Between Jakarta and Beijing: African Leaders Pursue Investment and Development Opportunities

Sudanhorizon – Osman Siddiq

It seems that this September is a happy month for the African continent, as Indonesia hosted representatives from 29 African countries in the resort of “Bali” to participate in the Indonesian-African Parliament Forum 2024 – which began in 2018 – with an exceptional presence of 47 African countries participating. The forum aims to strengthen Indonesian trade relations with African countries.

According to the Anadolu Agency, Indonesia concluded trade deals worth $3.5 billion through this forum, which was titled “Forging Indonesia-Africa Parliamentary Partnership for Development”.

Indonesia’s interest in Africa increased when President Joko Widodo took office in 2014, making the main focus of his policy the economy. Jakarta sought to employ the history and legacy of relations with Africa, which dates back to the Bandung Conference, where the Non-Aligned Movement was established.

Relations between Indonesia and the African continent date back to at least 1955, when Indonesian President Sukarno hosted the Asian-African Conference in Bandung to establish the Non-Aligned Movement, at a time when most of the African countries represented at the conference were newly independent. Leader Ismail al-Azhari participated in the Bandung Conference, although Sudan had not yet completed its independence steps at the time.

The Indonesian government said deals worth about $600 million were signed at the inaugural Indonesia-Africa Summit in 2018, and this year the Indonesians aim to double that amount several times over in a bid to boost economic ties with African nations.

There were some concrete memoranda of understanding and letters of intent at the September conference, with Indonesia’s aircraft industry signing deals with several countries and oil companies also signing deals. Announcements from the summit include an agreement between Indonesia’s Energi Mega Persada and the Juma Africa Group for a gas project in South Africa that could be worth up to $900 million, aiming to increase gas supplies to South Africa and Mozambique, with the two companies also agreeing to develop a new gas-fired power plant.

Such attractive deals are generating a lot of interest, and while the deals at this summit give Indonesia opportunities to expand its export markets, the country is also looking to secure import deals with African countries to boost lithium supplies. The country has a thriving nickel industry, which means it will continue to need lithium as another key component for assembling and producing electric vehicle batteries.

Experts see Africa as an ideal partner given its wealth of vital minerals, which Indonesia is keen to access. Indonesia’s rapid industrialization is also creating a growing demand for African goods, opening up an opportunity for it to diversify away from traditional trading partners including the United States and China. With tensions between the world’s two largest economies still simmering, Africa could be a way for Indonesia to avoid aligning with China or the United States.

African leaders conclude their first week of September with a package of bilateral and regional deals on the sidelines of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC), where each country sought to complete the development projects it had submitted for various sectors. The bilateral meetings of Chinese President Xi Jinping with each African leader individually contributed to confirming the interest and encouraging Chinese institutions and businessmen to conclude as many deals as possible with the group of experts and specialists who came with their heads of state or official delegations. This rush to head east clearly confirms the confidence of African leaders and people in these relations and fruitful cooperation with sustainable development partners.