China is likely to boost imports from
African countries as it seeks new sources of commodities in the wake of a
trade war with the United States, a senior executive of Standard
Chartered Bank in China said.
Trade links between the Asian economic
powerhouse and African nations like Kenya have been growing robustly in
recent years, offering opportunities to lenders who serve Chinese
clients doing business on the continent like Standard Chartered.
Standard Chartered’s Global Head of the
Internationalisation of the Chinese currency, renminbi (RMB), Carmen
Ling, cautioned there would be no winners from the trade war in the
short term, but added some African nations could gain in the long term.
“We believe that countries like Kenya
and Nigeria will benefit because China will look to import more from
Africa; some agricultural products from Kenya, some oil products from
Nigeria,” she told Reuters on Monday.
“Trade flow patterns will change because China will need to look for new trade partners.”
Kenya’s trade with China grew 59 percent
in the four years to 2017, to a total of $5.2 billion, Standard
Chartered said, boosting the bank’s business from Chinese clients
operating in Kenya by “double digits”.
The East African nation turned to China
over the past few years for funds, technology and equipment to develop
its infrastructure, including its biggest project since independence, a
$3.2 billion railway linking Mombasa to Nairobi, which was opened last
year.
“We see more and more Chinese clients
coming to Kenya, we have seen Kenya grow in importance to become a belt
and road hub. This is the gateway,” Ling said.
She was referring to China’s “One Belt,
One Road” initiative, a multi-billion-dollar series of infrastructure
projects upgrading land and maritime trade routes between China and
Europe, Asia and Africa.
The initiative has caused anger in some
quarters with critics saying it increases China’s loans to African
nations, placing a debt burden on future generations.
Ling, decried the slow adoption of the
RMB in trade settlements for deals between China and Africa, partly
blaming the problem on lack of adequate clearing houses for the
currency.
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