All EU plans to catch up in Africa against China
To respond to Chinese penetration in Africa, the European Union wants to build a long digital cable to connect Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt to the continent. Tino Oldani's article for Italia Oggi
Closing the stable when the oxen have escaped is an old farmer's saying, but still relevant: it means taking action when the damage has been done. Like it or not, it is a snapshot of the policy followed for decades by the European Union towards Africa. Many announcements of cooperation, aimed at overcoming the era of colonialism, which lasted in some cases until the seventies, but few facts.
Result: more than 50 years lost in talk, while China, which in 2000 was the first importer of goods in just four countries (Sudan, Gambia, Benin and Djibouti), twenty years later is the first trading partner of 30 African countries out of 54. A gap that is perhaps unbridgeable, even if in Brussels they are convinced they can do it: thus, a year and a half after Ursula von der Leyen's announcement, the 70 Global Gateway projects will be announced in the next few days, the plan “ ambitious" with which Europe intends to challenge China not only in Africa, but also in Asia and South America.
CHINESE ECONOMIC LEADING IN AFRICA
The primacy of China in the African economy is well summarized in a graph (source: OEC, World Bank) which highlights the enormous advance of Chinese commercial influence in 20 years at the expense of France and South Africa. During this period, China's exports to Africa rose from $5 billion to $110 billion a year. Chinese imports, in the same period, increased, reaching 64 billion dollars in 2020, of which 14 billion for raw materials. A commercial penetration facilitated by the fact that 25% of all investments in Africa now belong to China, which according to some studies has so far invested no less than 2.3 trillion dollars in the New Silk Road, realizing 4 thousand projects, of which a good part in Africa, the rest in Asia and Europe.
THE LIMITS OF THE EUROPEAN RESPONSE
The European Union's response, by comparison, appears "ambitious" only in words.
According to the drafts of the Global Gateway discussed last Friday in a confidential meeting of EU diplomats, with the aim of defining it by next week, the EU aims to mobilize 300 billion euros, between public and private funds, to finance a series of projects by 2027. It is not clear, at the moment, how they will be found in EU public funds, almost certainly of a smaller amount than private ones, which will have to be taken over by large companies which, on paper, could derive the greatest gains from the projects .
THE PROJECT ON SUBMARINE INTERNET CABLES
An example, from this point of view, is the "Medusa project", a digital maxi-cable of 7,100 kilometers intended to connect Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt on one side, and France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus on the other. with an investment of 342 million euros. The operation will be led by Spain, with a consortium made up of Afr-Ix Telecom, a group based in Barcelona, together with local companies and universities. The construction of the cable will be entrusted to the French Alcatel and the infrastructure will start operating in 2025 with the first connection between Barcelona, Lisbon and Marseille. The rest will be built in a second phase, with Italy playing a completely secondary role, which however will benefit from the initiative, making relations via digital cable with Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt more solid.
The geostrategic importance of large digital cables, according to an ISPI study, is given by the fact that 97% of world internet traffic passes through submarine cables. In this sector, China has long since launched the challenge to the rest of the world, first of all to the United States, leader in the sector, which controls half of the 426 submarine maxi-cables for data transmission in the world. Beijing, specifies Europa Today, aims to undermine the US primacy, reaching 60% of the sector by 2025 with investments of 95 billion dollars in the context of the New Silk Road. A program which, unlike the EU one, recorded more facts than announcements. An ISPI study underlines: «The two main Chinese companies in the sector, Hentong and Huawei Marine, have built one of the most important cables at an international level, the Peace submarine cable, 12,000 km long, which connects Europe, in particular France , with Pakistan, passing through the Gulf and the Horn of Africa".
Although belated, the "Medusa project" is more timely than ever. As are other projects to expand Europe's digital connections envisaged by the Global Gateway: a new digital cable across the Black Sea; the extension to Chile and Central America of the recently inaugurated Bella cable linking Portugal to Brazil. In addition to digital, the 70 projects in the EU plan include investments in strategic sectors, such as energy, transport, health and education. Broadly speaking, 36 projects concern Africa, 14 South America and the Caribbean, 13 Asia-Pacific, 7 some areas close to Europe.
These are programs that go beyond the expiry of the mandate of the current EU Commission (in 2024 we will vote for the new European Parliament), so in the coming months they will become one of the themes of the European electoral campaign, in addition to those already evident: war in Ukraine, costs of energy, inflation and constraints of the Stability Pact, state aid, general sacrifices and, unfortunately, the continuous impoverishment of the middle class, especially in Italy.
All following massive loans and investments by Beijing in Africa to build key infrastructure, such as ports, airports, railways and power plants, under the strategy Belt and road initiatives, known as the New Silk Road.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/unione-europea-africa-cina/ on Sun, 05 Feb 2023 06:14:58 +0000.