Biden's Lobito Corridor Initiative Is Antithesis Of Africa's Drive For Local Processing Of Natural Assets
President Joe Biden of USA arrived in Angola on December 2, 2024, for a state visit, reported various media. The visit is his inaugural visit to Africa as US president.
According to the reports, President Biden's visit to Angola focuses on, among others, his administration's flagship initiative for Africa called the Lobito Corridor. The latter that entails a planned 1344 kilometre railway system of renovated and brand new parts that will stretch from Angola's port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean coast to Ndola in Zambia's Copperbelt Province via Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The planned railway system is even envisaged for extension from Ndola to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania on the Indian Ocean coast, probably through integrating it to the existing mighty Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) line.
Reportedly, the main goal of the Lobito Corridor is that once it is implemented fully, it will help transport extracted raw mineral resources from the natural asset rich countries linked to the renovated and new railway system, namely Angola, DRC, Zambia, and probably Tanzania, to Lobito port that will then shipped to USA and Europe. A rather out of fashion goal with some neo-imperialist undertone. That is because many African countries now distaste the colonial perception that they are sources of raw materials for industrialized countries, and buyers of goods made from the materials they export. As such, the countries are striving towards adding value to their extracted mineral resources through adopting mineral resource laws and policies that require local processing of most extracted raw minerals, and ban export of unprocessed mineral resources. Mining firms are therefore compelled to process extracted mineral resources prior to export. In Tanzania for instance, several mineral ore refining plants are said to have been built already in response to this new approach in natural asset management.
DRC, Zambia, Angola, and Tanzania have vast deposits of natural assets including critical minerals like cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese, etc.
However, a few African countries like Angola seems to still think that export of raw natural assets is a good idea. The administration there is said to have defended its stance on this during Biden's visit, naively saying that in previous years, raw mineral resources were extracted and taken away by foreign countries without consent of the people of Angola, but now raw mineral resources are extracted and exported with consent from Angolans. But then, the Angolan administration fails to understand that revenues accruing from exported raw natural assets are less than that from processed natural assets. Also, by exporting raw natural assets, a country is exporting employment opportunities, because local processing of natural assets generates jobs!
From the foregoing, Biden's Lobito Corridor is definitely antithesis of Africa's drive for local processing of its extracted mineral resources, hence increased revenues from the resources. The initiative need not be rejected though, but once the planned renovated and new railway system is built, it should be used to transport processed natural assets for export to other countries including USA and Europe. Such exports could include batteries to electric vehicle manufacturing firms worldwide. Production of the batteries could be joint ventures but right there in the countries where necessary critical minerals like cobalt and lithium are extracted.
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