Wei Jinming
The New Era newspaper published an article,
titled ‘China, Namibia ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, on Friday 13 October 2023.
Everyone who has read it may think Namibia is in deep debt to China. But what is the real situation? How much has China lent Namibia?
First, let us have a look at the statistics provided by the Bank of Namibia.
According to the annual report of the Bank, as of 31 December 2022, the total debt of the Namibian Central Government was N$137.45 billion, of which domestic debt accounted for 74% and external debt 26%.
Second, we may review the report by the New Era back on 23 March 2022, which quoted the deputy minister of Finance of Namibia as saying that Namibia’s borrowing from China is “less than 2% of the whole debt portfolio. At this level, it poses no risk of fear of Namibia to fall into a debt trap”. Third, Namibia has not made any borrowing from China for many years.
With the above facts in mind, everyone can make their own judgement about whether debt has become a problem in China-Namibia relations. It has to be pointed out that China has never attached any political conditions to its
loans to Namibia. The only purpose of providing loans is to assist Namibia in its social and economic development.
The phrase ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ has been used by some Western countries to purposely disrupt and sabotage cooperation between
China and other developing countries.
They are particularly enthusiastic to blame China for the debt situation in Africa.
As a matter of fact, according to the World Bank, nearly three-quarters of Africa’s total external debt is held by multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors. It is known to all that the financial capital from the US
and Europe is the biggest commercial creditor for African countries.
We never force others to borrow from us or forcibly ask any other country for debt repayment.
Rather, we have always done our utmost to help developing countries ease their debt burden.
As President Xi Jinping announced at the 8th Ministerial Conference on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November 2021, China would channel to African countries US$10 billion from its share of the IMF’s new allocation of Special Drawing Rights, and the work is being done to fulfil this pledge.
In addition, China has fully implemented
the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative and ranks first among G20 members in terms of deferral amount. China has, moreover, participated in the debt treatment of country-specific cases together with the members concerned.
As a friend, China will continue to support Namibia’s social and economic development wherever it can. There will never be such a thing as the so-called China-Namibia debt-trap diplomacy.
* Wei Jinming is a counsellor for economic and commercial affairs at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Namibia.