'China, India outpace Europe in Africa trade'

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Boston, September 28:: Europe is lagging behind Asian economic powers China and India in the race to snap up trade and investment deals in resource-rich Africa, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said.

Addressing students at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Boston late on Thursday, Wade also complained of excessive delays and red tape in investment projects offered by Western investors and institutions like the World Bank.

Chinese and Middle Eastern companies could often do the job quicker, he said, while referring to trade and investment offensives in Africa by China and India, which are hungry for raw materials to feed their fast-growing economies.

"You know, Europe, which is an old civilisation, can't keep up with the pace of either China or India on the trade front," the octogenarian Senegalese leader said.

Traditionally a staunch ally of the West, former French colony Senegal has been awarding lucrative investment contracts to Middle Eastern, Asian and even African firms -- often at the expense of its traditional trade partner France.

In June, Dubai port operator DP World won a contract worth at least 400 million euros ($566 million) to operate and develop container port facilities in the Senegalese capital Dakar, beating a French competitor.

Senegal granted a mobile and fixed-line telephone operating licence to Sudan Telecommunications Co. (Sudatel). Sudatel became Senegal's third mobile operator in an award which ended the fixed-line and Internet monopoly of Sonatel, whose major shareholder is France Telecom.