China, Brazil Competing in AfricaHere is an interesting article that speaks to how China does business in Africa. It may not warm your heart as to how it treats the locals, but it does speak to how they "get 'er done".
If the Chinese say they are going to build a road or a railway, I think we can probably expect a road or a railway will get built.
https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/23/us-brazil-africa-idUSTRE71M1I420110223
Some interesting tidbits I thought were interesting:
Where locals are employed, their rough treatment by Chinese managers has stirred bitterness. In Zambia last October, the Chinese managers of Collum Mine shot and wounded 11 local coal miners protesting over pay and
working conditions.
Odebrecht and other Brazilian firms are using every chance they have to keep up with their Chinese rivals, who often enjoy a massive financing advantage thanks to the deep pockets of Beijing, and who rarely pay much attention to factors like human rights
When it comes to sheer numbers, though, Brazil still lags a long way behind. China's agile, state-backed policies have pushed Beijing's trade with Africa to $107 billion a year. India too, has boosted links: India-Africa trade is about $32 billion a year. That puts Brazil, with $20 billion in trade in 2010 (it slipped after the credit crunch), in third place. Rounding out the BRIC economies, Russia trails a distant fourth, with just $3.5 billion in 2009, according to IMF data.
China has long enjoyed links with Africa, but the bonds have deepened since 2000, when Beijing embarked on a series of resource-backed deals in which Africa handed over oil, bauxite, iron ore and copper and cobalt in return for dams, power plants and other infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars. Chinese firms enjoy a plethora of financing opportunities from institutions like the China Exim Bank, the Bank of China and the China Development Bank. Sweeping in behind these deals, Chinese businesses -- from small street traders to mid-sized companies dealing in everything from construction materials to hotels -- have set up shop across the continent.
Almost three-quarters of Africans still rely on the land for their work, but most farms are subsistence level. The continent missed the Green Revolution that transformed India and China and has battled recurrent food shortages. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates Africa needs $11 billion in agriculture investment a year to feed its growing population.
For now, as in other sectors, real financial muscle is lacking. At the moment, according to Prado, Brazil's government spends just $17 million or so a year on agricultural cooperation projects in Africa. In 2009, China loaned a single country -- Angola -- $1 billion to rebuild its farming sector, crippled by years of fighting.