Martin Walker offers an interesting look at the emergence of a new hub of international commerce around the India Ocean which he has dubbed CHIMEA (China, India, the Middle East and Africa) in which Arab capital and energy — along with Indian & Chinese skills, investments and markets — are combining to present Africa with its best opportunity in decades for economic takeoff.  As he notes:

“… in the past three years both North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa have been growing at more than 5 percent a year. And the latest figures from the World Bank … forecast 6 percent growth for sub-Saharan Africa this year and 7 percent in 2008…

…Dubai spent $2 billion to buy and is investing another $1 billion to develop the Cape Town port and waterfront…

Deals announced in July and August this year included a $500 million investment by Mobile Telecommunications Co. in the Republic of Congo, and another $500 million property venture from Dubai in Kinshasa. The Dubai-based investment bank Millennium Finance Corp. cut an even larger deal for a Dubai group to buy into Ivory Coast’s Banque Atlantique and Atlantique Telecom, and Qatar’s Venessia group is building a national oil storage reserve in Malawi. For the first time, landlocked Malawi will have more than 15 days supply on hand. The giant SABIC group (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.), the kingdom’s petrochemical arm, is with Qatar Industries buying into a $1.5 billion iron ore project in Mauritania….

…India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp., in alliance with Mittal Energy, part of the steel empire of Lakshmi Mittal, now has rights of first refusal over three blocks in a potentially $6 billion deal that was rushed through in the closing days of the last Nigerian government. Another $900 million Mittal deal to mine iron ore in Liberia is being reviewed by the Liberian Senate. Having bought the French steel group Arcelor, Mittal has taken advantage of its links to former French West Africa and is building a 467-mile railroad and a port in Senegal to support its mining operations.

Indian refiner Reliance Industries announced in September that it had bought a majority stake and management control of east African oil retailer Gulf Africa Petroleum Corp. for an undisclosed sum. The Indian media has also reported that Reliance is negotiating the purchase of a 50 percent stake in Kenya’s only oil refinery. GAPCO owns and operates storage and terminal facilities along with a retail distribution network in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, with more than 250 outlets catering to retail and industrial customers.

With a $1 billion investment agreement with Ivory Coast, another agreement to build a refinery in Nigeria’s Edo state and $100 million in oil development projects in Gabon, India is becoming an important investor in Africa….

…China has invested $12 billion in Africa since 2000 and built more than 100 food and raw-material processing plants, 3,500 miles of highways, 1,600 miles of railways, eight power stations and three ports, including a tanker terminal at Port Sudan. More than 800 Chinese companies are now operating in Africa, which now provides 28 percent of China’s oil…  China’s Civil engineering Construction Corp. also outmaneuvered the World Bank to secure the construction and finance contact for the new Lagos-Kano railroad….”