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I spend a lot of time in Ethiopia for my company. In many parts of Addis Ababa, the entire skyline is under construction - you can't look up anywhere without s
by typpo 8y ago
I spend a lot of time in Ethiopia for my company. In many parts of Addis Ababa, the entire skyline is under construction - you can't look up anywhere without seeing a new building in progress. The sound of hammers is ubiquitous. You can tell the place is booming.
Most of the large construction projects are run by Chinese companies, especially the Chinese State Construction Corp. New airport terminal, ministries, hotels, convention center, light rail, and so on. This has caused some discussion around Chinese taking construction jobs etc. You'll see these state-funded Chinese construction projects in pretty much every African country.
Although Addis is booming, the population still primarily lives in the countryside, and their quality of life is a lot lower. It's misleading to look at average income across the entire population because the city's economy is so far ahead of the rest of the country. This has probably contributed to some of the unrest.
- AdamM12 8y agoThis reminds me of the DW documentary I watched on their (Chinese) "aid" work in Africa. The Chinese gov lends money to they country and makes them use Chinese companies to do all the work and thus effectively brings much of the money back while dropping the legal obligation on the citizens of that nation.
- duxup 8y agoThere was an interesting article about other such deals with the Chinese. The Chinese would make a deal with an African nation and dump products on the market that they couldn't sell in nations who had an actual choice or quality standards that were enforced. The market would be flooded by cheap garbage tools, electronics, and etc. Quality products would disappear quickly as they were many times more expensive.... and then everyone realizes everything is garbage. Interesting enough the construction sites contain none of these tools (the Chinese workers don't use them), and the locals now can't afford to bring them on a special order because they're either locked out of the market or many more times expensive than before due to the trade deal. Crappy state run industries just keep on trucking at the expense of the locals in Africa.
- vkou 8y ago>The Chinese would make a deal with an African nation and dump products on the market that they couldn't sell in nations who had an actual choice or quality standards that were enforced. The market would be flooded by cheap garbage tools, electronics, and etc. Quality products would disappear quickly as they were many times more expensive.... and then everyone realizes everything is garbage. You've described free trade in a nutshell. More industrialized nations love these kinds of trade policies.
- hinkley 8y agoWhich is why anti-trust laws exist, and why 'dumping' is an activity that is usually prohibited.
- andrepd 8y agoWhich is why (i) it's not "free trade" then and (ii) multinationals love places where these restrictions don't apply.
- mywittyname 8y agoYou're being down-voted, but this is very similar to the US's policy on agricultural goods -- they provide "aid" (read: dump cheap staple goods like corn and wheat) into markets, which forces the domestic industries to grow produce that doesn't grow well in the US and export it at favorable rates. These countries are then dependent upon the US for staple crops. And when international prices for staples rise relative to exports, then their citizens are the first in line to starve, as the aid is conveniently just enough to eliminate domestic industries but not enough to feed everyone. See: Mexican Tortilla Riots & Arab Spring.
- AdamM12 8y agoI think you're attributing malice when maybe there is just inconsistent and/or competing policies written by multiple competing/overlapping bureaucracies. See this other [1] DW documentary I watched on EU ag. policies (which I'd bet are very similar to US). Jist of it is they are heavily subsidizing (with price floors) domestic (German) production while trying to spur production (with more subsidization) in the donee country that are unable to compete. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv3hSNhRaNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv3hSNhRaNU
- byproxy 8y agoWhich reminds me of the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." Sounds like he hit it on the nose.
- jpatokal 8y agoMany Western aid projects are also thinly disguised subsidies for well-connected companies back home. The main difference with China is sheer scale and the fact that they tend to import their own labor as well.
- imtringued 8y agoWhat did you expect? Borrowing a foreign currency means you can only use it to buy foreign products from a macroscopic perspective. Exchanging currency just moves it around because someone else still has the chinese currency and will use it to buy chinese products. The bigger question is if they will have an export surplus to china which is neccessary to repay the loans. This is how china paid back it's loans.
- pasbesoin 8y agoThis makes me think of the stories from a few years ago, about how Ethiopia was engaging in extensive telecommunications surveillance and control. It makes me wonder about corresponding relationships between the parent's description and this, if any. (Not that I haven't already been wondering; it reminds me of this.)
- fiatjaf 8y agoSeems like a printed-money-fueled bubble to me.