China's Aid to Africa: Does Friendship Really Matter? by Zhangxi Cheng & Ian Taylor

Author:Zhangxi Cheng & Ian Taylor [Cheng, Zhangxi & Taylor, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138630390
Google: 9QF7nQAACAAJ
Goodreads: 34498884
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017-01-15T07:04:50+00:00

How China packages its foreign aid

In the pursuit of China’s aid objectives, the implementation methods complement one other and are based on collaboration. Besides the specialised works of Medicals Teams, HRDC and Overseas Volunteer Programs which are organised according to China’s Plans and Measures promised in the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and international meetings, the primary feature of China’s aid (Complete Project Aid), is usually determined individually. Provided the importance of Complete Project Aid, which often forms the foundation for other implementation methods (such as Technical Aid and Goods and Materials Aid), as well as China’s limited aid capacity and requests that tend to far exceed China’s planned country specific budget, Beijing has some guidelines for determining Complete Project Aid projects. This is regardless of its claimed requests-based aid approach.

As a senior Chinese official pointed out, although China has yet to issue official instructions for identifying definitive criteria for accepting proposals, it has preferences which are (in descending order): the project must be within budget allowance; the project at large is in accordance with the needs of the recipient country; the project is mainly concerned with improving people’s livelihoods (schools, hospitals, etc.); it is easy to operate and maintain; it is non-productive or technology-based; and/or it involves agricultural development. 41 Hence, on the basis of noting that China has an annual budget for each of its recipient countries and, to some extent, it also has a framework for packaging its foreign aid, this finding contrasts with Davies et al.’s suggestion that ‘there is no fixed aid model [from China] and that disbursements are based on the requests received from the recipient country’ (2008: 51).

Examining China’s current practices, along with the aims and objectives of its aid, the exercising of China’s foreign aid has become increasingly proficient and versatile. With consideration given to the planning and implementation management, on the basis of specialised institutions to cope with the expanded scope of its aids, China brought together 24 institutions to jointly participate in the Inter-agency Coordination Mechanism. With the institutions directly managing projects and programs in their specialities, MOFCOM then established subsidiary public institutions to manage implementation. Concerning implementation, the key aid funding methods were restructured to coordinate with further specified objectives.

As a result of these restructurings, instead of the previous dilemmas caused by rival political and economic interests, the integrated application of Concessional Loans, Preferential Buyer’s Credits and the aid budget has improved China’s opportunity to realise some of its policy goals. Further, through the utilisation of Complete Project Aid in the assistance given to Africa’s infrastructure development and the exercise of Technical Aid, Goods and Materials Aid, HRDC, Medical Teams and Overseas Volunteer Programs, the focus of China’s aid has extended to both African people’s livelihoods and development capacity. Given these efforts, the development of China’s aid in Africa has been advanced.

To accommodate this integrated foreign aid approach, several refinements were made in order to improve capacity. In addition to setting up the EXIM Bank and allocating specific funds

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