"Every time a well is dug and water pipes are installed, I am so happy and proud to watch local residents from remote areas bring clean water home with basins, pails and their smiles," Zhou Qiaofang, deputy general manger of China Zhonghao Nigeria Ltd, told the Global Times.

Zhou's company's projects concentrate on areas in Nigeria with a shortage of drinking water or that suffer from waterborne diseases, and his company's water-supply projects have significantly improved the basic living conditions in Nigeria's rural areas and small towns where it is present.

Besides water-supply projects, Chinese companies in Africa also invest in many other infrastructure-construction projects such as highways, country roads, dams and railways, as well as in the fields of light and heavy industries, telecommunications and commodities trading.

In 2008, the total trade between China and Africa stood at US$106.84 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.1 percent, said Liu Zhenmin, deputy permanent representative of China to the United Nations, in his October 20 statement to the Plenary Meeting of the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Both State-owned and private companies that invest in Africa have played an active role in creating job opportunities, paying taxes, and increasing local residents' incomes.

Mutual trust not easy

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) Nigeria, one of the earliest Chinese State-owned companies to set up operations in Africa, has been engaged in contract projects in Nigeria for 30 years.

Liao Jianbin, a senior manager at CCECC Nigeria, told the Global Times that the Nigerian government usually doesn't have certain requirements on helping with unemployment when signing contracts with Chinese companies.

"But our company is attaching great importance to protecting local people's rights and interests," Liao said. "Now the company is encouraging us to employ more local residents to realize the company's localization strategy."

As of October, CCECC Nigeria had more than 5,000 Nigerians working for it. And the number will increase to 10,000 and 20,000 when a handful of the company's projects break ground by the end of this year, Liao said.

At the same time, the company has set up a sound welfare system for local workers, such as heathcare, pension and work-injury insurance plans, providing commuter buses and establishing a reasonable salary-growth system.

Of course, not every Nigerian jobseeker could gain a position in a Chinese company. "A number of job hunters don't speak fluent English, the working language of Chinese companies in Nigeria, which has generated big problems for us to offer them a job," said Tao Xiaoxu, a representative of Beijing-based Sinotec in Nigeria.

Now the company provides one to two months of special training for jobseekers to help them learn the language and certain techniques that will be useful in their future work, Tao said.

As for CCECC Nigeria, a number of Nigerian workers have entered mid-level management, as they have worked for the company for quite a long period. The company will ask these veterans to teach newcomers about their own experiences.

"Huge Chinese investment in African companies and infrastructure is helping Africa develop. … The Chinese bring what Africa needs: investment and money for governments and companies," Rwandan President Paul Kagame said in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblattin on October 11, according to AFP.

The president added that European and American involvement "has not brought Africa forward. Western firms have, to a large extent, polluted Africa, thinking of the dumping of nuclear waste in the Cote d'Ivoire, or the fact that Somalia is being used as a rubbish bin by European firms."

Friends or foes?

The West has accused China over its policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of its African partners, for it fails to promote good governance.

Over a recent US$7 billion mining deal between China International Fund and the Guinea government, the AP said China's practices have raised questions about whether the huge sums will hamper the progress of human rights and good governance in Africa, even as they raise the standards of living.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood…"

Paul T. Adujie, a Nigerian lawyer living in New York, wrote in his article, "China as friend and partner to Africa," that America and Europe, as starters, have been in Africa for almost a thousand years. Evidence of how America and Europe have pauperized Africa range from the slave trade to exploiting raw materials during the industrial revolution and more recently the stripping of Africa of its gold, diamonds, petroleum and cheap labor.

China was not involved in the slave trade of Africans, in the colonization of African countries, and China was not involved in imposing foreign religions on Africans. China was not involved in imposing foreign languages, such as English, French and Portuguese on Africans. China has not been involved in the assassination of African political leaders. China so far has been doing business in Africa, Adujie said.

"I would prefer the Western world invest in Africa rather than hand out development aid," Rwandan President Paul Kagame said. "There is a need for help, but it should be implemented in such a way as to enable trade and build up companies."

At the 2006 Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, the Chinese government promised to exempt 33 heavily indebted poor African countries that have diplomatic relations with China of their interest-free loan debts owed to China that matured at the end of 2005.

By the end of the first quarter of 2009, China had successfully exempted 150 accounts of matured debts owed by 32 countries, Ambassador Liu Zhenmin told the plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly.

In the future, China will provide further assistance and support to African countries in areas such as agriculture, education, health, medical care and clean energy, he said.

Africans should determine their own fate, Adujie said, adding that America and Europe must keep their hands off Africa and allow Africans to pick their worthy and meaningful partners. Africans are able to determine who are the true friends and partners of the continent, Adujie said.

(Global Times November 2, 2009)