AID POLICY: Will pressure make Chinese aid more transparent?
| “The culture is about face-saving: give them respect and they will be more open to listening.” (Photo: Philip Jägenstedt/Flickr) |
Unfavourable attention may have prompted China to become more public about its aid policy, said Wang. “The Chinese government does care about its international image and the international media.”
LONDON, 26 March 2012 (IRIN)
- Critics
have long characterized China as a
secretive donor in economically poor but resource-rich countries,
funding infrastructure construction in an unspoken bid for business
deals and access to natural wealth and land. While China
disburses aid with a scant paper trail, analysts say strong-arming its
government to boost transparency - and aid efficacy - may hurt countries
in need.
In Southeast Asia,
Chinese-funded projects have become ubiquitous in Cambodia, Laos and
Myanmar, countries once passed over by traditional donors.
In river-rich Laos, a government
development plan calls for 55 new dams to generate hydroelectric power,
many of them funded by Chinese state-owned companies. Laotian media
reported that China’s government recently signed five agreements
pledging more than US$30 million to build government offices.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen,
inaugurated one of the largest Chinese construction projects in the
country in December 2011, a dam in fertile Kampot Province in the
southeast. This project comes on top of $1.2 billion the
Chinese government pledged to Laos in 2010 - more than any other
bilateral or multilateral donor.
Officials also welcomed Chinese
aid in August 2011, when the World Bank suspended new loans to the
country after finding that a Bank-financed land-titling project failed
to secure property rights for residents facing eviction.
Cambodian leaders - including the prime
minister - have repeatedly stated they are not worried about losing
World Bank loans (which currently total $131 million) because they prefer “no strings” Chinese aid.
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