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Belt and Road Initiative: Chinese workers leave Africa as lending slows
- Tens of thousands of Chinese contractors left the continent between 2015 and 2018, a number that correlated with a decrease in spending from Beijing
- African governments also became savvier about signing deals that included rules for hiring more locals
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In the past decade, Africa has been a key destination for Chinese workers, following mega projects that Beijing has funded as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
But in the past few years, thousands of Chinese workers have left Africa as Beijing goes slow in its lending or construction boom slows, a new analysis shows.
An estimated 62,600 Chinese contractors left Africa between 2015 and 2018, with the overall number declining from over 263,000 to roughly 201,000, the researchers found.
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The study found “the volume of China’s loans is a key reason” for the decline in Chinese workers across the continent. The number of Chinese workers in Africa peaked in 2015, which was also when China signed the most contracts on the continent. Loans in 2018 dipped below numbers last seen in 2012.
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The report by two consultancy firms, the global company Oxford China International Consultancy (OCIC) and Beijing-based Development Reimagined, was based on analysis of workers contracted on the continent by Chinese companies.
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