Headed back to Botswana in August. Have not been since Covid. Curious if much infrastructure has taken place during pandemic. There were already a good amount of Chinese living and working in Francistown. See link
https://ecfr.eu/article/chinas...-europe-and-america/

I was in Kasane last August. Didn’t see much difference than previous visits.

New bridge?

Where. The nearest bridge to Kasane is at Kazangula, 12-15 miles away and I have no idea if there is a new bridge there.

Kazungula is only 5-6 miles from Kasane - there is indeed a new bridge which was completed last year and is now operational - passed a couple of weeks ago. It does appear to have been ADB (generally underwritten by the World Bank) funded - no idea who the contractor was??

Last year at the end of my hunt with Alan Vincent in Mlele, we drove out to Mpanda for me to catch a commercial flight back to Dar. The last couple hours were on a brand new major roadway being built from Inyonga to Mpanda, about a 2+ hour drive. Everywhere were Chinese workers and all equipment had “China Railway unit 7” painted on it. Alan told me the road had been dirt until the Chinese came in.

There is going to be (already is) a very high price to be paid when China calls in their markers.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
There is going to be (already is) a very high price to be paid when China calls in their markers.

I understand that China doesn't lend money, but buys mineral rights.