Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Why has China built a ghost town in Africa?

Eerie footage shows brand new  Angolan city designed for 500,000 lying empty


  • Nova Cidade de Kilamba has 750 eight-storey  blocks of apartments
  • But it has no residents, and the £75,000  cost is too much for slum-dwellers
  • Fears the £2.2billion project, built in  three years, could lay empty for years
  • Just a fraction of the billions China has  poured into Africa in recent years
 —

By  Daily Mail Reporter


It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city  for 500,000 – but eerie footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanisation is at  risk of becoming Africa’s first ‘ghost town’.
Constructed on the outskirts of Angola’s  capital city Luanda, Nova Cidade de Kilamba has 750 eight-storey blocks of  flats, a dozen schools and more than 100 shop units.
But, crucially, it has no residents, and many  of the nearby slum-dwellers cannot afford the £75,000 price-tag to move  in.
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Empty: It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city for 500,000 - but eery footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanisation is at risk of becoming Africa's first 'ghost town'
Empty: It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city for  500,000 – but eery footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanisation is at risk of  becoming Africa’s first ‘ghost town’

Empty: It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city for 500,000 - but eery footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanisation is at risk of becoming Africa's first 'ghost town'
Empty: It was supposed to be a state-of-the-art city for 500,000 - but eery footage shows how a Chinese-built urbanisation is at risk of becoming Africa's first 'ghost town'
Huge: Kilamba is the largest of several ‘satellite  cities’ being built by Chinese firms in Angola, and believed to be one of the  biggest new-build projects in Africa
Slum: The new development is a world away from the slums of LuandaSlum: The new development is a world away from the slums  of Luanda
This has sparked fears the £2.2billion  project, a fraction of the cash China has poured into Africa in recent years,  could lay abandoned for years to  come.
It has also highlighted the increasing  ‘colonisation’ of Africa by China, seen to be wanting the resource-rich  continent as a ‘satellite state’, in recent years.
It is said to be reminiscent of the West’s imperial push  in  the 18th and 19th centuries, with critics pointing to trade deals with more than  40 countries.
They also flag up the provision of billions  each year in loans to states on the  continent, which extends China’s political  as well as its economic influence.
It is seeing local black workers either paid  a pittance or pushed out completely in favour of Chinese labourers. And African  shops are now flooded with cheap Chinese products.
Sebastiao Antonio, 17, who travels on a bus  from an outlying area for three hours a day to get to one of the  opened  schools, told the BBC: ‘I really like this place.
Handful: Chinese workers were the only people seen on the streets of the city
       Handful: Chinese workers were the only people seen on  the streets of the city

Heralded: The new flats were supposed to mark a new era for Angola, but many have failed to sell        Heralded: The new flats were supposed to mark a new era  for Angola, but many have failed to sell

WHY IS CHINA BUYING UP  AFRICA?

Chinese influence has grown massively in  recent years across Africa, fuelled by natural resources such as oil, iron and  copper.
These are shipped to China and then end up  back in Africa in the form of vehicles or footwear.
Trade between Beijing and Africa was worth  £70billion by the turn of this decade. It was worth £4billion ten years before. 
Trade deals with more than 40 countries have  been signed, including Uganda, Kenya and Algeria.
The communists also provide billions each  year in loans to states on the continent, extending their political as well as  economic influence.
It is estimated that more than a million  Chinese have moved to Africa since trade started booming.
It led British Prime Minister David Cameron  to criticise the ‘authoritation capitalism’ of  China last year, by saying it  was unsustainable in the long term.
In comments about China’s growing  global  influence, he admitted the West was increasingly alarmed by  Beijing’s leading  role in the new ‘scramble for Africa’.
He said he was keen to counter the ‘Chinese  invasion’ of Africa and urged the continent to introduce democratic  reforms.
He also said Britain needed to forge a new  relationship with the continent now that the ‘shadow ‘of colonialism had been  lifted.
‘It’s got car parking, places for us to have  games like football, basketball  and handball. It’s very quiet, much calmer than  the other city, there’s  no criminality.’
But when asked if his family would move  there, he said: ‘No way, we can’t afford this. It’s impossible. And  there is  no work for my parents here.’
Kilamba street sweeper Jack Franciso, 32,  added: ‘Yes, it’s a nice place for sure but to live here you need a lot of  money. People like us don’t have money like that.’
He has a point. How can someone who earns an  average £1.30 per day afford luxury flats that range from £75,000 to  £130,000.
It seems it’s a question state-owned China  International Trust and Investment Corporation, which built the 12,355 acres  development in three years in exchange for oil, has not asked.
And it now means the city is at risk of  turning into the European ghost towns seen across Ireland and Spain.
Built during the property boom, they were  meant for people who never move in – leaving those who did with a worthless  property they cannot sell.
Kilamba is the largest of several  ‘satellite  cities’ being built by Chinese firms in Angola, and believed  to be one of the  biggest new-build projects in Africa.
Real estate adverts show its citizens  enjoying a stylish lifestyle away from the dust of the capital’s slums. But the  promotional material is  misleading, as almost 12 months since the first batch  of 2,800 flats  went on sale, only 220 have been sold.
Hardly anyone has moved in, there are few  shops and the only place to buy food is a supermarket at one entrance. A handful  of Chinese labourers, who live in containers next to the site,  seem to be the  only people walking the deserted streets.
But despite the perception that flat  prices  were too high, real estate agency Delta Imobiliaria, in charge of selling the  flats, said the real problem was in accessing bank credit.
Hopeful: But the sellers remain optimistic that sales will pick up                           Hopeful: But the sellers remain optimistic that sales  will pick up
Alone: A single jogger runs past empty apartment blocks in Sesena, where 30,000 people were due to liveLoneliness of the long-distance ruuner: A jogger in the  shadows runs past empty  apartment blocks in Sesena, a 45-minute drive south of  Madrid, Spain, where  30,000 people were due to live but is still almost  empty
Phantom: Landscaped areas, which were due to be constructed on, lie vacant on the outskirts of ghost town Sesena as the Spanish housing crisis continues to take its holdBarren plains: Landscaped areas, which were due to be  built on, lie  vacant on the outskirts of ghost town Sesena as the Spanish  housing  crisis continues to take its hold

Enlarge   Ghost estate: Auctioneers say the properties are now more likely to fetch 200,000 euros than the stated asking price of 800,000 euros     Chaos: Ireland also has its fair share of ghost estates,  this one featuring beautiful thatched cottages
Paulo Cascao, general manager, told the BBC:  ‘The prices are correct for the quality of the apartments and for all the  conditions that the city can offer.
‘The sales are going slowly due to the  difficulty in obtaining mortgages.’ He also revealed a section of the flats  would be designated social housing, for people on low incomes to pay rent at low  prices.
This is seen as a response to critics who say  the government needs to focus on building  low-cost housing for the ‘majority of the population’ who live in shacks with no  water, electricity or sanitation.

China’s push into Africa is ‘reminiscent of  the West in the 18th and 19th centuries’

Kilamba,  the vacant satellite city for 500,000 on the outskirts of Angola’s capital  Luanda, is just one of many China is building across the country – and across  the entire continent.
Over  the last decade, China has pumped billions of pounds into Africa, and is showing  no signs of slowing down. ANDREW MALONE writes why this means the West should be VERY worried.
Risky: Locals dig through mountains of mining waste looking for scraps of metal ore in The Congo         Risky: Locals dig through mountains of mining waste  looking for scraps of metal ore in The Congo
China’s push into Africa is said to be  reminiscent of the West’s imperial move  in the 18th and 19th centuries – but on  a much more dramatic, determined scale.
China’s rulers believe Africa can  become a  ‘satellite’ state, solving its own problems of over-population  and shortage of  natural resources at a stroke.
With little fanfare, a staggering  750,000  Chinese have settled in Africa over the past decade. And more  are believed to  be on their way.
The strategy has been carefully devised by  officials in Beijing, where one expert has estimated that China will eventually  need to send 300million people to Africa to solve the problems of  over-population and pollution.
The plans appear on track. Across  Africa,  the red flag of China is flying. Lucrative deals are being  struck to buy its  commodities – oil, platinum, gold and minerals.
New embassies and air routes are  opening up.  The continent’s new Chinese elite can be seen everywhere,  shopping at their own  expensive boutiques, driving Mercedes and BMW  limousines, sending their  children to exclusive private schools.
The pot-holed roads are cluttered  with  Chinese buses, taking people to markets filled with cheap Chinese  goods. More  than a thousand miles of new Chinese railroads are  crisscrossing the continent,  carrying billions of tons of  illegally-logged timber, diamonds and  gold.
The trains are linked to ports dotted around  the coast, waiting to carry the goods back to Beijing after  unloading cargoes  of cheap toys made in China.
Confucius Institutes (state-funded  Chinese  ‘cultural centres’) have sprung up throughout Africa, as far  afield as the tiny  land-locked countries of Burundi and Rwanda, teaching baffled local people how  to do business in Mandarin and Cantonese.
Massive dams are being built,  flooding  nature reserves. The land is scarred with giant Chinese mines,  with ‘slave’  labourers paid less than £1 a day to extract ore and  minerals.
Pristine forests are being destroyed, with China taking up to 70 per cent of all timber from Africa. All over this great continent, the Chinese presence is swelling into a flood. Angola has its own ‘Chinatown’, as do great African cities such as Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.
Exclusive, gated compounds, serving  only  Chinese food, and where no blacks are allowed, are being built all  over the  continent. ‘African cloths’ sold in markets on the continent  are now almost  always imported, bearing the legend: ‘Made in China’.
Never far away: The influence of the Chinese is always close at hand in Africa              Never far away: The influence of the Chinese is always  close at hand in Africa
From Nigeria in the north, to  Equatorial  Guinea, Gabon and Angola in the west, across Chad and Sudan  in the east, and  south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, China  has seized a vice-like  grip on a continent which officials have decided  is crucial to the superpower’s  long-term survival.
‘The Chinese are all over the place,’ says  Trevor Ncube, a prominent African businessman with publishing  interests around  the continent. ‘If the British were our masters  yesterday, the Chinese have  taken their place.’
Likened to one race deciding to adopt a new  home on another planet, Beijing has launched its so-called ‘One  China In  Africa’ policy because of crippling pressure on its own natural resources in a  country where the population has almost trebled from 500 million to 1.3 billion  in 50 years.
China is hungry – for land, food and  energy.  While accounting for a fifth of the world’s population, its oil  consumption has  risen 35-fold in the past decade and Africa is now  providing a third of it;  imports of steel, copper and aluminium have  also shot up, with Beijing  devouring 80 per cent of world supplies.
On the job: Chinese building workers in Zambia
                                                      On the job: A Chinese building worker in  Zambia
Fuelling its own boom at home, China  is also  desperate for new markets to sell goods. And Africa, with  non-existent health  and safety rules to protect against shoddy and  dangerous goods, is the perfect  destination.
The result of China’s demand for raw  materials and its sales of products to Africa is that turnover in trade  between Africa and China has risen expoentially.
However, there is a lethal price to  pay.  There is a sinister aspect to this invasion. Chinese-made war  planes roar  through the African sky, bombing opponents.
Chinese-made assault rifles and  grenades are  being used to fuel countless murderous civil wars, often  over the materials the  Chinese are desperate to buy.
After battling for years against the  white  colonial powers of Britain, France, Belgium and Germany,  post-independence  African leaders are happy to do business with China  for a straightforward  reason: cash.
With western loans linked to an  insistence  on democratic reforms and the need for ‘transparency’ in  using the money  (diplomatic language for rules to ensure dictators do  not pocket millions), the 
Chinese have proved much more relaxed about  what their billions are used for. Certainly, little of it reaches the continent’s impoverished 800  million  people. Much of it goes straight into the pockets of dictators.  In Africa,  corruption is a multi-billion pound industry and many experts believe that China  is fuelling the cancer.
The Chinese are contemptuous of such  criticism. To them, Africa is about pragmatism, not human rights. While  the  bounty has, not surprisingly, been welcomed by African dictators,  the people of  Africa are less impressed.
There have also been riots in Zambia, Angola  and Congo over the flood of Chinese immigrant workers. The  Chinese do not use  African labour where possible, saying black Africans  are lazy and  unskilled.
In Angola, the government has agreed  that 70  per cent of tendered public works must go to Chinese firms, most of which do not  employ Angolans. As well as enticing hundreds of  thousands to settle in Africa,  they have even shipped Chinese prisoners  to produce the goods  cheaply.
Where will it all end? As far as  Beijing is  concerned, it will stop only when Africa no longer has any  minerals or oil to  be extracted from the continent.
The people of this bewitching,  beautiful  continent, where humankind first emerged from the Great Rift  Valley,  desperately need progress. The Chinese are not here for that.
They are here for plunder. After centuries of  pain and war, Africa deserves better.

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