In a ‘disgrace’ to its history of struggle, the Dalai Lama will be banned from travelling to South Africa, a country where traditionally, he was welcomed. The ban, apparently due to the World Cup next year, according to a South African delegate, is clearly the latest signal of Beijing’s growing power and influence in Africa and is reported as being an obvious move caused from pressure from the Chinese government. India’s Exim Bank is working on a plan to capitalize on infrastructure projects in Africa that offer lucrative opportunities despite the global financial crisis. Export-Import (Exim) Bank of India, which has already provided a line of credit of about $2 billion to Africa to purchase Indian equipment and project exports, is considering another $600 million for the continent. “Africa is the focus area of our operations…currently there are some lines of credit under consideration which could be in the terms of about $600 million,” Exim Bank executive director SR Rao told reporters. The credit could be extended to the areas such as infrastructure projects, power generation, agriculture and education, according to Rao. Africa accounts for more than half of Exim Bank’s line of credit and the flow to is expected to rise. China has agreed to build several power plants in Pakistan to help the South Asian nation deal with its worsening electricity crisis. When completed over the next several years, these plants, which include Nandipur, Guddu, and Neelam-Jhelum, will add more than 2000 MW of power generating capacity for the energy-hungry country. The Export-Import Bank of China will lead the multi-national bank financing and China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) will provide political risk and credit default insurance for the first 425 MW project at Nanipur, estimated to cost $329 million, according to Associated Press of Pakistan.

And Later….Why Foreign Aid to Africa Is Not Working - An opinion editorial on why concessional loans and grants encourage corruption and discourage free enterprise.

Other participating banks include BNP-Paribas, HSBC Bank plc, and CIC France. The lead contractor is China’s Dongfang Electric Corporation Limited, with G.E. France as a sub-contractor. Political risk has indeed been rising in developing South Asian nations such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The cost of insurance against political and economic risk has also been going up, as the global economic crisis unfolds. Ominous news ahead - China has blocked the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube but did not offer a reason for the ban. Google, which owns YouTube, said it began noticing a decline in traffic from China about noon Monday. ”We do not know the reason for the blockage and we are working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users,” said Scott Rubin, a spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube. In March 2008, China blocked YouTube during riots in Tibet. 

And Later….Why Foreign Aid to Africa Is Not Working - An opinion editorial on why concessional loans and grants encourage corruption and discourage free enterprise.