CHINESE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IN ANGOLA – PROMISE, CURSE OR AN UNCERTAIN VENTURE?

China‟s relations with African countries represent a growing trend in international relations and South-South cooperation. One important aspect of these liaisons is China‟s financial assistance and its deployment of resource-backed infrastructure loans. Angola is China‟s biggest supplier of oil, whereas China is Angola‟s largest donor, having provided Angola with 7.4 billion dollars in credit lines secured with oil deliveries. These funds are channeled into Angola‟s post-conflict reconstruction. The study thus intends to investigate the dynamics and the determinants behind the Chinese financial assistance to Angola and its subsequent implications for Angola‟s development. The research is a Minor Field Study and was therefore carried out in Angola. The methods used in this inquiry are semi-structured interviews conducted in the field and secondary literature review. A great part of the thesis thereby gives an account of the topic such as the interviewees describe it, together with secondary sources and the researcher‟s independent appraisals. The study builds upon theories about natural-resource management, development, dependency, and South-South cooperation and investigates how the Sino-Angolan relations fit into these theoretical schemes. On the one hand, the study concludes that the Chinese financial assistance contributes to removing infrastructure bottle-necks and provides Angola with necessary physical infrastructure in various sectors. China‟s credit arrangement also introduces new ways of managing oil revenues. On the other hand, fast completion of infrastructure projects, insufficient supervision, and corruption lead to uncertainties regarding the quality of the process, and the large employment of Chinese companies, material, and workers fail to kick-off a “big push” that could initiate the diversification of Angola‟s oil dependent economy.