Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao's delegation has signed loan and aid deals worth $90 million with Senegal, state media in the West African country reported on Saturday. Hu is in Senegal on the second leg of a four-nation African tour seen as an effort to reassure Africa that Beijing will not ease up on aid and investment during hard economic times and that its interests on the continent extend beyond oil and mining.
The deals included a 11.8 billion CFA ($23.25 million) loan to renovate Senegal's public buses, financing for a 25 billion CFA ($49.26 million) secure government communications system and a 9 billion CFA francs $17.73 million gift, government daily Le Soleil reported after a signing ceremony late on Friday. Funds for the communications system were secured through the Export-Import Bank of China, Senegalese state news agency APS reported.
Hu's delegation also signed a deal under which China will buy 10,000 tonnes of Senegalese groundnut oil, although Le Soleil gave no timeframe for the purchases. Groundnuts are one of the West African country's main crops. China's interests in Africa have multiplied in recent years, with trade rising 10-fold since 2000 to nearly $107 billion last year, and Beijing has been at pains to reassure African nations it will not desert them during the economic slowdown.
"China will keep its promise made at the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Co-operation Forum in November 2006 and will not reduce its aid to Africa as a result of China's efforts to address the global financial crisis," Hu said in Dakar in comments published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua. "China will urge the international community to pay attention to the difficulties the crisis has brought to Africa and to increase Africa's representation and voice in reforms of the international financial system," he said.
On Saturday, Hu visited the building site of a Grand National Theatre China is constructing in Senegal's capital Dakar, a stone's throw from a major port that serves much of West Africa. Chinese residents, whose numbers have risen exponentially since Senegal ditched the breakaway island of Taiwan and renewed diplomatic ties with Beijing in 2005, turned out to cheer Hu, some of them joining in vigorous African dances with locals.
Hu has already visited Mali, where he laid the first brick of a "Friendship Bridge" in the capital which he called China's largest ever gift to impoverished West Africa, and is due to continue to Tanzania and the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Analysts at home and abroad have noted that none of the countries Hu is visiting are major sources of the oil or minerals which dominate China's trade with Africa.
They are among the more successful democracies on a continent where many countries are scarred by generations of despotic rule and civil wars. Some human rights campaigners criticise China's "no strings attached" policy and accuse Beijing of ignoring rights abuses while doing business in countries like Sudan and Zimbabwe. Others say the relationship is lopsided, with China using its economic influence and substantial bargaining power to gain more than its African counterparts in trade benefits and jobs.