Outrage as Chinese state-owned company poised to win €320m EU-project in Africa

Scania is fantastically expensive... What did they expect lol

There’s one EU company and two Chinese ones. So they were hoping to loan out the money to Senegal then have them pay that money back to the Swedish one with no other choice? How is this not corruption? And now they’re mad when their illusion of free market bites them in the ass? If it bothers the EU so much they should’ve allowed only EU companies to bid as part of the deal with the loan

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The Chinese company literally came in at half the price. Is it about building capacity in Africa or subsidizing EU businesses? I, mean, shit. Why not just give Scania 160MM if it bothers you so much?

Subsidized by the Chinese taxpayer. It's not really half the cost.

Scania is THE most expensive truck company, no wonder the Chinese bid is less than half.

This doesn't even make sense. You're saying that a company bidding less somehow means they are bribing people in order to bid LESS? If a company bidding X means there's some bribe money in it, a company bidding 2X means what, then?

It's a f****** loan.

Not only that, the EU company lost outright vs the technical specs of the Chinese company. So they lost twice.

Are you people really unable to separate "some EU parliament members" with the EU itself? It's no wonder clickbait journalism works so well. The EU Parliament has dozens of different parties with different opinions on things. The majority created the current processes where Senegal can freely pick who they want to ask to build their project. This is the actual EU choice. That _some people_ are mad doesn't mean the EU is butthurt. It means that some people are butthurt. Yet they are not the majority since the majority made the current processes. So this mixing of both is just factually wrong.

The European rules don't actually necessarily say this. [https://www.euractiv.com/news/eu-powerless-to-stop-china-winning-senegal-project-commission-admits/](https://www.euractiv.com/news/eu-powerless-to-stop-china-winning-senegal-project-commission-admits/) >"For its part, the EIB said it could not ask clients “to discriminate against bidders based on nationality.” The bank did not immediately respond to *Euractiv’s* questions concerning inconsistencies between the EU’s single market rules and development policy." Generally with bids (including this one) they will separate the financials from the technical specs and in this instance the Chinese firm beat them on both the technicals and also the financials. >"Barry Andrews, who chairs the European Parliament’s development committee, downplayed the controversy and had a clear message for the Senegalese government. “Do what’s in your best interests,” Andrews told *Euractiv,* arguing that Europeans are essentially asking Senegal “to pay twice” by picking the Swedish bidder\*."\* >"Senegal’s minister of transport, Yankhoba Diémé, said that the tender is done strictly by the numbers, but did not address *Euractiv’s* questions concerning whether CRRC received state aid from China. Senegalese authorities “apply exclusively the technical and financial criteria defined in the tender documents, on an equal basis for all bidders,” the minister said in an interview with *Euractiv*."

Except this is a loan, there is no free money. Ultimately Senegal has to pay back EU. Offering worse solutions for access to financing is scummy at best.

I mean, if they are made in Europe by Europeans, sure. If the European company can just turn around, buy the PV from China and stick their name on it for double the price… meh

Great, but I don't want to hear a single European ever b**** and moan about foreign aid because clearly it's not about foreign aid... but about propping up failing European businesses whose prices are far too expensive to be remotely competitive.

if it's that simple then they should have stipulated it in the contract as a condition for providing funds, no? does the EU prefer to pay more in their projects?

Then make that part of the deal when loaning that money out?

Literally all research into foreign aid shows that that's how you make foreign aid ineffective.

Technical specs on paper may or may not meet the rigors of accuracy, reliability, or repeatability. May be a one-off, but I recently installed a variable frequency drive (EU product) for a client who purchased a brand new custom motor (China product). I configured the vfd to the given specs of that motor but when i put it through its paces, the motor info was clearly wrong; unable to handle its own full speed with stability, settling far above its stated nominal current, and severe harmonic issues at certain speeds. Had to make it fixed-speed at a much lower frequency to maintain reliable/stable operation. 

Its a loan, not free money.

stimulates job retention/creation by artificially propping up international demand for EU services/products.

It's a loan. They are trying to profit off their advantageous capital situation.

Because rationally organizing an economy is communism, of course. Can't allow that. Neo-liberalism is our new god.

No, those tax dollars don't bring economies of scale, nor European jobs.