Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Li Biao, chairman of the Chinese Haite Group in March 2017
October 3, 2018
... The Haite Group did not respond to NPR's repeated requests for comment. But a source in the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak to the media, acknowledged there are "problems" with the Tangier Tech City project and said the company has pulled out altogether. Another source close to the Chinese Embassy in Morocco said they also believe Haite is no longer involved.
Deborah Brautigam, an expert on China's activity in Africa at Johns Hopkins University, says the Haite Group had not "come across our radar before."
And she advised caution in believing the initial grand announcements of projects like these. "It's not a done deal until you actually see some cold, hard cash flowing across the border," she says.
"We've found in Africa that the [Chinese] companies that are sort of new or inexperienced, they are often the ones that have come with a sort of flashy introduction because they need to get attention. But that doesn't mean they're able to follow through."
In Morocco, officials seem to have fallen largely silent about the project. The BMCE Bank of Africa, which is helping bankroll the project, initially agreed to meet, but then backed out and refused to respond to repeated attempts for comment.
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