Bollywood Actress and Model Kangna Ranaut at the launch of My E-Bike Foton at V Lounge, Juhu, Mumbai on 1st December, 2008
Just trying to help.
Posted on 04/10/2011 7:31:58 PM PDT by AfricanChristian
China’s vehicle manufacturer Foton is setting up an assembly plant in Kenya in what is set to heighten the battle between China and Western nations for business in Kenya.
The Sh1.2 billion assembly plant is expected to churn out 10,000 units of prime movers, tippers, buses, pick-ups, and light commercial trucks per year, making it one of the biggest foreign direct investments by a Chinese company.
Foton said it is setting up the plant to avoid paying a 25 per cent import duty on cars to allow in its low cost products putting it in a head-to-head battle with Japanese and European brands such as Mercedes, Iveco, Mitsubishi, and Nissan.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessdailyafrica.com ...
Bollywood Actress and Model Kangna Ranaut at the launch of My E-Bike Foton at V Lounge, Juhu, Mumbai on 1st December, 2008
Just trying to help.
You’re a great helper!
Well damn if she is running she has my vote.
There is an Obama joke in here somewhere, but I believe I will hold back.
I see the Chinese are beginning their colonization of Africa.
That has been underway for several years; this is just the latest phase.
If this venture is successful Obama’s half-brother is going to need a two-car hut
Of course; the first step was to cozen and ensure that the dictators are dependent on their goodwill, which takes time, but now, now, they are beginning to create settlements that will end up ensuring that native Africans start getting pushed out; in the event that the dictators try ot whip up nationalistic feelings against the Chinese, the Chinese will replace the uppity dictator with a new one.
I wonder if Obama is laying the groundwork to escape to a bolthole when he’s driven out on 2012.
“And/or the killings begin. The Chinese will make the worst of past colonialists appear like choir boys by comparison.”
They will. The minute a black kills a farmer of theirs or threatens a business interest, there will be reprisals, just you wait and see. the worst part about it for the Africans, is that the Chinese won’t back off in the face of boycotts, petitions, or speeches. They will laugh in the face of the world and wield the economic whip.
I well imagine that all Chinese economic interests on the continent have security forces. Well armed security forces (read PLA). In fact, I have read some articles from the region that discuss the presence of armed, uniformed chinese men affiliated with Chinese development activities.
I’m quite sure you are correct; I bet the PLA has had agents scout the terrain for a decade now and they are more than able to understand the terrain and the mentalities of those that live there. Better than the colonialists did I’m sure.
I hope they build the plant over Obama’s birth place.
Of course; the first step was to cozen and ensure that the dictators are dependent on their goodwill, which takes time, but now, now, they are beginning to create settlements that will end up ensuring that native Africans start getting pushed out; in the event that the dictators try ot whip up nationalistic feelings against the Chinese, the Chinese will replace the uppity dictator with a new one.
Well, at least they will have their own Technicals so they don’t have to depend on Toyota
I don’t recall having seen a single Foton on the roads here in India. The scooter/bike market is really volatile if you’re not a local manufacturer. Brands pop up and disappear within months sometimes (as an example, a recent electric scooter called “Yo” had a dealer/service facility along the road I take to go to work; it was there 3 months, and then one day it was gone, replaced by a vegetarian restaurant)
Your governments are busy wasting money on aid to Africa, yet you glibly dismiss the only player seriously considering Africa as an investment opportunity.
You may live to regret your government’s lack of strategic focus.
Your governments are busy wasting money on aid to Africa, yet you glibly dismiss the only player seriously considering Africa as an investment opportunity.
You may live to regret your government’s lack of strategic focus.
Foton is a state-owned enterprise. My guess is that this is more of a foreign aid arrangement/boondoggle with a commercial gloss to facilitate the siphoning off of company funds by senior Chinese employees. Chinese entrepreneurs don't make these kinds of investments for the same reasons that developed Asian and Western countries don't - the continual risk of a total loss due to expropriation and civil war. In truth, the European powers left behind in Africa empires that became countries. The problem is that the nations contained within each country were in many cases historical enemies (which is how nations are formed - in opposition to their neighbors, with all the wars and mass killings* that nationhood entails). Bottom line is that until African countries become a lot more stable than they are or actually fragment into independent countries with stable borders, getting significant amounts of foreign investment for anything with a long payback period is going to be difficult.
* Not out of bloodlust, but out of the recognition that a human enemy is the most dangerous predator of all - a lion, a bear or a shark merely takes its fill and leaves, whereas a human will lurk around until he can exact retribution. Historically, that retribution has occasionally involved the extinction of that enemy (Amalekites, Dzungars, et al), to preclude additional rounds of tit-for-tat.
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