• This Day (Nigeria) aagm: Political Economy of Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria (2)

China is locking in long-term contracts with Nigeria and Angola - which already supply it with as much oil as Saudi Arabia - while China's state oil group owns
40% of Sudan's Greater Nile crude project and is looking at projects in possible new oil sources such as Niger.
China's oil operations in Africa put it in competition with western oil giants, whose high-handed methods have at times irritated their African hosts in the past.
"Many of the African governments like Chinese companies to come here to give some balance to the current situation, which is dominated by western multinationals," says Liu.
There are also political payoffs for Beijing as it tightens its African links. Chief among these, analysts say, is limiting the diplomatic activities of Taiwan - which Beijing calls a breakaway province - and counterbalancing what China sees as resurgent "hegemony" on the part of the US.
China has stepped up the level and frequency of its official visits to Africa, and has established a diplomatic panel to guide relations.
Chinese products are also increasingly making inroads into African markets, often carried by small traders whose cheap household goods, toys and trinkets can be found from Kinshasa to Cape Town.
Document AFNWS00020041201e0bu000e8

Profit Rises at Naspers on Increase in Adverts
598 words

30 November 2004

03:04 PM

LiquidAfrica Holding Limited

LQAF

English

(c) 2004 Liquid Africa, All Rights Reserved.
Nov 30, 2004 (LiquidAfrica via COMTEX) --
By Mike Cohen
First-half profit at Naspers surged as advertising revenue rose and after it made adjustments to comply with new accounting rules, South Africa's largest media company said yesterday.
Net income rose to R1.06 billion, or R3.61 a share, in the six months to September, from R20 million, or 8c a share, in the year-earlier period, the company said yesterday.
Sales rose 10 percent to R6.71 billion and operating profit, which excludes one-time items and goodwill amortisation, more than doubled to R1.2 billion.
"They are taking advantage of the good environment" in South Africa, said Stephen Carrott, a telecommunications analyst at Andisa Securities in Johannesburg.
Earnings "were above what I was expecting. The operational indicators were all strong."
The Reserve Bank has cut interest rates six times since June last year, which has fuelled consumer spending and lifted advertising revenue for Cape Town-based Naspers's newspapers and magazines in South Africa, where it makes 72 percent of its sales.
"The markets in which our major business units operate are in expansive phases of the economic cycle," the company said. "We foresee this continuing for the remainder of the present financial year. The group continues to seek new growth opportunities, particularly in the rest of Africa and in Asian markets."
Naspers's future expansion plans would focus on China, where it has been operating since 1997, and on Nigeria and Kenya. Future earnings growth would be closely linked to global economic growth, said chief executive Koos Bekker.
"The economy is fairly buoyant," he said in a telephone interview from Cape Town. "At some point this will work its way through the system, and you will have the usual post-party hangover."
Naspers said it planned to sell a stake in its business to a group of black investors in the current financial year to bring it in line with the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act.
The company was still awaiting clarification from the government on its black economic empowerment policies for the media sector, and had yet to decide whether it would sell a stake in the holding company, or some of its units, Bekker said.
Adjustments required under South Africa's AC133 accounting standards "ignore economic reality" and distorted earnings, Naspers said.
Core headline earnings, which omit some of the adjustments, rose to R519 million from R267 million in the year-earlier period, and were a better reflection of its performance, the company said.
Distortions to the income statement as a result of the accounting change "should work their way out of the system in the next year or two", said Stephen Pacak, Naspers's chief financial officer.
Income from print revenue rose 18 percent, boosted by the introduction of a new newspaper, the Daily Sun, and three new magazines. Naspers's income from book publishing rose 5 percent.
The pay television unit, MultiChoice, boosted sales by 12 percent in the six months to the end of September, as it signed on 60 000 new subscribers.
The company introduced a major cost-cutting programme three years ago, which is drawing to a close. Generally, costs were well under control, Pacak said.
"We are spending quite a bit on research and development."
Naspers shares rose R1.65, or 2.6 percent, to R64.20 yesterday, while the media and entertainment sector rose 1.96 percent. The shares have gained 67 percent over the past 12 months, bringing its market value to R20.3 billion.
Document LQAF000020041130e0bu0000t

FEATURE-Resource hungry China makes big push into Africa.
By Andrew Quinn

872 words

22 November 2004

01:02 AM

Reuters News

LBA

English

(c) 2004 Reuters Limited
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Crumbling sport stadiums still stand in many African capitals, the enduring symbols of China's Cold War courtship of the world's poorest continent during the 1960s and 1970s.
That was before the Communist giant embraced capitalism and transformed itself into probably the world's fastest growing economy. Now the Chinese are back in Africa, promoting business deals and strengthening diplomatic alliances in a strategic push that analysts say marks sharp new competition for the continent's rich resources.
From west African oil fields, where Chinese companies rub shoulders with Western multinationals, to central African mines, Beijing's Africa outreach is raising eyebrows in some Western capitals which sense a serious new player on the continent.
"China's role in Africa is a major emerging trend," said analyst Jakkie Cilliers of South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. "Everyone is watching to see how far it will go."
It is already deep into Zambia's agricultural heartland, where Chinese farmers are increasingly raising the vegetables that are on sale at Lusaka's street markets.
In Botswana local people say Chinese firms have a virtual monopoly on the construction business. China is helping Nigeria launch satellites, promoting cell phones in Zimbabwe and adding peacekeepers to United Nations operations across the continent.
CAPITALISTS NOT COLONIALISTS
Chinese officials are quick to point out that China is no newcomer to Africa, proudly declaring that Chinese explorers had direct sea links with the continent as early as AD 700, long before Europeans arrived.
In the 1950s and 1960s, China's communist rulers also worked to befriend African governments as they promoted political independence from both Western and Soviet superpowers.
"China and Africa shared similar experiences, both having suffered from aggression, plunder and enslavement by colonialists," Liu Guijin, the Chinese ambassador to South Africa and one of Beijing's top Africa hands, said at a recent lecture.
China's leaders now spotlight these historical links for modern economic objectives, promoting Beijing as a reliable partner who has no interest in lecturing Africa on sensitive subjects such as human rights, governance and corruption.
"From an African perspective, there is great sympathy for the Chinese position which is premised on respect for sovereignty," said Cilliers of the ISS.
This approach is expected to help boost overall China-Africa trade to more than $20 billion this year, double the level seen in 2000. It has also won China staunch allies, led by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who set a policy of "looking East" after Western powers imposed sanctions on his government.
State-owned Air Zimbabwe this month struck a deal with Chinese authorities to begin scheduled flights to Beijing.
"Politically, the 'look east policy,' has given the government room to breathe," said Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei of the University of Zimbabwe.
China is already the biggest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco, and this month a high-powered Chinese delegation visited Harare to sign deals on energy, telecoms, agriculture and tourism.
Neighbouring Zambia has also benefited from China's rediscovered interest in Africa, with Chinese private and state investing more than $265 million in Zambia, $100 million of it between 2002 and 2004, most of it in copper mining.
China has also given grants for maintaining the Tanzania-Zambia railway - built by Chinese engineers sent by Chairman Mao Zedong in the 1960s - and Z-Cell, the cell phone subsidiary of Zambia's state telecommunications company.
"They are good friends," said Zambian Finance Minister Peter Magande.
OIL HUNGER
Analysts say China's Africa push is spurred in large part by its mounting hunger for raw materials, led by oil.
China is locking in long-term contracts with Nigeria and Angola - which already supply it with as much oil as Saudi Arabia - while China's state oil group CNPC owns 40 percent of Sudan's Greater Nile crude project and is looking at projects in possible new oil sources such as Niger.
China's oil operations in Africa put it in competition with western oil giants, whose high-handed methods have at times irritated their African hosts in the past.
"Many of the African governments like Chinese companies to come here to give balance to the current situation, which is dominated by western multinationals," Ambassador Liu said.
There are also political pay-offs for Beijing as it tightens its African links. Chief among these, analysts say, is limiting the diplomatic activities of Taiwan - which Beijing calls a breakaway province - and counterbalancing what China sees as resurgent "hegemonism" on the part of the United States.
China has stepped up the level and frequency of its official visits to Africa, and has established a special diplomatic panel to further guide relations. Chinese products are also increasingly making inroads into African markets, often carried by small-traders whose cheap household goods, toys and trinkets can be found from Kinshasa to Cape Town.
Diplomats say China's growing activity in Africa has sparked interest, but not yet concern.
"We are aware of increasing Chinese engagement....it is not a threat to us," said U.S. Ambassador Jendayi Frazer.
(additional reporting by Cris Chinaka in Harare, Shapi Shacinda in Lusaka, and Peter Apps in Gaborone).
Document LBA0000020041122e0bm001mh

ZTE to Establish a Cellphone and Recharge Card
396 words

16 November 2004

03:04 PM

LiquidAfrica Holding Limited

LQAF

English

(c) 2004 Liquid Africa, All Rights Reserved.
Nov 16, 2004 (LiquidAfrica via COMTEX) --
Leading Chinese telecom firm, ZTE, has completed arrangements to establish a cell phone and recharge card manufacturing plant in the country by January next year.
Already, arrangements have been completed for factory which would step up the country's activities in Nigeria, Africa's fastest growing telecom market as well as raise the company's earnings in the country.
ZTE was one of the companies which supplied and installed cell sites and other vital equipment for take-off of the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) operator, M-Tel.
It is also handling the rural telephony project in which the Federal Government hopes to extend telephone services to 132 Local Government Areas utilizing a $200 million soft loan facility provided Nigeria by the Chinese Government.
Chairman of the company, Mr. Hou Wa Gui, who led other top executives of the company on a visit to the Executive Secretary , Nigerian Investment Promotion Commssion (NIPC), Engr. Mustafa Bello requested the Commission's assistance to register his presence in Nigeria, Gui described the country's business environment as conducive adding, it has potentials for investments to thrive .
"Nigeria market is very large for business," Gui was quoted by the Commission in a statement to have said.
In his response, Bello disclosed that his NIPC had facilitated the acquisition of land in the Federal Capital Territory for the factory and office complex just as he said steps were being taken to ensure that ZTE got the necessary concessions and incentives for its smotth take-off.
The Executive assured of the Commission's prompt attention to enquiries and requests by the Chinese as Nigeria was desirous of attracting foreign investments in the country.
Bello had earlier led the Gui and his entourage to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo who, the statement said also approved of the project.
In another developent, NIPC and the Federal Ministry of Environment have agreed work together to promote renewable energy programme in the country. Bello who visited the Minister of Environment, Col. Bala Mande said the Commission was prepared to work with any agency of Governemt to promote vast investment opportunities that abound in the country.
The Executve Secretary explained that the visit was in continuation of long standing strategy to draw suppot from parastatals, Ministries and States in promotion of investment.
Document LQAF000020041116e0bg0005t

Nigeria has Entered into Agreements with China in Various Sectors
521 words

12 November 2004

03:04 PM

LiquidAfrica Holding Limited

LQAF

English

(c) 2004 Liquid Africa, All Rights Reserved.
Nov 12, 2004 (LiquidAfrica via COMTEX) --
Govt asks Taiwan to move office out of Abuja From Madu Onuorah, Abuja AS Nigeria and China yesterday entered into fresh agreements on economic and technological co-operation, President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered the closure of the Taiwanese commercial office in Abuja. advertisement The office, the President added, could relocate to Lagos State.
The agreements cover technological transfer and investment in the electronic and agro-allied sectors in the country. They are particularly on co-operation in the oil and gas sector, telecommunications and railway development in Nigeria.
They were signed at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, during a courtesy call on President Obasanjo by the chairman of the Peoples Assembly of China (Parliament) Mr. Wu Bangguo, as part of his three-day visit to Nigeria. Before signing the agreements, Obasanjo restated that Nigeria supports the one-China policy, saying that this entails the directive to close the Taiwanese commercial office in Abuja.
The Nigerian leader also announced that a Chinese firm would build, launch and service the nation's second communication satellite, Satellite 11, which is to be launched next year. He acknowledged a grant of $2.25 million from the Chinese government meant for economic and technological development in the country.
On the discussion between the two leaders before the signing ceremony, President Obasanjo said it focused on investments in the downstream and upstream sectors of the oil industry and the production of electronics and its spare parts within Nigeria.
He said: "We agreed that you (the Chinese) will build refinery, lay pipelines and embark on oil exploration in the Lake Chad region. And you will do a lot in the downstream areas.
We also agreed that since China produces 40 per cent of all television sets in the world, that there will be a plant in Nigeria. We will give all the inducement and encouragement we can give."
Wu, who spoke through an interpreter, acknowledged Nigeria's support for the one-China policy, saying that it had led to co-operation between the two countries on international issues.
The agreements include that of Economic and Technological Co-operation, signed by the Chinese Vice Minister, Wei Jianguo and Nigeria's Minister of Integration and Co-operation in Africa, Ambassador Lawal Guba Gana.
The oil co-operation contract for OML 64 and 66 was signed by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Funso Kupolokun. Kupolokun and Gana also similarly signed a goodwill message by both countries on the oil contract while a director in the Chinese communication ministry and Mrs. Yafang Sun, chairwoman of the board of Iluawei Technologies Company Limited, signed for China.
Mrs. Sun later said that her company was pioneering the establishment of first electronic production company in Nigeria. After decades of Chinese civil war, the losing nationalist withdrew to the Island province of Taiwan in 1949 as the communists took over Beijing.
Taiwan's leaders have abandoned dreams of unification with the mainland. But Beijing still regards the island as a renegade province and holds onto the "one-China policy."
Document LQAF000020041114e0bc00068

Chinese Firm Explores Oil in Chad Basin
460 words

12 November 2004

03:04 PM

LiquidAfrica Holding Limited

LQAF

English

(c) 2004 Liquid Africa, All Rights Reserved.
Nov 12, 2004 (LiquidAfrica via COMTEX) --
Chinese firm explores oil in Chad Basin By Chesa Chesa, state house correspondent, Abuja More crude oil will soon flow from Nigerian soil as President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday midwifed an agreement between a Chinese firm - SINOPEC and the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) for the exploration of oil in the Chad Basin.
The President, who witnessed the signing of the agreement between NNPC Group Managing Director, Funsho Kupolokun, and the Vice President of SINOPEC, at the presidential villa, also announced that SINOPEC would build a refinery in Nigeria and get fully involved in the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry.
SINOPEC won the oil exploration contract for Blocs 64 and 66 in the Chad Basin, following government's decision to offer 27 oil blocs to investors in order to boost oil production quota from the current 2.6 million to 4 million barrels per day by 2010.
Some oil wells being explored in the Chad Basin by Shell, Elf and Chevron were abandoned four years ago on the orders of government.
Obasanjo, who assured the Chinese of government's protection of their investments, disclosed that China, which produces 40 percent of television sets in the world, has agreed to produce TV sets in Nigeria.
He also announced that a Nigerian telecommunications satellite would be built and launched by a Chinese firm soon, and thanked the Chinese government for providing $2.25 million grant for economic and technological cooperation between the two countries.
The president said the federal government has invited China Railway Ministry to come and help develop Nigerian railways.
Earlier, the visiting chairman of the Chinese standing committee of the National Peoples Congress, Mr. Wu Bangguo, expressed his country's interest in exploring marginal oil fields in Nigeria.
Bangguo, who is on an official trip to Nigeria, said China was equally interested in telecommunications and power generation, and commended the federal government for closing the Taiwan business office in Abuja, as a mark of Nigeria's policy of one China.
Meanwhile, President Obasanjo on Monday received strong commendation from the ECOWAS parliament for his "untiring efforts to bring peace to the sub-region and the entire continent".
Speaker of the parliament, Prof Ali Nouhoum Diallo, who led a delegation of the legislative body to Aso Rock, said the parliament shared and supported Obasanjo's views that Africa's problems were better handled by Africans.
Diallo disclosed that the parliament had asked the international community to support Obasanjo's peace efforts and to help African countries recover stolen money stashed in European banks.
The president had in his response, commended the ECOWAS parliament for the progress it has made so far towards regional integration.
Document LQAF000020041114e0bc00063

ZTE to Establish Cell Phone, Recharge Card Plant
465 words

12 November 2004

03:04 PM

LiquidAfrica Holding Limited

LQAF

English

(c) 2004 Liquid Africa, All Rights Reserved.
Nov 12, 2004 (LiquidAfrica via COMTEX) --
Leading Chinese telecom firm, ZTE, has completed arrangements to establish a cell phone and recharge card manufacturing plant in the country by January next year.
Already, arrangements have been completed for factory which would step up the country's activities in Nigeria, Africa?s fastest growing telecom market as well as raise the company?s earnings in the country.
ZTE was one of the companies which supplied and installed cell sites and other vital equipment for take-off of the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) operator, M-Tel. It is also handling the rural telephony project in which the Federal Government hopes to extend telephone services to 132 Local Government Areas utilizing a $200 million soft loan facility provided Nigeria by the Chinese Government.
Chairman of the company, Mr. Hou Wa Gui, who led other top executives of the company on a visit to the Executive Secretary , Nigerian Investment Promotion Commssion (NIPC), Engr. Mustafa Bello requested the Commission?s assistance to register his presence in Nigeria, Gui described the country?s business environment as conducive adding, it has potentials for investments to thrive .
"Nigeria market is very large for business," Gui was quoted by the Commission in a statement to have said.
In his response, Bello disclosed that his NIPC had facilitated the acquisition of land in the Federal Capital Territory for the factory and office complex just as he said steps were being taken to ensure that ZTE got the necessary concessions and incentives for its smotth take-off.
The Executive assured of the Commission?s prompt attention to enquiries and requests by the Chinese as Nigeria was desirous of attracting foreign investments in the country.
Bello had earlier led the Gui and his entourage to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo who, the statement said also approved of the project.
In another developent, NIPC and the Federal Ministry of Environment have agreed work together to promote renewable energy programme in the country.
Bello who visited the Minister of Environment, Col. Bala Mande said the Commission was prepared to work with any agency of Governemt to promote vast investment opportunities that abound in the country.
The Executve Secretary explained that the visit was in continuation of long standing strategy to draw suppot from parastatals, Ministries and States in promotion of investment.
Bello solicited support of the Federal Ministry of Environment to promote Nigeria as the most preferred investment destination and that the environmen was made conducive for investment.
Bala in his response commended the Executive Secretary for the increased tempo of activities in the Commission since he took over and pledge his Ministry?s readiness to work, collaborate and support the Commission to ensure that investments thrived in the country.
Document LQAF000020041114e0bc0003e
This Day (Nigeria) - AAGM: ZTE to Establish Cell Phone, Recharge Card Plant.
Cletus Akwaya

473 words

11 November 2004

This Day (Nigeria)

AIWTHD

English

The Financial Times Limited. Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. All material subject to copyright. This Day (Nigeria) (c) 2004 All rights reserved
Leading Chinese telecom firm, ZTE, has completed arrangements to establish a cell phone and recharge card manufacturing plant in the country by January next year.
Already, arrangements have been completed for factory which would step up the country's activities in Nigeria, Africa's fastest growing telecom market as well as raise the company's earnings in the country. ZTE was one of the companies which supplied and installed cell sites and other vital equipment for take-off of the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) operator, M-Tel. It is also handling the rural telephony project in which the Federal Government hopes to extend telephone services to 132 Local Government Areas utilizing a $200 million soft loan facility provided Nigeria by the Chinese Government.
Chairman of the company, Mr. Hou Wa Gui, who led other top executives of the company on a visit to the Executive Secretary , Nigerian Investment Promotion Commssion (NIPC), Engr. Mustafa Bello requested the Commission's assistance to register his presence in Nigeria, Gui described the country's business environment as conducive adding, it has potentials for investments to thrive .
"Nigeria market is very large for business," Gui was quoted by the Commission in a statement to have said.
In his response, Bello disclosed that his NIPC had facilitated the acquisition of land in the Federal Capital Territory for the factory and office complex just as he said steps were being taken to ensure that ZTE got the necessary concessions and incentives for its smotth take-off. The Executive assured of the Commission's prompt attention to enquiries and requests by the Chinese as Nigeria was desirous of attracting foreign investments in the country. Bello had earlier led the Gui and his entourage to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo who, the statement said also approved of the project. In another developent, NIPC and the Federal Ministry of Environment have agreed work together to promote renewable energy programme in the country. Bello who visited the Minister of Environment, Col. Bala Mande said the Commission was prepared to work with any agency of Governemt to promote vast investment opportunities that abound in the country. The Executve Secretary explained that the visit was in continuation of long standing strategy to draw suppot from parastatals, Ministries and States in promotion of investment.
Bello solicited support of the Federal Ministry of Environment to promote Nigeria as the most preferred investment destination and that the environmen was made conducive for investment. Bala in his response commended the Executive Secretary for the increased tempo of activities in the Commission since he took over and pledge his Ministry's readiness to work, collaborate and support the Commission to ensure that investments thrived in the country.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
FTDL38999433
Document AIWTHD0020041113e0bb0001i

China to hold trade exhibition in Nigeria
246 words

11 November 2004

Business Daily Update

BDU

English

Copyright 2004 China Daily Information Company. All rights reserved.