The Role of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) within a Transcalar Network of Actors in Delivering Large-Scale Infrastructure: The Case of the Tema Port Expansion Project in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana.

Abstract

The involvement of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and interests in developing infrastructure has become one of the most topical issues in academic literature across the globe and particularly in Africa in recent times. Seaports is one of such domains of large-scale infrastructure as they have been expanding quite rapidly in urban Africa. They are being “assetized” resulting in sovereign entities (e.g. Chinese SOEs), international finance organizations, and engineering firms etc. collaborating to deliver these ports, each pursuing their own interests. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper uses the Tema port expansion project (TPEP) in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) to examine the role, interests, and engagement of Chinese actors in delivering a successful project amidst multiple transcalar actors. The TPEP was financed via a syndicated loan dominated by Chinese SOEs in terms of contribution and largely constructed by a Chinese engineering firm (CHEC) though led by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) with embedded European shipping and logistics firms’ interests. As such it presents a unique and complex case. The paper explores the tactics and relationships that the Chinese SOEs have used in engaging with residents, the port authority, and other interests in delivering the TPEP which has a wider impact in shaping GAMA and the immediate adjoining city, Tema.