The 6^th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held on 4 to 5 December 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. President Xi of China pledged to invest a total of US$60 billion in Africa, tripling the amount from $20 billion announced at the previous FOCAC in 2012.

Chinese investments overseas have been rising fast since the late 1990s, and are expected to accelerate with latest initiatives including “One Belt One Road” and the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). While such investments can generate welcome jobs and infrastructure in host countries, they can also be accompanied social & environmental concerns, including the forcible re-location of local communities, environmental pollution, and abuse of workers. 

The Chinese government, business associations, and the civil society have published various guidelines on expected behaviour by Chinese firms to ensure that their operations mitigate social and environmental risks when investing overseas, including Africa.  This includes “Green Credit Guidelines” for project finance, the Ministry of Commerce’s “Regulation on Overseas Investment”, and the mining industry-led “Guidelines for Social Responsibility in Outbound Mining Investments.” An important role for business, government and civil society is to ensure that these guidelines are respected in practice. 

http://allafrica.com/stories/201512050161.html

This more broad summary: http://allafrica.com/stories/201512081360.html

And possibly this Brookings analysis though see what you think: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2015/12/07-china-africa-focac-investment-economy-sun

Guildelines for Chinese companies investing overseas

Since 2006, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has invited Chinese companies to respond to allegations of misconduct in Africa raised by civil society.  This process encourages companies to publicly address human rights concerns, and provides the public with both the allegations and the company’s comments in full.  In some cases this process helps to bring about resolution of the issues.  In other cases it has led to dialogue between the company and those raising the concerns.  In all cases it has increased transparency.

Download list of company responses/non-responses re Chinese investment in Africa