China will lobby African nations to snap up green tech exports

China will try to convince leaders from 50 African countries to purchase more of its green exports in return for more loans and investment at the China-Africa Cooperation Summit tomorrow, Reuters reports. The country is hoping to secure agreements before Western levies come into effect on some of their exports, mainly electric vehicles and solar panels.

A change in tactics: China wants to gain access to critical minerals — such as copper, cobalt, and lithium mainly from Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe — in exchange for more imports of its EVs and solar panels in Africa to replace buyers from the West. It has already begun amending conditions for its loans to Africa with more committed to green industries, including solar farms, EV plants and others. This is a change of policy for Beijing that is shifting away from funding major infrastructure projects in the continent.

In context- China is Africa’s “biggest two-way lender” with some 13 loans worth USD 4.2 bn provided last year to eight African countries and two regional banks, the newswire writes, citing data from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. The loans include USD 500 mn for hydropower and solar projects in Africa.

It might not be that easy: African leaders might not be easy to sway after China failed to meet its 2021 pledge to buy USD 300 bn of goods, Reuters writes. They’ll also need to see evidence of a game-plan to complete Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in Africa.

ON A RELATED NOTE- Resource-rich Africa is drawing interest from Southeast Asia: Indonesia is aiming to become a global EV battery production hub by leveraging its nickel reserves and partnering with Africa on critical minerals, Indonesia’s Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Pahala Mansury told Bloomberg in an interview. “Indonesia will need to work with Africa because not all of the critical minerals [including lithium, cobalt and graphite] that are required to produce battery materials are available in Indonesia,” Mansury said. Talks over such partnership were still preliminary pending geophysical survey results, he added.

What to expect: Indonesia aims to sign trade and investment agreements totalling USD 3.5 bn with Africa during the Indonesia-Africa Forum in Bali which wraps today, Mansury said. The agreements include projects in the gas, health, agriculture sectors among others, he said.