US President Joe Biden on Tuesday used his third and final day in Angola to showcase the Lobito Corridor railway, where the US and key allies are investing heavily to refurbish 1,300km of train lines in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Angola.
The project aims to advance the US’ presence in a region rich in cobalt, copper and other critical minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies. By the end of the decade, the rail line could even go a long way toward linking southern Africa’s western coast with the continent’s eastern edge.
“I’m probably the most pro-rail guy in America,” Biden said during a speech.
Photo: AP
He said that the Lobito Corridor constituted the largest US investment in a rail project outside the US.
Biden yesterday was to fly from the capital, Luanda, to Lobito on Africa’s western coast to tour port facilities with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Tanzanian Vice President Philip Mpango.
The leaders also plan to meet with representatives from firms that stand to benefit from the corridor project, including a telecommunications firm expanding cell service in the region, a food production firm and Acrow Bridge, a Pennsylvania company that makes prefabricated steel bridges and has a contract to deliver nearly 200 to Angola.
The Biden administration said that the corridor would help business interests and counter China’s growing influence in Africa.
In Lobito, Biden was to announce US$600 million in new US investment for projects associated with the corridor, which has also drawn financing from the EU, the G7 leading industrialized nations, a Western-led private consortium and African banks.
The US administration said that it can take cargo about 45 days to get from eastern DR Congo or Zambia to the market, and usually involves going by truck to South Africa.
Test loads run using the new rail corridor made the same journey in 40 to 50 hours.
Meanwhile, China already has heavy investments in mining and processing African minerals, and has used its Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure strategy to promote its economic and political influence around the world.
In September, China said it had signed a deal with Tanzania and Zambia to revamp a separate railway line going east from Zambia to Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam on the east coast of Africa.
The countries had previously worked together to build the railway line in the 1970s, but it fell into disrepair. China’s move to renovate it — announced on the sidelines of this year’s China-Africa forum — is seen by some analysts as the Chinese response to the Lobito Corridor.
A senior US administration official called the Lobito Corridor the heart of competing with China, not as a political adversary, but from a business standpoint.
The idea is, rather than pumping in simple aid, Washington would attempt to grow US influence by promoting projects that can spark investment, and therefore help communities and countries over the long haul.
The Lobito Corridor has become a model approach that the US is looking to replicate in other parts of the world, said the official, who briefed reporters during Biden’s Angola visit on condition of anonymity to offer project details that have not yet been made public.
The corridor would not be completed for years, meaning much of the continued work would come during the administration of US president-elect Donald Trump, who is to take office on Jan. 20.
The Biden White House says that Republicans in the US Congress and elsewhere have supported past efforts to promote African business interests through targeted investments, and that such initiatives have appealed to Trump and his advisers.
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