What about the “Compact With Africa” program pompously called the German Marshall Plan for Africa? The copy is certainly to be reviewed in view of the monstrous envelope of 60 billion dollars that Chinea proposed to its African partners about two months ago. The German replica, in the form of 1 billion euros, intended to support the financing of SMEs in Africa, does not weigh heavily on paper.
Recall the context. On the sidelines of the “G20 Compact with Africa” summit, held in Berlin on Tuesday 30 October, the Goethe country made the commitment to boost its volume of investments towards the continent. Like the Chinese initiative, this program is essentially aimed at encouraging German and international companies to invest in Africa.
The other objective would be to support African SMEs so that they can make a strong contribution to the economic growth of their countries. Last year, foreign direct investment by the leading eurozone power to Africa amounted to between $ 60 billion and $ 70 billion. Meanwhile, China briskly broke the $ 400 billion mark.
A relatively small investment pushes the economic giant (4th world power) to adopt a new approach. For the moment, the Compact Africa program only concerns 11 African countries (Benin, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia) where China embraces the whole continent, from North to South. But, as with Berlin as with Beijing, the logic seems to be the same: to buy the raw materials and to conquer the African markets. As it was 60 years ago during the Cold War, it is a rich and passive Africa that is at the center of the stakes of the East-West trade war.