“China’s strength stems from its [preservation of its] history and culture. Even when it carried out an anti-capitalist revolution, it stuck to its history and culture. They reserved their resources for the next generation, even during their hardest times,” Sooma noted.
“Chinese leadership is not by chance but, rather, through cadre development and deployment through generations. Every generational leadership comes in with its new theme to reinforce the old themes. Every leadership comes in through deliberate and long-term preparation, unlike our haphazard leadership [selection] model. Now China has many capacities, leading to a surplus to share with other countries,” he added.
So, he challenged Africans to have a strategy and preparedness to make use of the Belt and Road Initiative opportunities. “We must have our own cadre training… Why do you take on a loan without viability, or a loan you won’t repay? We must agree to sacrifice for the next generation,” Sooma counselled.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a short form for ‘The Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road’. It was launched by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013, and it seeks to utilize ancient Chinese and other people’s wisdom and cultures in development and governance issues for a more stable and peaceful globalized world.
The ambassador said the initiative concerns international trade and peaceful development rather than politico-military alliances. It borrows experiences from China’s trade routes with the outside world 2,100 years ago when China benefited and also gifted various cultures, religions, civilizations and economic and technological development.
The belt was the land route connecting China with Middle Asia and Europe, while the silk road was the maritime route connecting China with South East Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Africa’s eastern coastline.
“I think the ancient Silk Road might be the first attempt in human history for globalization, a trend that is still developing now,” Zheng said.
He called BRI “China’s view of the world and view for common development”. He said globalization is not bad by itself; rather, the manner in which it is conducted.
“The challenge that globalization is facing is not because the notion of globalization itself is wrong, but that we should improve our ways for globalization. BRI aims to build a community with a shared future for mankind through extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. In doing so, the hope is to forge a new form of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation, and a new platform for globalization that create new drivers for shared development,” the ambassador emphasized.
Makerere University vice chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe described the BRI as the largest infrastructure project in the whole of recorded human history. The main discussant, Makerere University chancellor Ezra Suruma, said Ugandans and Africans ought to act with caution when entering into international contracts, not forgetting their colonial experiences.
While advising for due diligence and feasibility studies as justifications before accepting loans, Suruma said we also urgently need think tanks to help and correct state “bureaucrats who are slow, ignorant of new products and ideas, and some of them even corrupt.”
He observed that in these matters of international finance and trade, “Uganda is not yet as thorough as we should be”.
While thanking China for not having laborious conditionalities for loans and long loan negotiation and processing periods, Suruma observed that Uganda has a long way to achieve a balanced trade with China. He warned against the temptation of over-borrowing.
He proposed joint, rather than individual African country, negotiations with China since the latter is a huge country in terms of population and wealth. Suruma advised that we need to take on effective economic planning and critique the mixed-economy and private-sector-led paradigms which have proven less successful. He cautioned Africans not to easily forget their colonial and neocolonial experiences.
jmusinguzi@observer.ug
