Dr. Sylvia O. Blyden standing at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Press Center yesterday just before the Press Briefing started
Beijing, China?- ?Sylvia O. Blyden (in China) & Aruna Turay (in Freetown) -??The Government of the People?s Republic of China has yesterday July 18th 2012 signalled its approval and readiness to assist the people of Sierra Leone harness the best out of their natural resources. Director General of the Department of African Affairs at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mr. Lu Shaye, was speaking in response to a question put to him by the Awareness Times publisher at a jam-packed international press conference in Beijing, the capital of China.
Dr. Sylvia Blyden who was amongst selected journalists from around the world who were specially invited to China to cover the past few days of China-Africa celebrations, had asked Mr. Lu Shaye who chaired yesterday?s press conference, to speak of the Chinese Government?s position with respect to the massive 1.5 Billion U.S. Dollars Foreign Direct Investment by China?s Shandong Iron & Steel Group into the African Minerals iron ore mines at Tonkolili, Northern Sierra Leone.
?That is a good investment from our Shandong Province. It is infact a very good example of China-Africa win-win cooperation. China and the Chinese Government stand ready to cooperate with Sierra Leone to change its natural resources into its capabilities of development? Lu Shaye responded.
Director-General of African Affairs Mr. Lu Shaye and Head of Chinese Foreign Ministry Communications, Mr. Wu Jie
Dr. Blyden also asked the Chinese Government if a planned Chinese development aid package to Africa to be announced by the Chinese President today July 19th 2012 will reveal how much assistance the Chinese are going to be giving to Sierra Leone specifically and if such assistance for African countries would be given according to the proportion of win-win benefit that China can reap from such countries.
?Tomorrow, the President will announce figures and proposals but will not name specific countries. That will be determined by other departments in China. There will be no discrimination according to size of resources but it will be equal cooperation determined by actual needs of specific African States and China?s own capabilities,? Lu Shaye responded at the international press briefing.
Meanwhile, back home, the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) functionaries have told this paper, those 2007 Elections Manifesto proposals of the APC for the economy insofar as foreign direct investment was concerned, were all on target and had ?surpassed our wildest expectations?. It is a fact that Sierra Leone currently enjoys the fastest predicted growth rate in the world and enjoys a massive foreign direct investment into Africa over the last 12 months despite its relatively small size.
An examination of the opening paragraph of the APC?s 2007 Elections Manifesto displays the APC?s lamentation that:
?Sierra Leone is endowed with rich human and diverse natural resources, yet its economic and social infrastructure are poorly developed. The economy under the [SLPP] Government is bankrupt and propped up by the grace of institutional donor funds which are grossly misused. Furthermore our economy is characterized by many factors including endemic institutional corruption, alarmingly chronic youth employment, unbearable cost of living and a lack of political resolve to check and curb corruption?.
The APC?s 2007 Manifesto had identified some key negative factors in this area to include large scale unemployment, low wages, weak private sector, and a difficult climate for doing business.
The APC had then proposed to commit itself to reviving the economy, creating a conducive atmosphere for doing business and embarking on policies that will enable the resumption of growth in the mining sector amongst others.
The APC had also promised to be ?pursuing policies that will promote private sector development and encouraging direct foreign investment?.
APC?s 2007 Manifesto had revealed strategies to include facilitating an investor friendly atmosphere all with the aim of creating jobs for the country?s population which was impoverished from years of chronic corruption and squirreling NPRC junta brutal rule and their siblings RUF rebel destructions.
Sylvia Blyden and other top International Journalists
Factually, foreign direct investors like the Chinese backed Tonkolili Iron Project of African Minerals and the London Mining?s flagship investment have created massive increase in well paid jobs in the country. They, amongst other credible investors have all helped to ensure that the APC?s dreams for Sierra Leone?s economy slowly comes to fruition despite the crippling global economic downturn which has seen large western economies like Greece, Italy, Spain, America and many, many others go down on their knees whilst prices of commodities on the world market skyrocketed.
However, as the APC Leader, President Koroma has repeatedly stated, his regime has worked extremely hard to cushion the effects of the global crisis on his citizens.
This, and the stated readiness of the Chinese Government to stand ready to support direct Chinese investment into Sierra Leone in order to help us develop, are amongst reasons why many APC members tell Awareness Times, they have their heads lifted high these days when they walk around the country and see so many of their 2007 Manifesto dreams have come true.
? 2012, Sylvia Olayinka Blyden. All rights reserved.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewstimeAfrica/~3/VbKPo2Q8J9k/26913
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