{"id":5815,"date":"2023-10-18T05:59:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T05:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=5815"},"modified":"2023-10-18T05:59:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T05:59:04","slug":"kenya-china-partnership-to-accelerate-infrastructure-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2023\/10\/18\/kenya-china-partnership-to-accelerate-infrastructure-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya, China Partnership To Accelerate Infrastructure Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2023\/10\/kenya-china-patnership-to-accelerate-infrastracture-development\/\">https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2023\/10\/kenya-china-patnership-to-accelerate-infrastracture-development\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Summary: The Beijing government will enhance its partnership with China in infrastructure development among other areas. The President of Kenya made remarks during a meeting with Mr Li Xi, a senior member of China\u2019s Communist Party Political bureau in Beijing, China.<br>President William Ruto asked Chinese investors to take advantage of Kenya\u2019s conducive business environment to foster mutually beneficial partnerships. He observed that collaboration in critical sectors of the economy will drive economic growth for both nations. Mr Xi pledged China\u2019s support to its companies operating in Kenya. Among the projects China is keen to invest in include road construction, expansion of the Standard Gauge Railway, modernization of the country\u2019s airports and ICT sector. They also agree on \u201cbottom-up\u201d policies on eradicating poverty and creating economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Analysis: China is taking a very active role in sub-Saharan Africa through trade, investment, and strategic diplomacy. Beijing has growing economic ties with Africa\u2019s largest economies and Chinese firms dominate infrastructure construction projects. In 2020, nearly one-third of infrastructure projects in Africa worth at least $50 million were built by Chinese companies. In addition, China is, in many areas, replacing the United States and Europe as trade partners with Africa. Beijing has translated China\u2019s growing economic footprint in Africa into geopolitical influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kenya, a gateway to East Africa and one of the continent\u2019s largest economies, is an excellent platform for China to broaden its reach into the rest of the continent. As one of the first major economic powers to invest significantly in Africa instead of just focusing on extracting resources, China has gained advantages and goodwill in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some Western commentators have observed China\u2019s growing economic footprint in Africa, especially its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with skepticism and concern. They argue that Chinese investments are debt traps that will eventually lead to neo-colonialism. Despite this criticism, China\u2019s influence on the continent continues to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China claims that its funding and BRI investments center around local necessities in a spirit of mutual benefiting. But most of the Chinese investment is paid not to local Kenyan companies but to Chinese firms. In August 2018, China\u2019s trade surplus with Africa exceeded $27.91 billion. If African countries are to truly benefit from trade with China, this trade imbalance should be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The failure to address such issues as the trade deficit and the perceived ill-treatment of Kenyan laborers, however, cannot be laid entirely at China\u2019s feet. Corruption by Kenyan elites constantly undermines the needs of the Kenyan people. Nineteen of the Kenyans involved in the management of the SGR and public land have been indicted on suspicion of corruption, allegedly siphoning taxpayer money through fictitious compensation claims. Bribery and corruption, unfortunately, are still the norms when doing business in Kenya. Most recently in a COVID-19 corruption scandal, Kenyan government officials allegedly misused the $2 billion grants and aid funds intended to help fight the pandemic, causing hospital overcrowding, lack of protective equipment, and avoidable deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Connections to Class: These events bring forward many elements of reciprocity as a solution to global issues, and also highlights imbalances and issues within it as a concept.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2023\/10\/kenya-china-patnership-to-accelerate-infrastracture-development\/ Summary: The Beijing government will enhance its partnership with China in infrastructure development among other areas. The President of Kenya made remarks during a meeting with Mr Li Xi, a senior member of China\u2019s Communist Party Political bureau in Beijing, China.President William Ruto asked Chinese investors to take advantage of Kenya\u2019s conducive business environment to foster mutually beneficial partnerships&#8230;. <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2023\/10\/18\/kenya-china-partnership-to-accelerate-infrastructure-development\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":264,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/264"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5822,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5815\/revisions\/5822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}