some of the planet's largest coal deposits.
Vale estimates the project, which could transform Mozambique's aid-dependent economy, will need investment of $1.3 billion. But that could ultimately swell to several times that amount.
Vale is working with Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to develop the reserves, build a power station as well as rail and port facilities to export the coal.
In early 2010, Brazilian steelmaker CSN bought 16.3 percent of Riversdale, an Australian mining concern, in which [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]India's[/COLOR][/COLOR] Tata Steel has a big stake. This company too plans multimillion-dollar investment in the Tete region.
Odebrecht has become the largest private sector employer in the west African state of Angola, another former Portuguese colony and currently the top oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, is also active there, drilling in the Atlantic deep off the coast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw12KGSj53kNature is valuable and it is vulnerable. It has the potential to end poverty, but only conditional upon radical change in the way we exploit it. The economic activity that most powerfully impinges on nature is the extraction of natural resources. Nowhere are such natural assets as important as in the impoverished countries of the bottom billion. Even now, resource extraction dominates their exports, but it is going to get much bigger. Africa is the last frontier for discovery. With high global commodity prices, these assets will be discovered. We are at the early stages of what will, over the next decade, be the scramble for Africa, Mark II.
The extraction of these valuable natural assets will generate enormous revenues. But if history repeats itself, they will mostly be plundered. Plunder can take two forms. The obvious one is when natural assets that should belong to the many are expropriated for the benefit of the few. Africa has seen that often enough. The other form is less obvious: the present generation uses only for itself natural assets that should belong equally to the future.
The challenge for these societies is to ensure plunder does not happen again.
In a poor country, it is ethically right for resources to be depleted, as long as they can be converted into other assets that are more productive. If the oil of the Niger Delta can be used for schools, ports and factories, then future generations of Nigerians will prefer that to the preservation of natural purity. Of course the local inhabitants of the Delta must be fully compensated for the damage done in the process of extraction, and NGOs are right to demand it.
But local inhabitants do not have a valid claim to own the natural assets thousands of feet beneath their feet: Such assets have no natural owners and most reasonably belong to all the citizens of the country, alive and yet to be born.
The plunder of natural resources is at heart an economic tragedy, not an environmental one. Assets that should be harnessed for the future prosperity of the many are looted for the present enrichment of the few. Popular energy needs to be channelled into scrutinizing the economic decisions that harness nature, not into preserving it.
That struggle begins with the accountability of government to citizen.
Since 2003, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has been successful in pressing for the rights of citizens to know the details of resource revenues. That was the right place to start, but it would be the wrong place to stop. To harness natural assets for sustained prosperity a long chain of economic decisions need to be got right. Resource revenues have to be taxed in a way that captures value for the society without seriously impairing discovery. To date, governments have often managed to scare off prospectors without actually raising much revenue.
As natural assets are depleted, the society must accumulate other assets: Revenues must be saved and invested rather than used mainly for consumption. And merely investing the savings in foreign financial assets, until recently the advice of the IMF, is a council of despair: Poor countries are chronically short of capital and need the investment at home.
But if the investment is to be at home, then the capacity to invest productively must be built – the society must invest in investing.
Comments
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This is madness.
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I agree with the racially challenged Busayo just one time.
This is the fault of African Leaders.
Their failure to be nothing more than international beggars and failing to create a politically stable enviroment wherein their educated can flourish in Africa instead of America and Europe has created this. All the skilled and educated go to Europe and America. If you took all the Nigerians in Houston and New York who are educated and skilled, Nigeria would be a super power.
Damn Shame.
Squandering wealth and not developing infrastructure where they can take advantage of their own resources is a crying shame. -
This is madness.
what madness?
fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
africans still haven't learnt their lessons from the cold war.
the chinese are looking for a market for their counterfeit goods and they seem to have found it. not to mention resources than can be gained through cheap bribes.
that withstanding, there is a difference between investment and exploitation. what we have in the nigerian telecom industry is investment while what we have the equitorial guinea oil industry is exploitation.
africans aren't forced to sign these trade deals, gone are the days of gun boat diplomacy -
I agree with the racially challenged Busayo just one time.
This is the fault of African Leaders.
Their failure to be nothing more than international beggars and failing to create a politically stable enviroment wherein their educated can flourish in Africa instead of America and Europe has created this. All the skilled and educated go to Europe and America. If you took all the Nigerians in Houston and New York who are educated and skilled, Nigeria would be a super power.
Damn Shame.
Squandering wealth and not developing infrastructure where they can take advantage of their own resources is a crying shame.
there is a chapter in the book below, where khapoya analyzes the various african country's respective moves into "independence". he breaks down alot of what he would cite as the causes for how these government's developed. i agree with you on the leaders being at fault, however, it's crazy to read about them going from pan-african conferences to fighting for control and examining the influences and mindstates that led to governing styles...
at any rate, this is disgusting. it sickens me to see this still happening. it's difficult to understand how a foreign country or business can ? a another country for their resources. -
what madness?
fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
africans still haven't learnt their lessons from the cold war.
the chinese are looking for a market for their counterfeit goods and they seem to have found it. not to mention resources than can be gained through cheap bribes.
that withstanding, there is a difference between investment and exploitation. what we have in the nigerian telecom industry is investment while what we have the equitorial guinea oil industry is exploitation.
africans aren't forced to sign these trade deals, gone are the days of gun boat diplomacy
Ya but you think the African Leaders in Africa are actual Leaders for Africans.... they're not. No different than Obama sitting in the White house doing nothing for the black struggle. -
I often wonder what Afrika would be like if Walter Rodey, Patrice Lumumba, Sadat and Steve Biko weren't murdered....
Were did Nkrumah go wrong??
...well the scramble is intensifying so expect bloodshed and a body-count like never before -
But the world cup is ours lol.
On a serious note, from what Ive seen/heard/experienced, monopolies of(insert random resource/markets) are shrinking, wheter we are talking about Air France losing monopoli to Qadhafis air line or the various minerals/textile industry. are declining. I am not saying the Chinese are better than the Americans, I'm saying natives now have more choice, can wages offers more. business ethics/morals are still ? up, but SLOWLY we are witnessing change in
Look, I dont think it makes real sense to hate on so called afrikan leaders. facts are that multinationals who have a larger gdp than a lot of countries combined are strong arming them or put them in that position of power(Shell pimpslapped a lot of regions lol). Off course this is a generalisation, but still one that needs to be noted(dont pretend gun boat diplacy is dead cause the armtrade is still massive, militray bases still present and a shitload of ' blackwater' type of companies are still chillen there and a shitload of land is still owned by european officials etc, hell just look at the centre of casablanca lol ? french still got cloud). also keep in mind that there are hundreds if not a thousand native royals + a shitload of rich ? /oliarchs/families which have a totally different view of the continent and its regions and borders(and off course the way to govern) than what is generally excepted here in the west.....
point = more competetion = better for the natives on the long term AS LONG AS the native businessman+government will do the most crucial part which foreign business never did which is investing in infrastructure and all facets that come with it..... -
Ya but you think the African Leaders in Africa are actual Leaders for Africans.... they're not. No different than Obama sitting in the White house doing nothing for the black struggle.
this is an excuse.
how are african leaders controlled more than say the leader of malaysia or the leader of kuwait or the leader of kuwait?
if asians (to a larger extent) can beat western influence, why can't we? it's about time african stood for good governance rather than blaming some imaginary white overlord. this is a self-defeatist stance that would keep us down.
are lunatics like jacob zuma controlled by the west? -
Notice how the 'hatin' mostly comes from western sources - CNN, reuters, Canal+. Weren't western countries doing worse before china and japan came along? Also notice that in none of these stories do u actually hear the contribution from africans. Its as if they must be spoken for smh
We need to differentiate between colonialism and foreign direct investment (FDI). If a company moves into an african country and sustainably mines a resource, salaries workers adequately and allows for the value addition of that resource so that the taxes and duties to the host govt are maximized - then where is the problem in that?
Thing is as soon as your hear china and africa in the same sentence, you already have a pre-conceived notion of exploitation. Angola for instance was a war-ravaged country. The chinese came in and angola started realizing $35 billion dollars p.a making it africa's largest oil producer. Its economic growth surpassed china's (26%!!) and it invested heavily in schools, hospitals and roads and the life expectancy, literacy and income levels rose sharply in just 5 years.
Think before you spew cliche. Just sayin... -
And once again Africans will let it happen.
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its the white man's fault
its always the white man's fault -
this is an excuse.
how are african leaders controlled more than say the leader of malaysia or the leader of kuwait or the leader of kuwait?
if asians (to a larger extent) can beat western influence, why can't we? it's about time african stood for good governance rather than blaming some imaginary white overlord. this is a self-defeatist stance that would keep us down.
are lunatics like jacob zuma controlled by the west?
_________________________________ -
Ioniz3dSPIRITZ wrote: »And once again Africans will let it happen.
I dont know about that. -
I dont know about that.
And you know this how?
It's to late for Africa. Africa is so weak that we refer to it as a country and not a continent. Face it bro we lost they won. -
Go ahead and give up Ioniz3dSPIRITZ, there are those of us who wont quit so easy.Ioniz3dSPIRITZ wrote: »And you know this how?
It's to late for Africa. Africa is so weak that we refer to it as a country and not a continent. Face it bro we lost they won.
We will do everything within our limited power to see Afrika rise. -
Go ahead and give up Ioniz3dSPIRITZ, there are those of us who wont quit so easy.
We will do everything within our limited power to see Afrika rise.
Explain are you physically going to go over there and try to start some kind of political uprising. T -
If all fails blame the white man [Robert Mugabe is good at this blame game], and Obama sure is taking a page from this thug [mugabe].
Look, for as long as criminals like Mugabe, Malema, Gaddafi et al, run these rich countries, China and Russia will continue to exploit the natives.
Zimbabwe - is arguably one of the richest countries on earth [platinum, gold, diamonds, good farming land, Victoria Falls, Devils Pool et al], guess what - Mugabe and his cronies are stealing these resources through China, Libya, Lebanon, Russia, and South Africa.
Sierra Leone, [watch Blood Diamonds], this country is rich beyond measurable means, the De Beers Family controls the mineral wealth in this West African country.
Nigeria, is the richest African country, Nigeria has millions of her people scattered all over the world [just like the Irish] - Nigerian Diaspora, so there is no excuse why Nigeria is poor. Look how developed it is! *smh*
South Africa, the largest economy in Africa, but who really runs the economy?
I can go on forever, but the logic, or rather, my premise is that unless African leaders stop being greedy, Africa will remain the laughing stock of the world. -
Maybe it's all about business, nothing more. Money is being exchanged, and jobs are being created, what's the problem?
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i am pretty sure some Belgians made this argument in 1884kingblaze84 wrote: »Maybe it's all about business, nothing more. Money is being exchanged, and jobs are being created, what's the problem? -
The mother land lauce
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Ioniz3dSPIRITZ wrote: »Explain are you physically going to go over there and try to start some kind of political uprising. T
why do you africans are homogeneous? the conditions in egypt is different from the conditions in congo. heck a country like congo is very diverse. -
i am pretty sure some Belgians made this argument in 1884
word, that's our trading companies started back then with gun boats to match of course. -
This ? pains me to see.
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The fact that about 90% of the continent was colonized is kinda understated when addressing Africa's current issues. Rome wasn't built in a day. What people fail to see is that there are a million reasons why many African countries didn't industrialize as fast as other non African nations after getting their independence. Population density for instance played a major role in the development of India and other Asian countries while it has hindered development in many African nations.
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To be serious... I think Africa is DOOMED and CURSED...
I'm Nigerian... born and raised... I moved to London in '06
And I'm tellin y'all ? ... life in my country is worth that of a chicken... the last week before I left the country, on a road trip... I saw countless dead bodies on the streets... RELIGIOUS(?) violence (Christians vs. Muslims)
I've lost all hope... its a vicious cycle
Africa's been ? beyond comprehension by both natives (Judases) and foreigners
We can even go back to the slave trade... who collaborated with the white man to sell off our people into diaspora???
Africa is 50 years backwards and it pains my heart and soul to see this...
