Good African transport infrastructure is required to develop trade:

China's role:

Omar Tchilombo

More than any other continent, Africa is struggling with the high cost of inadequate and lack of good transport infrastructures. This enormous problem prevents countries from going very far along the road to development.

Although some countries are registering impressive economic growth, the continent has been facing several challenges that are deterring its upward trajectory. Key among them is inadequate road construction in Africa.

South African academic Cobus Van Staden puts his finger on the weak spots stating that "African development hinges on a maddening paradox: its greatest asset-the sheer size and diversity of its landscape-is also the greatest barrier to its development. Landlocked countries are cut off from ports, and the difficulty of moving goods from country to country weighs down intra-continental trade (only 15% of African trade is within Africa)".

In fact, the African continent has a big project on highways which was designed a long time ago. Launched in 1971 by UNECA (United Nations Economic Comission for Africa), it is a network of nine highways whose envisioned connections among one another would cover a combined total of about 60,000 kilometres across the continent. One of these planned highways would stretch 8,000 kilometres between Cairo and Dakar; another for 8,000 kilometres between Cairo and Cape Town; a third for 6,000 kilometres between Lagos and Mombasa; and a fourth for 4,700 kilometres between Dakar and Lagos. Yet, only one has been completed so far: the Trans-Sahelian Highway, which runs 4,500 kilometres between Dakar in Senegal and N'Djamena in Chad. This Highway, also known as the Dakar-N'Djamena Highway, is route number 5 in the Trans-African Highway Network. It forms a strategic link through Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, connecting five capital cities - Dakar, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Niamey and N'Djamena - and countless towns and villages in between. The others are only half finished. The Africa Development Bank, one of the project's financial backers, cites conflict and climatic conditions as reasons for the slow progress, especially in countries like Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Anyway, African countries and cities should be connected with strong transportation networks, particularly road and rail, so why don't we have them after all these years since independence? Well, funding for one thing, was the main cause. Also, costs are driven up by a host of factors: tariffs, border delays, corruption. But the biggest challenge is that no streamlined transport route exists between West and East Africa - only a decaying and underdeveloped road and rail system which pushes up costs and drags down efficiency. Nevertheless, several ambitious schemes have been proposed to link Africa's east and west coasts.

One has to stress the rail component which is even more challenging than the road component, since most of the pre-existing rail connections would have to be upgraded from narrow to standard gauge, and massive gaps.

Nowadays there are examples of improving efficiency as a new vision takes shape. One of them is the recently opened line between Ethiopia and Djibouti. Built at a cost of $4.2 billion, the first electric train service on the continent is expected to make a dramatic impact on trade. Another big project is the East African Rail Master Plan, a proposal to rejuvenate lines among countries like Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

In this context, there's a main protagonist which is also gaining ground on several other matters: China! In recent decades, Chinese investment and loans in Africa have risen dramatically, and so have positive views of China. Many, especially westerners berate Chinese behaviour, arguing that they are exploiting Africa's natural resources. However, the data shows otherwise. The benefit has been mutual, and so far favours Africans. China became the largest trade partner to Africa in 2009. Its investment and loans have focused on developing African infrastructure, rather than on siphoning off the continent's mineral wealth. To have a clearer idea, we would have only to take a close look at this data: Chinese investment has grown to 5% of Africa's total foreign direct investment in 2016 from just 2% in 2010, and if investment growth persists at half of current rates, China's investment position would reach $100 billion by 2020.

For a long period, China has been supporting the development of African infrastructure. Under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese and African cooperation in this arena has become even more important.

Between 2000 and 2014, the top four African business sectors receiving Chinese loans were: transportation (28%), energy (20%), mining (10%), communication (8%).

In fact, the BRI is a sprawling transnational infrastructure expansion project that has rapidly become the centerpiece of Chinese outward investment. As Cobus Van Staden points out, "more pertinent to Africa, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is a sea route from China to Greece. It travels via the India Ocean to Mombasa, Kenya, and then through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean. On paper, BRI only grazes Sub-Sahara Africa before moving north to Egypt. However, Mombasa also becomes the node where the Belt and Road Initiative meets East Africa's Standard Gauge Railway. This connection enables a host of development opportunities that in turn could help to fund some of these trans-continental rail networks."

Yet, to develop Infrastructure projects like railway, road, power and telecommunication, it requires lots of investment, but most African countries are not in a position to finance these projects on their own. That is where the Red Dragon Country comes in. It provides financial support through equity participation or direct loans.

The dream of a connection between the extremities of the continent, and a resultant increase in Africa trade and development has long haunted Africans. Thus, the evolution of unified development goals such as the African Union's Agenda 2063, shared regional and continental institutions enabling measures such as the recently decided continental free trade agreement, and the presence of new sources of development funding makes this dream seem more achievable. However, completing the dream of unifying the continent is going to demand complex choices, as Africa will have to ask hard questions about debt, sovereignty, and foreign power influence. At this point the balance sways to China's side.