The Sicomines agreement revisited: prudent Chinese banks and risk-taking Chinese companies

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Notes

Interview by the author and Wenran Jiang with a well-placed Chinese respondent, 7 March 2011, Kinshasa.

Moïse Ekanga Lushyma, executive secretary for the Bureau for Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino–Congolese Programme, stated in an interview with the author (4 December 2012, Kinshasa) that the Mining Code will apply to Sicomines after its loans are reimbursed. However, exactly how the Mining Code will apply is not made explicit in any of the Sicomines contracts that had been made public on the website of the DRC's Ministry of Mines as of December 2012 (Acte Constitutif 2007, Avenant 2009, Convention de Joint Venture 2007).

The copper and cobalt concessions are named Mashamba West and Dikuluwe. For further details, refer to Convention de Collaboration (2008), Huderek (2012), Congomines (2012) and Katanga Mining (2012, pp. 4, 6).

Figure from Sicomines's 2011 feasibility study provided by the Martin Kabwelulu, the DRC's minister of mines at a public seminar ‘2ème matinée de transparence sur le contrat chinois’, 29 November 2012, Grand Hotel Kinshasa.

Author's interviews with Zhou Mangsheng, Economic and Commercial Counsellor, embassy of the People's Republic of China, 12 October 2012, Kinshasa; with a representative of CREC, 15 October 2012, Kinshasa; and interview by the author and Wenran Jiang with a representative for the Economic and Commercial Counsellor's office, embassy of the People's Republic of China, 07 March 2011, Kinshasa.

These aims are similar to those of most national export credit agencies. For example, the mission of the Export–Import Bank of the United States is ‘to assist in financing the export of US goods and services to international markets’ (Export–Import Bank of the United States 2011).

Author's interview with Moïse Ekanga Lushyma, executive secretary for the Bureau for Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino–Congolese Programme, 2 March 2011, Kinshasa; and interview by the author and Wenran Jiang with a well-placed Chinese respondent, 7 March 2011, Kinshasa.

Author's interview with Moïse Ekanga Lushyma, executive secretary for the Bureau for Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino–Congolese Programme, 4 December 2012, Kinshasa; and with Zhou Mangsheng, Economic and Commercial Counsellor, embassy of the People's Republic of China, 12 October 2012, Kinshasa.

Author's interview, 4 December 2012, Kinshasa.

Ibid.

See Convention de Collaboration 2008, p. 9, article 5.2 and Convention de Joint Venture 2007, p. 63, article 52.2.

Figures provided by Moïse Ekanga Lushyma, the executive secretary for the Bureau for Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino–Congolese Programme at a public seminar, ‘2ème matinée de transparence sur le contrat chinois’, 29 November 2012, Grand Hotel Kinshasa.

Author's interviews with Moïse Ekanga Lushyma, executive secretary for the Bureau for Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino–Congolese Programme, 4 December 2012, Kinshasa; and with Zhou Mangsheng, Economic and Commercial Counsellor, embassy of the People's Republic of China, 12 October 2012, Kinshasa.

Author's interview with Moïse Ekanga Lushyma, executive secretary for the Bureau for Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino–Congolese Programme, 4 December 2012.

Ibid.

Author's interview, 29 November 2012, Kinshasa.

Author's interviews in Kinshasa with representatives of Sinohydro (28 November 2012) and CREC (3 December 2012).