Китайский «Один пояс, один путь» в арабских странах северной и восточной Африки

Since 2002, starting in the low-cost housing sector, Chinese state-owned companies have quickly secured contracts for major infrastructure projects, such as the expansion of the rail network and the East-West highway, worth about US $ 11.2 billion [77, p. 9]. Beijing is supporting the creation of an infrastructure corridor through Algeria that will connect sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean. In 2016, Algeria signed an agreement with CSCEC and CHEC for the construction of the Algerian port of El Hamdaniya. With a capacity of 6.5 million TEU, Hamdaniya can function as a corridor junction be-tween Africa and Europe [96; 111]. Chinese compa-nies have built the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) building, a new terminal at Houari Boumediene Airport [82], the Opera House, the Sher-aton Hotel and Oran, the Great Mosque of Algiers, and the East-West Highway, mark the landscape, as do the thousands of Chinese workers who have es-tablished a “Chinatown” in a suburb of Algiers [17]. Algeria ranks fourth in the world in terms of phosphorite reserves. In 2018, China's CITIC Con-struction signed an agreement with Algeria's Sonatrach to build a US $ 6 billion integrated phos-phate plant that will increase Algeria's annual pro-duction to 10 million tonnes [96].

In 2008, China and Algeria entered into an agreement to establish a second Chinese SEZ in NA, the Jiangling Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, to be located in Mostaganem, western Alge-ria, with an emphasis on vehicle assembly. The agreement was attended by the Chinese company Jiangling Motors Cooper and Jiangxi Coal Corpora-tion Group, as well as their Algerian partner Groupe Mazouz [77, p. 10]. Chinese automaker Foton and Algerian car dealer KIV formed a joint venture in April 2017 to enable them to assemble cars and trucks in NA. The assembly plant is located in the province of Annaba, 535 km east of Algeria [42].

Algeria is Africa's fourth largest crude oil pro-ducer7 by 2008. More than 90% of exports of its high-quality, low-sulfur, low-sulfur crude oil go to West-ern Europe and not to China. China's imports of Al-gerian oil remain insignificant compared to oil im-ports from other parts of Africa. China's share in Al-geria's oil industry is focused on exploration and development projects. At the same time, China's role in exploration and future development in Algeria, as well as its overall role in the hydrocarbon sector in Algeria, is small, especially compared to the role of international energy giants such as Statoil, Shell, British Petroleum or Total SA [45, p. 11].

In October 2002, China Petroleum and Chem-ical Corporation (SINOPEC) teamed up with Alge-ria's state-owned Sonatrach8 in the first Chinese oil development venture in Algeria to jointly develop the Zarzaitin oil field in southeastern Algeria at cost US $ 525 million; SINOPEC has taken over 75% of the `total` investment. In July 2003, the China National Petroleum Exploration and Development Corporation (CNODC), a division of the China Na-tional Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), built a refin-ery at Adrar in southwestern Algeria for US $ 350 million. In 2004, agreements were signed between CNPC, SINOPEC and Sonatrach on oil exploration rights and related projects. Algeria has granted the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) an exploration license for the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field. In October 2009, Sonatrach announced that SI-NOPEC is one of a group of four international com-panies shortlisted for design and engineering con-sideration for a new refinery in Tairet, in western Algeria, at an estimated cost of US $ 6 billion. Sinopec is also represented along with other compa-nies bidding for the design, engineering, procu-rement and construction (EPC) of an oil refinery in Algeria for an estimated US $ 300 million project. China's imports of Algerian Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) are insignificant, despite the fact that Algeria is the sixth largest producer of LNG in the world, the fourth largest exporter of LNG in the world, 70% of which is exported to the markets of Europe, the US and other countries [45, p. 11].

The COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices have seriously impacted the Algerian economy, as oil and gas sales account for 60% of the state budg-et. Fearing to enlist the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Algeria is turning towards China. In October 11, 2020, the China Inter-national Development Cooperation Agency signed an agree-ment with Algeria to further expand Algeria's par-ticipation in BRI [96].

Projects linked with the BRI in Algeria will accompany the development of this Maghreb coun-try and thus create new opportu-nities for compa-nies based on the northern shore of the Mediter-ranean and improve connection between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa [28].