Friday, March 28, 2014

Africa, Europe must take second look at investments from China

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One of the committees on the Euro Africa Youth Parliament (EAYP) is advising leaders from Europe and Africa to take a second look at the investments that come from China. 
Committees on the Youth Parliament are expected to discuss issues on education, food security and China’s investments to Africa and Europe.
The debate, which has brought together representatives from about hundred countries, is expected to bring resolutions to the kinds of investments foreign countries make in Africa especially.
China’s direct investments in Africa and Europe over the years have been tremendous. And for Africa, it has been influential with about 75 billion dollars investment since 2002. And thus, this has become one of the major discussions the Euro Africa Youth Parliament in Berlin, Germany is debating.
The debate seeks to establish an equal balance between what the Chinese gets and the countries in which they do the investments get.
Felicia Dahlquist, the chair for the Committee on Foreign Affairs thinks this debate should pave the way for leaders in these continents to begin critically examining the contracts they sign with their Chinese counterparts in order to get their interest at heart.
"The more China is investing in Africa, Europe and the world over the more we have to start making sure that we are making demands and being very, very clear with what types of investments we want," Felicia Dahlquist told Joy News
According to her: "The negative aspect is that the Chinese, once they start investigating in a project they like to do it their own way. Perhaps they don't always take human lives into consideration may be not always the environment into consideration or may not always the local population".
  
The other committees will be discussing creating avenues for entrepreneurship in Africa and Europe, education with special focus on technology, food security, human rights, corporate social responsibilities, UN Security Council’s role in maintaining security and public health.
Final batch of delegates arrived Thursday night and the discussions within the committees will start on Saturday, March, 29.
The actual debate will take place on Wednesday and Thursday at the European Youth Parliament in Berlin after which resolutions will be given to officials of the Euro-Africa Summit, coming up in Brussels.
There will also be other events like culture and Euro- Africa village where participants will showcase their different cultures such as food and clothing.


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