Africa-Press – Cape verde. The deputy prime minister, Olavo Correia, considers that cooperation with China must be “on the basis of mutual benefit” and not “merely commercial”, which would require high public debt for African countries.
In an interview with Lusa, in Washington, on the sidelines of the 2024 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Olavo Correia confirmed that Cape Verde already has projects ready to be presented within the framework of cooperation with China and that ” some private companies are being finalized” to do so, but he assessed that the approach with Beijing “cannot be just based on a project logic”.
“This will not solve any problem, this will not solve the problems of Africa, nor of Cape Verde. It is important, of course, but the approach with China has to be more transformative, more structuring, more anchored in development, more developmental, it has to be anchored in a new quality of cooperation and not just in projects”, he argued.
“Even if they are big, they will not solve the problem of the African continent or Cape Verde, and we want China to be a partner to help solve the burning problems that Africa is struggling with, such as access to energy, water, to sanitation, housing, education. But also today, and increasingly, the fourth industrial revolution – fortunately technological -, in which China also plays an important role and which it can put at the service of the development of the African continent”, he added. .
China and Portuguese-speaking countries will meet again in Macau on Monday, after an eight-year gap and the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, to relaunch trade and investment.
The sixth ministerial conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries will run until Tuesday and includes the signing of the organization’s new action plan, better known as Forum Macau, until 2027.
A cooperation fund, worth one billion dollars, was created 10 years ago by the China Development Bank and the Macau Industrial and Commercial Development Fund.
However, the access rules have been the target of criticism from member countries of Forum Macau, which call for greater flexibility in access to existing funds.
Olavo Correia, who is also Minister of Finance and Business Development, argued that China has all the conditions to help the African continent solve the problem of access to energy, for example, but defended a look at the “new priorities” of this cooperation .
“We have almost half of the African population without access to energy when we have solutions, we have financing, we have need and, therefore, it makes no sense that this is happening on the African continent. Therefore, we can, within the framework of cooperation with China, resolve this challenge for the African continent”, he stated.
“This cooperation must benefit both parties. It cannot just be a purely commercial cooperation that could, say, force high public debt on African countries. It must be cooperation based on the mutual benefit of China, but also of the continent African”, reinforced the ruler.
At the same time, highlighted Olavo Correia, cooperation with Beijing must create the conditions for a vast infrastructure program, but with concessional financing, rejecting the logic of “investing today, but then mortgaging the future” of African countries.
“China needs Africa and Africa needs China. I think that if we put these points on the table, in cooperation focused on transformative solutions, on defending mutual interest (…) and focused on solving people’s challenges (. ..), then we will have cooperation here that reaches the fundamental elements of the future development of the African continent and it is along this path that we must allocate cooperation with China, so that it can bring success to the African continent and to China”, declared.
The minister highlighted that, during the meeting in China, he will raise precisely these issues, so that “better reflection” can be carried out in favor of optimizing these relations.
“If Africa is developed and prosperous, China will win, if the opposite is true, neither China will win nor the world will win,” he insisted.
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