272
AFRICA
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S
SILK ROAD:
CHINA AND INDIA
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S NEW ECONOMIC FRONTIER
construction projects Chinese government concessional loans and international guarantees. The Chinese ExIm Bank is playing a significant role in promoting bilateral trade and economic
assistance between China andAfrica; see box 5.12. To take two examples, the ExIm Bank is supporting a major Chinese telecommunications investment in Nigeria. It also has extended a credit line to the Angolan government for the amount of billion to assist the country in the rebuilding of infrastructure. As apart of the agreement, public tenders for the construction and civil engineering contracts are to be awarded primarily to Chinese state-owned enterprises approved by the Chinese government. The ExIm Bank has compiled a list of 35 Chinese firms approved by both the ExIm Bank and the Chinese government to tender in Angola.
Like
its Chinese counterpart, India’s Export-Import Bank plays a significant role in facilitating trade and investment between Indian and African countries. The Export-Import Bank of India launched a program called
“Focus Africa to increase interactions between the two regions by identifying priority areas for bilateral trade and investment.
The total operative Line of Credit (LOC) extended by India’s Ex-Im Bank to Sub-Saharan African countries amounts to $558 million (table 5.9). The
ExIm Bank extended an LOC of $250 million to the ECOWAS Bank for
Investment and Development (EBID) in May 2006 to finance India’s exports to the 15
member countries of EBID, namely Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire,
The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Another LOCwas signed in 2005 between the ExIm Bank and the Eastern and Southern
African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) fora line of $5 million to promote India’s exports to 16 Eastern and Southern African countries. This was the sixth LOC extended by the ExIm Bank to the PTA Bank.
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