China has long been building infrastructure throughout Africa, but is now being contracted to build an entire city just outside of Angola’s capital.

“In a field 30km south of Angola's chaotic capital, a US$3.5-billion city seems to rise from nothing, a showpiece in government's drive to build one million new homes. Dubbed the “new city of Kilamba Kiaxi”, it is the antithesis of overcrowded Luanda's traffic-choked streets and is being built – like so much else in Angola -- by Chinese contractors.

In an innovative move Southern African countries have charted out a trans-border tourism park in the hopes of creating increased stability, environmental protection, and development.

Angolans are getting fed up with their dire living situation—an estimated 87% of the population live in shanty towns—despite oil wealth and a supposed peace dividend after their long civil war ended in 2002. Although large Arab Spring protests may not be possible in Angola due to both a heavily controlled state and memories of a recent war, the Angolan government is becoming concerned.

The price of fertilizer in Angola has risen to $45 for a 50 kilogram bag, pricing small farmers out of the market. The South Africa Node writes that “The high cost is attributed to logistics, taxes and import duties, and the price of doing business in Africa’s largest oil-exporting country.” The destruction of infrastructure during Angola’s extended civil war makes transporting fertilizer costly and difficult. The high cost of storage facilities in port cities contributes to the expense of imported fertilizer; insufficient industrial capacity makes domestic production unlikely.

Angola recently passed a law aimed at promoting domestic biofuel production. The South Africa Notes writes: “According to the Oil Minister, Botelho de Vasconcelos, the law will address Angola’s national energy needs and ‘preserve the environment given the diversification of the economy’ [sic]. ‘Bio-fuel production will also create jobs and build a renewable energy source and will allow regional integration and promote return of populations to rural areas’.