(JollofNews) – Chinese and French companies are bidding to help Gambia build up its Atlantic port Banjul to be what industry sources say could be a rival to neighboring Senegal’s Dakar.
It would be one of the first major structural changes in Gambia following the end of President Yahya Jammeh’s more than 20-year rule in January.
State-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) (601800.SS) says one of its subsidiaries has made a bid for a 140 million euro ($159.91 million) contract Gambia has launched to redevelop the port.
France’s Bollore Group (BOLL.PA) has also submitted an offer to develop the port for hundreds of millions of dollars, sources told Reuters, and was part of a recent delegation of French investors to the country.
The port was run by a state agency during Jammeh’s rule. It is considered to have strategic potential thanks to its easy access to Atlantic shipping lanes.
Abdoulie Tambedou, managing director of the Gambia Ports Authority said there had already been several offers.
“The Chinese are interested in investing in the infrastructure for an overall envelope of 140 million euros,” he told Reuters in an interview. “We hope to agree the financing in the next six months.”
An official at CCCC confirmed that one of its subsidiaries was bidding for the contract, without specifying which. In a sign of their interest, a witness saw a Chinese delegation visiting the port last week.
Tambedou confirmed Bollore’s offer, without giving the price, and said this included both infrastructure costs and the rental concession.
Chinese interest in the project follows China’s resumption of diplomatic ties with former Taiwan ally Gambia last year under the “one China” policy, which states that self-ruled Taiwan is part of China. President Adama Barrow’s new government reaffirmed that position in February.
China is also a major market for Gambia’s exports, which globally are mainly peanuts, wood, cashews, fish and fruit.
Upgrading the port will take 30-36 months to complete, Tambedou said.
STRUGGLING
Gambia is poor. It ranks 173 out of 189 countries on the U.N. Human Development Index, below Haiti.
It is badly in need of key infrastructure development. There is not a single bridge across its eponymous 1,120 km (695 mile)-long river that wiggles up the length of the country, for example.
People and goods have to be shipped across on ferries – or go around.
Gambia is nonetheless seen as a key transit country for reaching remote areas of Guinea, Mali and Senegal that are easier to access from Banjul than from the countries’ own ports and capitals.
Space constraints at the port, however, mean that arriving cargo ships often have to wait at anchorage before entering.
Since the departure of Jammeh, Tambedou said that trade was picking up, with shippers sending imports such as sugar in bigger volumes than before.
By Emma Farge
(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Aaron Ross and Jeremy Gaunt)
Courtesy of Reuters
If #France does not have the contract #Gambia must expect rebellion or some form of instability in the country. That is the game the West (particularly #France) plays in #Africa.
Gambia will not be a chessboard for no devils in disguise by God’s grace. Claims were that Marcus Mosiah’s own black brothers sold him out for rice and beans and we’d be fools not to learn from such lessons. When Africa unites, the plans will be laid out on the tables of the AU, not in France by the French.
Long live Republique du Senegal
Long live the AU
Long live ECOWAS
Long live the Republic of the Gambia.
If one is down below in the Index to that magnitude (173 out of 189 countries on the U.N. Human Development Index, below Haiti) it must follow that following development, unless managed by outsourced partners, the port could just as easily fall into disrepair – just like everything else in the past 50 or so years! Why because the Index above also includes, as well as including “capital underdevelopment” it also most damningly includes “Organisational underdevelopment” – or lack of institutional structures , and therefore ability to organise, and manage anything!
See for example, the Stadium at Bakau, or the Mile 2 Jail, or any other structure, roads, etc, though still structurally sound and usable, it nevertheless is at a standard far below what it was when first put to use, and that is taking into consideration natural wear and tear properly managed by, say, annual or even trinary refurbishment of paint work, sealing of potholes, or other upkeeps.
Without outsourcing the management of the port, it could be that our “organisational underdevelopment”, might in time come to negate any structural development whether by the Chinese or by the French!, of course in one case (the french, we also have to be content with full scale colonisation – France Style, which is to envelopment Gambia into the WEST African CFA Zone. And everyone knows that though creation of the West African CFA zone, the EURO, as far as French goes can be artificially propped up simply by West african CFA Zone acceptance of by a much, very much lower standard of living – it suits French Exports which has been increasingly falling out of favour in Europe and around the world where, french technology has come to be viewed as not only expensive, but flawed. The Koreans, and Chinese having a far, far better record of delivering projects on time and to budget. The other downside with going french is that they are a militaristic people who have become accustomed to forcing their will on defenceless African people, as evidenced by the fact that every ex-French colony in Africa has had a bloody, and ongoing civil way and strife, except Senegal, which is very close to Gambia, and almost of the same temperament – but MACKY SALL is set to change all that with his continuous bickering with the Mandinka elements of West Africa including the Mandinka led government in Guinea, and Mali. I was surprised to learn that he cannot even speak Mandinka, never mind Jola! But he can speak French. I don’t know any French parliamentarian who has bothered to speak Fulani, let alone wollof, and nevermind Mandinka, or Jolla. Yet they have all, without exception benefitted from the fore fathers’ creaming off Africa for more than 400 years!
Accordingly with going for french can only mean that with military force, Gambia will end up with, as observed by Charles Dickens, a King with a large Jaw/big stomach and a pea brain over the thrown of Gambia for a long time.
At least in the Chinese we have very much a neutral player that is widely accepted and trusted in Africa as development partners, they exercise restraint in political, social, matters, are neutral, will deliver on time and on budget. Moreover there is no pressure to kill off the Dalasi, and coerce us into accepting, for ever, a role in artificially popping up the living standards of the lazy and arrogant, and militaristic French with, mostly, flawed technology.
I have a Senegal ancestry, and have faced subtle, but nevertheless real discrimination at the hands of the pea brained Barrow government for that reason. However, I am not disgruntled, , rather I consider it a blessing in disguise), but here, I am just stating the facts as I find them!
It is always distressing to see ones assets and heritage being auctioned off so very cheaply. That port is unique enough to attach a development Capital close to few $Billion, not a few $million And in the words of Kwame Nkrumah, it is better to manage, or even to mismanage once own affairs, than to have someone else manage it for you.
He might as well have been talking to the Chinese!
Scared, the problem with The Gambia, it’s a very small country, Which can not defend herself from anything, that was the whole Idea of turning Africa from a country into a continent, so that Africa would be easier to manage(colonies) any of those big countries can come and take any country in Africa if they really want too! and Africans can not do a thing about it! Until Africa is structured like the USA, one President, one Bank, one Army, one currency, one country, she will remain at the mercy of her colonial masters. Gaddafi had the right vision.
I agree with President Kwame Nkrumah.
Ps. Most Africans have big plans for when they go to heaven, not while their here on earth!
If I may ask, What did President Kwame Nkrumah said about the Gambia?
Reaper…; it’s looks like (that)… you right on this; & unless the African recalibrate mentality orientation, we certainly got long way to go, to get yet near when it actual fact very far in realistic dreams achievements…
Even the “Hereafter” is said (supposed) to be (worked for honestly) earned &/ obtained from “Here” (on earth while alive); so as to proceed (as both at peace with your very own self) & consume the looked-forward-to “Rewards”; for the selflessness & truth, that one deliberated upon to best of one’s abilities, awareness &/ mentality, etc etc…
We can have (our) various political &/ apolitical divisions; BUT the communal societal advancements enablement can only be smoother with our collective genuine contributions regardless & nothing less…
I think Gambians need to learn French, Chinese, and Russian; Probably in that order.
Let us not fool ourselves.The present situation of the world in all aspects have been predicted by the holy scripts.That is what we should use as a barometer. When the Africans were enslaved and maltreated in the Americas ,what followed we have seen. Within 1807 to the first world which erupted in 1913 to 1914 is not even a decade in between. The very countries who were at the pick like Portugal and Spain had their fortunes slipped from their hands. Certain developments as consequences ushered the the independence movements that have passed it’s teething period ato least. And now we are trapped by the ideology of Globalisation with a lot conspiracy theories alleged coming along with it. The simple saying has it you will reap what you sow and that has been the standing order proven beyond all reasonable doubt. There are many facts to substantiate those claims if only one would research and analyes history.
Research the past and you will know why we are in this, at the same time it will prepare you for the future.
For sure they foil you with a free gift then exploit for all of their worth. In America they gained land for mirrors and beads, and strong whisky. Then turned it into Gold.
In Africa they bribed a few to enslave many. Isn’t it rich they now export sugar into Gambia, from their////your inheritance ; Africa is the richest and most exploited continent in human history. Betrayal by proxy today. Where there is money, it will always find a friend.