China launches mining program in Zambia

LUSAKA, Zambia — Chinese President Hu Jintao launched a copper mining partnership with Zambia on Sunday and won praise from Zambia’s finance minister for his focus on economic investment rather than politics.

Hu traveled Monday to Namibia — his fifth stop on an eight-nation African tour intended to increase Chinese investment in the continent, which is rich in natural resources although it suffers from widespread poverty.

Zambian Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande told The Associated Press that Hu’s visit was “one of the most successful visits by a foreign head of state.”

Other donors, he said, have political agendas. “People come here and talk about U.N. reform and conflict zones,” he said. “China has decided they will take a different route — they will take an economic route.”

China has gained a reputation for striking deals with African nations without demanding political reforms — such as respect for human rights — sought by Western donors.

But Chinese investments have led to accusations of exploitation in Zambia, a nation of 11.5 million in southern Africa.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa was all smiles Sunday as he and Hu launched an economic partnership zone centered on the Chambishi copper mine in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. The partnership is designed to draw $800 million in mining investment from scores of Chinese companies and create 60,000 jobs.

China already has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Zambia’s copper sector, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s exports.

Addressing a crowd that included Chinese managers and Zambian miners in orange suits and red helmets, Hu and Mwanawasa said the new economic zone would be the first of several around the continent.

The walls and stage at a local conference center where the event was held were festooned in red, featuring a huge sign reading “Hail to Sino-Africa New-Type Strategic Partnership,” red banners in Chinese lettering, and a huge map of the proposed economic zone. Zambian and Chinese dance troupes performed outside.

A member of the Chinese delegation cued the audience when to applaud.

Mwanawasa said the zone would “change the face of the Copperbelt and, indeed, the Zambian economy in that our raw materials will now have [the] chance to enjoy value addition of unimagined proportions.”

Mwanawasa sounded one cautious note, however, asking Chinese investors to partner with local Zambian firms and to give priority to local suppliers for goods and services.

Since the late 1990s, Chinese investments in the southern African nation have soared and now total $500 million — the third largest after those of South Africa and Britain.

(Associated Press)