• Asian Drivers

Asian Drivers

This paper examines the extent to which China’s engagement with Africa has produced mutual benefits for both and whether Africa is reaping the necessary benefits required for poverty alleviation and economic development.

The author argues that China’s meteoric rise over the past two decades from an impoverished developing country to today’s fourth-largest global economy and third-largest trader has gained considerable world attention. Stunning supporters and critics alike, its economy easily outperforming even the most optimistic expectations. Chinese state-owned enterprises have invested billions of dollars in foreign reserves, construction, and engineering resources assisting African oil-producing exporters.

While many in the west have started to question China’s extraordinary level of interest in Africa – in particular, its economic engagement with perceived repressive regimes – African leaders view China’s entry as a means of pulling Africa onto the path of globalisation. It is thus important that African leaders and policy makers ensure that Chinese trade and investment bring reciprocal and tangible benefits for Africans, and contribute to economic stability and good governance.

Key concluding points include:

• the ascendancy of China’s engagement with Africa seems all but unstoppable - whether it will prove a curse or a blessing for the continent is unclear, but at this point no region in the world is deriving as much benefit as Africa from China’s economic boom 
• African leaders view China’s entry as a way to pull their continent along the path of globalisation, which they have missed thus far - African states must seize the enormous opportunity that China’s increased engagement with the continent presents and that their populations expect will help eradicate poverty and disease on the continent in the coming decades 
• Africa needs to manage and sell its mineral resources to China at competitive prices and to invest the proceeds in its own development – an avenue that offers bright prospects for the continent’s ability to end its reliance on Western aid 
• at the end of the day, African leaders have a responsibility to ensure that all their people, whether in urban areas or remote villages, benefit from China’s expanding trade with and economic assistance to the continent, while keeping in mind the history of Africa’s engagement with external powers.
  

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