scholarly journals The Future of China–Africa Economic Ties

Author(s):  
Arkebe Oqubay ◽  
Justin Yifu Lin

The chapter pulls together the underlying themes, analytical perspectives, and pathways to Africa’s economic transformation, and the catalytic role of Chinese investment and trade for Africa’s industrialization and long-term growth. It also reviews FOCAC VII (September 2018) as signalling latest directions in China–Africa economic ties for the coming years. Economic ties between China and Africa have made a significant contribution to the economic transformation of Africa; however, the outcomes of these engagements are characterized by unevenness and shifting dynamics across different countries. Hence there is a need for evidence-based productive discourse that puts Africa’s transformation at the heart of the dialogue on China–Africa economic ties in the context of a changing international environment. Variations in proactive strategic approach, policy ownership, and implementation capacity are major drivers of this disparity. This chapter highlights China as a source of learning and argues that deepening the economic ties (Chinese FDI towards building productive capacity, trade imbalances, debt sustainability and alternative mechanisms, and strengthening of FOCAC) can have an important role in the economic transformation of Africa.

Author(s):  
Arkebe Oqubay ◽  
Justin Yifu Lin

This introductory chapter outlines the aims, analytical perspectives, and the organization of the volume. It sets the scene by describing China’s place in the changing dynamics of global economic order, the increasing role of China in Africa’s economic transformation, and the unevenness of the China’s economic footprint in Africa. It introduces the four thematic sections that primarily focus on the progress, foundations, challenges, and future trajectory of China–Africa cooperation. Part I: ‘China’s Rise and the Changing Global Development Discourse’ examines the meanings and global externalities of China’s economic emergence in an era of globalization. Part II: ‘Evolving China–Africa Relations: Context, Perspectives, and Framework’ examines China–Africa ties in their historical context, the institutional and policy frameworks for promoting cooperation. Part III: ‘The Dynamics of China–Africa Economic Ties’ describes the Chinese approach to doing business in Africa, while the last section Part IV: ‘China and Africa’s Economic Transformation’ discusses the conditions under which Chinese engagement in Africa can play a catalytic role in Africa’s industrialization and structural transformation.


Author(s):  
Fantu Cheru ◽  
Arkebe Oqubay

Economic cooperation between China and Africa has deepened in scope and scale in recent times, and FOCAC has emerged as the largest South–South economic partnership platform. However, evidence suggests that the catalytic effect of China–Africa engagement on the economic transformation of African countries has been uneven, primarily shaped by the strategic response of the respective African countries. This chapter proposes that China–Africa economic ties should be examined from a structural transformation perspective to adequately evaluate the catalytic effect of Chinese engagement on the economic growth and diversification of African economies, the development of domestic capabilities, and lastly on Africa’s successful insertion into the globalized economy of the twenty-first century. Based on the experience of Ethiopia, the chapter unpacks the pathways to structural transformation in the African context, and the role of the state in guiding the economy through a proactive and strategic approach to economic transformation. The chapter concludes with pathways to the future.


Progress in Africa’s economic growth in the new millennium has been uneven across countries, and has not translated into structural transformation. The same can be said about the evolving China–Africa economic relations. Although economic ties between China and Africa have made a positive contribution, the impact of this dynamic engagement has been uneven, shaped by variations in strategic approach, policy ownership, and implementation capacity among African governments. As China undergoes major economic rebalancing to upgrade to an innovation-driven economy, this is bound to affect China–Africa relations, offering both opportunities and challenges. Authored by leading scholars on Africa, China, and China–Africa relations, this volume brings together stimulating and thought-provoking perspectives, and deeper analyses on the evolving China–Africa relations. Focusing on Africa’s economic development, the volume looks at core areas of structural transformation: productive investment and industrialization, international trade, infrastructure development, and financing. China–Africa relations are considered in the context of the global division of labour and power, and the particular role of both China and the continent of Africa in the evolving global hierarchy. This volume seeks to fill the gap in the existing literature, steer policy and scholarly debate on the progress and trajectory of China–Africa cooperation, and analyse China’s development path as a source of learning for Africa.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112110414
Author(s):  
Daniel Rajmil ◽  
Lucía Morales ◽  
Bernadette Andreosso-O’Callaghan

The economic and political influence of China in the Asian region is growing amidst global geopolitical challenges. Economic corridors such as the new Silk Road have been identified as enablers of strategic growth and geo-economic power development in a context of significant political instability. Beijing's strategic approach and the importance of Pakistan and Iran to its aspiration to realise China's dream through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are examined in this comparative study. The rising role of China in the region and its engagement with Iran and Pakistan and the part that these two countries can play need careful attention. Political and economic joint interests have brought together these three countries with significant links to China's economic corridor and energy projections. But the future of the partnership is very fragile as it is characterised by historical hostilities between Iran and Pakistan that can act as a major impendiment to China's ability to progress. In addition, economic and trade figures show an unbalanced relationship that clearly favours Chinese interests. The BRI and the Chinese plans for those territories still remain blurry as any long-term crisis that characterises fragile and complex international alliances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 01003
Author(s):  
Irina Avdeeva ◽  
Tatyana Golovina ◽  
Andrey Polyanin

Within the context of modern management, business organizations need to realize that everything around them is changing: the rules of the game, the participants, the scale of activities, and the size of markets. In other words, nothing is constant. The changes may be both local and global, whereby developments may affect different fields: executive and administrative, technical and economic, social and public, informative and analytical. Managerial decisions taken inside an organization under the aforementioned conditions require sound theoretical grounds for selection in terms of potential risks and current and future economic effects. Traditionally, long-term decisions on setting goals for an activity of a business organization and determining ways to achieve them are considered within the framework of strategic planning, as a result of which a development strategy is formed. However, under current circumstances, the place and role of change management in the strategy of business organizations requires reinterpretation. The academic originality of this contribution lies in the specification of a concept for change management with regards to the activities of business organizations based on a strategic approach and adaptation to dynamically changing market conditions, including long-term planning. As part of the study, the essence of a strategic approach to change management regarding the activities of business organizations is considered, the principles of building a change management strategy are highlighted, and an algorithm for its development and implementation is proposed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Dariusz Brążkiewicz

Abstrakt: Współczesna polityka Federacji Rosyjskiej na Bliskim Wschodzie jest elementem szerokiej strategii ukierunkowanej na cele w środowisku międzynarodowym oraz na cele wewnątrzpaństwowe. Polityka ta jest konfrontacyjna na płaszczyźnie Rosja – Zachód i stanowi koło zamachowe w dążeniu kraju do odzyskania dominującej roli w świecie. Zaangażowanie Federacji Rosyjskiej w konflikt w Syrii jest konsekwencją jej mocarstwowej polityki w zmieniającym się środowisku międzynarodowym. Głównym celem było wyeliminowanie rozwiązań USA i innych państw Zachodu w zakresie interwencji humanitarnej w Syrii. Poza tym utrzymując reżim Baszara al-Asada Federacja Rosyjska podjęła realizację własnego ładu na Bliskim Wschodzie, gdzie chce odgrywać kluczową rolę. Pomagają jej w tym Iran – wieloletni oponent USA oraz Turcja – nowy koalicjant, które mają też swoje partykularne cele w regionie. W przypadku polityki wewnętrznej, rosyjskie elity polityczne chcą utrwalić władzę populistyczną, oferując narodowi drogę dokonań państwa, szczególnie w wymiarze międzynarodowym – wskazując siłę militarną i wyższość polityczną, jako podstawowe elementy odbudowy mocarstwowej roli Federacji Rosyjskiej w świecie. Te kierunki polityki zewnętrznej i wewnętrznej dają obraz konsekwentnych, a jednocześnie zaskakujących działań Federacji Rosyjskiej na Bliskim Wschodzie. Abstract: Contemporary policy of the Russian Federation in the Middle East is an element of a broad strategy focused on international and internal purposes. This policy is confrontational at the level of Russia - the West and constitutes a flywheel in the pursuit of the country to regain its dominant role in the world. The involvement of the Russian Federation in the conflict in Syria is a consequence of its superpower policy in the changing international environment. The main goal was to eliminate the solutions of the USA and other Western countries in the field of humanitarian intervention in Syria. What is more, maintaining the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Russian Federation has embarked on the implementation of its own order in the Middle East, where it wants to play a key role. Iran, a long-term opponent of the USA, and Turkey, a new coalition partner that also has its particular goals in the region, are the countries which help Russia in this area. In the case of domestic policy, Russia’s power elites want to consolidate populist power by presenting the nation country’s accomplishments, especially in the international dimension, indicating military strength and political superiority as the basic elements of rebuilding the superpower role of the Russian Federation in the world. These external and internal policies give a picture of the consistent and also surprising actions of the Russian Federation in the Middle East


2021 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Ю.А. АВДЕЕВ

В территориальной организации Приморского края, сложившейся в прежних социально-экономических условиях, наблюдаются трансформации, которые значительно ускорились за годы подготовки г. Владивосток к саммиту стран Азиатско-Тихоокеанского экономического сотрудничества. Прирост инфраструктурного потенциала, возросшая мобильность населения, коренные изменения в экономической специализации, не снижающаяся острота демографических и экологических проблем – все это актуализирует задачу повышения эффективности социально-экономических связей между поселениями и, тем самым, улучшения жизни населения. Агломерационные связи г. Владивосток с его ближайшим окружением развивались не одно десятилетие, но события последних лет существенно активизируют взаимодействие и раздвигают границы агломерации. Влияние на развитие города оказывает новая роль, которую он играет теперь в международных отношениях Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона (АТР). При этом стало более заметным его отставание от наиболее развитых городов в этом макрорегионе мира. В этой связи ставится задача на долгосрочную перспективу – приступить к формированию на востоке России города мирового (глобального) значения, будущего мегаполиса за счет расширения состава агломерации, наделения его правами федерального округа, а также уточнения приоритетов экономического развития и усиления интеграционных связей в АТР. Важным фактором развития Владивостокской агломерации является его международное окружение. В качестве источника роста численности населения следует рассматривать в первую очередь граждан Российской Федерации, но необходимы усилия, чтобы обеспечить привлекательность этой территории для граждан других государств. Студенческую молодежь как России, так и близлежащих зарубежных стран следует рассматривать в качестве важного фактора, стабилизирующего демографическую ситуацию в регионе. The transformations of the territorial organization of Primorsky Krai, formed under the previous socio-economic conditions, and which have significantly accelerated during the years of preparations of Vladivostok for the APEC Summit, are observed. The increase in infrastructural potential, higher mobility of the population, fundamental changes in economic specialization, the continuing severity of demographic and environmental problems, all that sets a task of increasing the efficiency of socio-economic ties between settlements, and thereby improving the life of the population. The agglomeration ties of Vladivostok with its immediate surroundings have been developing for more than a decade, but the events of recent years significantly intensify interaction and push the boundaries of the agglomeration out. The city’s development is influenced now by its new role in the international relations of the Asia-Pacific region (APR). At the same time, its lag behind the most developed cities in this macro-region of the world has become more noticeable. In this regard, there is a long term task to begin the formation of a city of world (global) significance in the east of Russia, a future metropolis by expanding the current agglomeration, giving it the rights of a federal district, as well as clarifying the priorities of economic development and strengthening integration ties in the APR. The international environment close to Vladivostok is an important factor in the development of the city agglomeration. Citizens of the Russian Federation should be considered as the main source of population growth, but efforts are needed to ensure the attractiveness of this territory for citizens from other states. Student youth both in Russia and nearby foreign countries should be regarded as an important factor stabilizing the demographic situation in the region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (13) ◽  
pp. 1871-1888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Stillman ◽  
Mauro Sarrica ◽  
Misita Anwar ◽  
Anindita Sarker ◽  
Manuela Farinosi

The purpose of this article is to provide lessons from the field about an Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) project (Participatory Research and Ownership With Technology, Information and Change [PROTIC]) concerned with the use of mobile phones by women in remote villages in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government considers that the role of ICT in social and economic transformation is significant for the country’s development. International nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also regard ICT as important but are challenged as how to use them effectively for their programs and how to deal with long-term sustainability, digital divides, gender, and cultural issues. This article considers the PROTIC project as a modeling force for innovation and pressure on established sociotechnical structures. In this analysis, we follow what Donner defines as the “interrelationship” perspective, as applied to ICT4D. In particular, the notions of niche, regime, and landscape will be used to frame the changes that a village-level project may activate or respond to at the micro, meso, and macro levels of sociotechnical interaction. A mixed methods approach has been implemented during the 4 years of the project to monitor its outcomes, including interviews with project participants, reports of monthly consultations and training with villagers, extensive surveys, analysis of the Facebook profile of the project, and field notes and interviews with local NGOs and international NGO staff. Results show that the women villagers have undergone a transformation in attitudes, skills, and practices associated with mobile phone use. Transformations at individual and community niche levels have in turn influenced the conceptual framework of local and international NGOs and have also contributed to the reorientation of other regime actors, such as universities, major NGOs, and the government. Methodological constraints as well as the complexity of conducting international fieldwork with multiple actors will also be discussed.


1995 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 1065-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas R. Lardy

In the almost two decades since economic reform began in China the role of the foreign sector has burgeoned in ways that no one anticipated. The volume of foreign trade and the role of foreign capital are both far greater than could have been foreseen based on the modest Chinese economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s. By the mid-1990s China had become one of the world's largest trading nations, the recipient of more foreign direct investment than any other country in the world, the largest borrower from the World Bank, the largest recipient of official development assistance in the form of low-interest, long-term concessionary loans from industrialized countries, and, except for the Czech Republic, the only transition economy with ready access to international capital and equity markets.


2021 ◽  
pp. 235-274
Author(s):  
Evgeniia Obichkina ◽  

The start of the presidential cycle opens up a new period of French domestic and foreign policies. It is typical for the domestic school of Frenсh studies to correlate the foreign policy of a new president with the main historical reference of the Fifth republic – the diplomacy of its founder Charles de Gaulle, despite the fact that the international situation that determined it is a thing of the past. The profound transformations of the international environment have shattered the foundations of the foreign policy equilibrium formed by de Gaulle, therefore it seems an anachronism to predict the foreign policy course of Paris based solely on tradition. During three and a half years of E. Macron's rule, the main directions of adjusting geopolitical approaches were determined, which did not diminish the acuteness of the question of the role of France and the EU in the world, where a new hierarchy of centers of power is being built. New features of French geopolitics testify to the transformations of geopolitical identity, in which sovereignty was transferred to the European (EU) level, and strategic identity from the national / European to the European / Atlantic level. In this dual ensemble, France intends to play the role of a leader capable of promoting national interests through the establishment of the EU as an independent center of power. The purpose of this study is to analyze the foundations of current French geopolitics, which allows to outline the direction and framework of the country's foreign policy for the medium, possibly for the long term.


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