New development cycle through long-term investment ?

Gabon’s recent ambition to reduce its dependency on oil revenue by diversifying its economy coincides with China’s growing investment in resource-rich African countries. Within the wide range of Sino–Gabonese co-operation, the mining sector – and above all the Bélinga iron ore project – is central t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Romain Dittgen
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Pôle de Recherche pour l'Organisation et la diffusion de l'Information Géographique 2011-09-01
Series:EchoGéo
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/12547
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832579090706595840
author Romain Dittgen
author_facet Romain Dittgen
author_sort Romain Dittgen
collection DOAJ
description Gabon’s recent ambition to reduce its dependency on oil revenue by diversifying its economy coincides with China’s growing investment in resource-rich African countries. Within the wide range of Sino–Gabonese co-operation, the mining sector – and above all the Bélinga iron ore project – is central to both parties’ interests. Omar Bongo’s regime promoted this large-scale project as the flagship of the national economy. However, despite the promise of infrastructure development and employment opportunities, Gabon’s attempt at diversification seems limited and is not leading towards any major structural change. A number of issues have challenged the realisation of the Bélinga project and introduced new risks and costs for the Chinese. These include commodity price volatility, the death of president Omar Bongo in 2009 and increasing dissent among civil society. The paper reviews development opportunities linked to the the Bélinga project and analyses China’s evolving approach towards the project.
format Article
id doaj-art-717275612da4446d8c2fcf250d9f7d8b
institution Kabale University
issn 1963-1197
language fra
publishDate 2011-09-01
publisher Pôle de Recherche pour l'Organisation et la diffusion de l'Information Géographique
record_format Article
series EchoGéo
spelling doaj-art-717275612da4446d8c2fcf250d9f7d8b2025-01-30T12:44:10ZfraPôle de Recherche pour l'Organisation et la diffusion de l'Information GéographiqueEchoGéo1963-11972011-09-011710.4000/echogeo.12547New development cycle through long-term investment ?Romain DittgenGabon’s recent ambition to reduce its dependency on oil revenue by diversifying its economy coincides with China’s growing investment in resource-rich African countries. Within the wide range of Sino–Gabonese co-operation, the mining sector – and above all the Bélinga iron ore project – is central to both parties’ interests. Omar Bongo’s regime promoted this large-scale project as the flagship of the national economy. However, despite the promise of infrastructure development and employment opportunities, Gabon’s attempt at diversification seems limited and is not leading towards any major structural change. A number of issues have challenged the realisation of the Bélinga project and introduced new risks and costs for the Chinese. These include commodity price volatility, the death of president Omar Bongo in 2009 and increasing dissent among civil society. The paper reviews development opportunities linked to the the Bélinga project and analyses China’s evolving approach towards the project.https://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/12547Bélinga projectGabon-ChinaFDIeconomic diversificationmining activity
spellingShingle Romain Dittgen
New development cycle through long-term investment ?
EchoGéo
Bélinga project
Gabon-China
FDI
economic diversification
mining activity
title New development cycle through long-term investment ?
title_full New development cycle through long-term investment ?
title_fullStr New development cycle through long-term investment ?
title_full_unstemmed New development cycle through long-term investment ?
title_short New development cycle through long-term investment ?
title_sort new development cycle through long term investment
topic Bélinga project
Gabon-China
FDI
economic diversification
mining activity
url https://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/12547
work_keys_str_mv AT romaindittgen newdevelopmentcyclethroughlongterminvestment