Paris and Beijing are committed to co-financed seven infrastructure projects, including six in Africa.
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While Emmanuel Macron had to talk to the Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday 16 February, China announced on Monday 14 that the National Commission for Development and Reform (CNDR) had “recently” concluded An agreement with the French Ministry of Economy and Finance to cooperate in third countries. France, she had not planned to communicate on this agreement, simply signed between the Director General of the Treasury and that of the CNDR. Already on January 13, only Beijing had reported the visit to China of Emmanuel Good, the Diplomatic Councilor of the President of the Republic, during a “strategic dialogue”.
The genesis of this agreement dates back to June 2015, during the official visit to France Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. On this occasion, the two countries had published a joint declaration on cooperation in third markets. But since then the French diplomats complained that nothing advances and that Beijing continues to make cavalier alone, especially in Africa, as part of its gigantic investment program for the “New Silk Roads” (Belt and Road Initiative , BRI).
The cooperation agreement concerns seven projects worth more than $ 1.7 billion (€ 1.5 billion), “overlooking infrastructure, environmental protection and news energies “. Investments that would take place in “regions such as Africa or Central and Eastern Europe,” says China. In fact, according to our information, it is essentially Africa that is concerned, with six out of seven projects. The most significant concerns the purification of wastewater in Dakar. It is worn by the French Development Agency and by the China Development Bank.
Launch an ambitious investment package
Three hydroelectric projects concern Gabon. Benefit from the Chinese company Sinohydro and the French Meridiam and Eranve. A port will be modernized in Côte d’Ivoire, thanks to cooperation between China’s China Harbor and Cacib (the Crédit Agricole Investment Bank), and a road will be renovated, Guinea, by the Chinese CRBC and the French Egis. Finally, in Greece, China Energy Investment and EDF will cooperate to build a wind field.
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