9 Billion Dollar Barter Deal
The Democratic Republic of Congo is trading with a massive state-owned firm based in Beijing, the China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC). They’re planning a new road which will be the first endeavor of the biggest single deal China’s ever done in Africa, worth $9 billion.
Due to be signed in Beijing shortly, it gives DR Congo $6 billion of desperately needed infrastructure — about 2,400 miles of road, 2,000 miles of railway, 32 hospitals, 145 health centers, and two universities.
In return, China gets a slice of DR Congo’s precious natural resources to feed its booming industries — 10 million tons of copper and 400,000 tons of cobalt. It’s a barter deal, what the Chinese side loves to call “win-win.” Not aid with strings attached, like Western powers have given DR Congo over the years, but pure business.
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