May 9, 2011 – Republic of Mining

Plan Nord Versus Grow North: Quebec’s Northern Policy Trumps Ontario’s – by Livio Di Matteo

May 10, 2011May 9, 2011

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

May 9, 2011

Quebec has just announced its own northern growth plan and it appears to be more focused and concrete in resource allocation terms than the recently released Ontario Northern Growth Plan. Ontario’s Northern Growth Plan was “a call to action and a roadmap for change” organized to provide policy direction for growth around six principles: (1) a globally competitive economy, (2) education and skllls for a knowledge economy, (3) aboriginal partnership, (4) networks of social, transport and communications infrastructure, (5) sustainable environment and (6) innovative partnerships to maximize resource potential.

The plan had detailed checklist for short, medium and long-term actions that required implementation and of course more planning including regional plans within the region. Indeed, if one could summarize the Ontario plan, it is simply a plan to rule all plans and the planning is not over yet. The major resource announcements that accompanied it were five million dollars for a policy institute (on which little has been said since) and a few million dollars to begin integrated transport planning.

The Chinese in Africa: Trying to pull together – (The Economist – April 23, 2011)

May 9, 2011

The Economist is one of the most globally respected English-language weekly news publications, focusing on international politics, business and opinion.

Africans are asking whether China is making their lunch or eating it

ZHU LIANGXIU gulps down Kenyan lager in a bar in Nairobi and recites a Chinese aphorism: “One cannot step into the same river twice.” Mr Zhu, a shoemaker from Foshan, near Hong Kong, is on his second trip to Africa. Though he says he has come to love the place, you can hear disappointment in his voice.

On his first trip three years ago Mr Zhu filled a whole notebook with orders and was surprised that Africans not only wanted to trade with him but also enjoyed his company. “I have been to many continents and nowhere was the welcome as warm,” he says. Strangers congratulated him on his homeland’s high-octane engagement with developing countries. China is Africa’s biggest trading partner and buys more than one-third of its oil from the continent. Its money has paid for countless new schools and hospitals. Locals proudly told Mr Zhu that China had done more to end poverty than any other country.

He still finds business is good, perhaps even better than last time. But African attitudes have changed. His partners say he is ripping them off. Chinese goods are held up as examples of shoddy work. Politics has crept into encounters. The word “colonial” is bandied about. Children jeer and their parents whisper about street dogs disappearing into cooking pots.

Rumble in the jungle – Africa and China – (The Economist – April 23, 2011)

May 9, 2011

The Economist is one of the most globally respected English-language weekly news publications, focusing on international politics, business and opinion.

CHINA has a competitive advantage that is rare among economic powers investing in faraway developing countries: a lack of ancient hostility. In the past decade Chinese investors have been welcomed with open arms in places where Western colonial powers once misbehaved and their descendants sometimes still arouse suspicion.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese have comfortably set up shop in Africa, bringing with them economic growth and useful technical skills. Their government, eager to loosen constraints on resources and industrial expansion at home, supports them with abundant loans. Africa now supplies 35% of China’s oil. Two-way trade grew by 39% last year.

China deserves credit for engaging a continent that desperately needs investment. Millions of Africans are using roads, schools and hospitals built by Chinese companies or financed with fees from resources they extracted. Not surprisingly, many African leaders have embraced the Chinese, especially when offered vast loans for infrastructure projects. By contrast, the leaders say, Western governments these days offer little more than lectures on good governance.