Neo Colonialism in Angola?

A new study from the Study and Scientific Investigation Centre of the Catholic University (Ceic/Ucan) in Luanda, Angola confirms growing alarm that China is a neocolonial power in Angola. Investigators Amália Quintão and Regina Santos show that 90% of imports from China to Angola are consumer goods and 88% of exports to China from Angola are raw materials chiefly oil and diamonds. Note contacts for investigators http://www.ceic-ucan.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=28

According Agence France-Presse, there is a symbiotic relationship between China and Angola. China needs Angola, and other underdeveloped african countries for energy and other raw materials and Angola needs China to help quickly re-build its infrastructure. After Saudi Arabia, Angola is China's second largest supplier of crude. On the other side of the equation, there are 50 State Owned Chinese companies and close to 400 private Chinese firms in Angola working on infrastucture projects. These projects are supposed to employ Angolan workers, who face unemployment rates around 50%. According to AFP, bilateral agreements state that 30% of workers on these projects are supposed to be Angolan, but at this time, between 50,000 and 60,000 Chinese expats are working in Angola and the agreements are not being honored. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110306/wl_africa_afp/angolachinaeconomydiplomacy

The Chinese dont trust the Angolans to employ them or even to take care of projects once completed and Angolans are increasingly unsure about the Chinese. Last year the Wall Street Journal reported on cooling relationships between everyday Angolans and Chinese laborers in their country; including reports of violence against Chinese workers. The sustainability of this scheme of redevelopment is questionable. There are already facilities like schools, hospitals and such that are built but needing professionals to staff them. Angola lost a generation to war. Many educated Angolan's moved abroad during the war and have not returned.

This is not true of all. I know of two doctors, a businessman and a lawyer who are Angolan born and have returned to Angola to work. These expatriates returning have alot of adjustment to do. In speaking with one he told me that conditions in Luanda are frightfully expensive and can be unsafe, but you have to be in Luanda to do business. Mobile phone coverage continues to expand as does fast internet access, soon Angola may be a good place to do business outside the capital. The projects being built right now by Chinese companies, using Chinese Loans and Chinese laborers go a long way to make it possible, but one wonders at what cost. Can Angola sustain this kind of development with only one export and a workforce that is not trained to build and maintain its own infrastructure.