Infrastructure in Ethiopia is expected to get a boost as China vowed to help upgrade the nation's power grid and road system. The pledge was part of a raft of deals signed by the two countries on May 4, hours after Premier Li Keqiang arrived at the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Premier Li Keqiang and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn opened a major expressway at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 5 and promised further cooperation on transportation infrastructure.
China signed a slew of deals with Nigeria on May 7, including cooperation on landmark infrastructure projects, on the first full day of Premier Li Keqiang's visit to the African economic powerhouse.
China is encouraging its enterprises to increase investment in Nigeria's manufacturing sector, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said on May 7.
Premier Li Keqiang is on a four-nation visit to Africa, his first to the continent after assuming office
For generations, Angola epitomized some of the world's worst woes: poverty, disease, starvation, maimed people and creaking, run-down infrastructure.
The challenge for China to maintain GDP growth of about 7 percent has exercised minds worldwide over the past two or three years, and in Africa concerns about lower figures boil down to the fact that many of the continent's economic hopes are hitched to those of China.
Times change and so do perceptions. In 2000, the Economist magazine, in a cover story, depicted Africa as "the hopeless continent". But last year, the same magazine did another cover story on Africa, but with a different theme. The cover showed the silhouette of a giraffe on a prairie, with its long neck indicating Africa's sharp economic growth curve and promise.
When the going gets tough, Wuhan Iron and Steel gets going seems to be the refrain that is propelling the Chinese steelmaker to dig deeper in Africa for natural resources, even as it encounters rough headwinds in the domestic market.
It is now accepted, not least by the Chinese government, that Chinese economic growth has reached a new, lower range of somewhere between 7 percent and 8 percent. Of course, this growth rate could fall further in the years ahead.
As the US gradually recovers from recession and grows economically and diplomatically again, emerging markets watch China closely and wonder how its performance will affect them.
He Shaoqiang, 60, is one of thousands of porters in Chongqing, the metropolis in Southwest China. With a rope and a bamboo stick, he can still carry 100-kilogram loads through the hilly streets of the city.
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