Chinese and South African young people together
Recently, a series of opinion pieces by Asha-Rose Migiro, the former deputy secretary-general of the UN and former foreign minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, including the one below “Chinese Dream, African Dream: Achieving Common Development” were published in the Daily Monitor, a popular English newspaper in Ethiopia. It reads as follows:
Recently, the new Chinese administration, under the distinguished leadership of President Xi Jinping, unveiled “The Great Chinese Dream”.
He said that through this dream, China affirms its “commitment to connecting its development with that of Africa, aligning the interests of the Chinese people with those of the African people, and combining China’s development opportunities with those of Africa.”
The Chinese dream has received immense appeal in Africa because it conjures a vision of collective achievement and resonates with the continent’s dream.
We in Tanzania know that the Chinese dream espouses the same objectives that we are striving to reach: poverty alleviation, economic growth and attainment of sustainable development as articulated in the country’s National Development Vision 2025.
We have a workable tool. The successive Forums for China-Africa Co-operation (Focac), based on the principles of equality, mutual trust, win-win co-operation and two-way cultural exchanges, among others, stand to make a huge contribution to the practical realisation of the Chinese dream and African dream.
The emergence of China as a global economic giant and Africa’s largest trading partner has raised hopes that a win-win partnership could unleash the continent’s economic potentials.
Mutual benefits
China’s growth trajectory and intensified Sino-Africa relationship offers several unprecedented opportunities for both sides.
China has become an important export destination for Africa, and its rising domestic consumption bodes well for the continent because it could sustain demand for African exports.
Africa also stands to benefit from the increased trade relations with China as a gateway to other Asian markets.
In recent years, the African continent has seen rising levels of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing to key sectors, such as telecommunications, transport, port construction, power generation and agriculture.
Given the scale of Africa’s infrastructure gap, these investments present Africa with the much-needed impetus to rapid social and economic development.
On the other hand, Sino-Africa partnership offers African countries an opportunity to draw a leaf from China’s experience in the competitiveness of its industry and exports.
There is potential in using the current partnership arrangements to boost Africa’s agricultural sector, which remains the largest employer of its people.
On their part, Chinese investors can make use of the improved economic environment on the continent, which has thus far proved resilient to the global economic crisis.
Investing in Africa means getting access to a consumer market of more than a billion people with its fast-growing middle class.
One of the challenges is how to ensure that Sino-Africa relationship is as equitable as it is sustainable in its long-term cumulative effect.
In one of his landmark speeches, Tanzania’s first president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said: “If a door is shut, attempts should be made to open it; if it is ajar, it should be pushed until it is wide open. In neither case should the door be blown up at the expense of those inside.”
Let us use the Focac mechanism to ensure that the door is not blown up.
Economic co-operation
Africa is more than, what has often been referred to as, a destination for natural resource exploitation for foreign investors.
Africa is a land of strategic opportunities for those who are keenly interested in working with us to forge win-win partnerships.
It is indeed strategic cooperation that will demystify the claim that the increased engagement of emerging economies, such as Brics in Africa is essentially driven by the continent’s abundant, untapped natural resources.
Recently produced data by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development show that about 75% of the value of the Brics FDI projects in Africa for the period 2003 to 2012 were in manufacturing and services sectors.
Only 10% and 26% of the number and value of projects, respectively, were channeled to natural resources.
It is also true that some African countries that are relatively less endowed with natural resources are the major beneficiaries of Chinese investments and trade relations.
The Sino-Africa partnership should work to ensure the investments that are made contribute effectively to the rapid transformation of African economies by, among others, overhauling and modernising current production structures; directing technology and adequate resources to small and medium scale enterprises; and forging strategic linkages with local African producers with a view to getting value-added, high quality products exported to China and other parts of the world.
China-Africa relations have come a long way. A lot has been achieved and a lot more remains to be gained through the Chinese dream and the African dream.
While Sino-Africa relations offer the continent avenues and opportunities to diversify its trading partners and forge new mutually beneficial partnerships, it is important that such benefits trickle down to the masses.
Academic exchange
Universities in Africa are key players in a global system increasingly driven by knowledge exchange, information technology and new ideas. We live in a historic epoch.
Universities in Tanzania should therefore take their rightful position in enhancing Sino-Africa cooperation.
Academic and cultural exchanges will be crucial in this regard.
While the University of Dar es Salaam, and I believe other universities on the continent, already maintains academic exchanges with counterpart universities in China, efforts should be made to make sure that co-operation is not confined only to government levels, but also penetrates further down to the people.
President Xi Jinping during his visit to Tanzania in March this year said that greater emphasis should be placed “on people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and Africa so as to improve mutual understanding and perception…”
Mao once said: “Our duty is to hold ourselves responsible to the people. Every word, every act and every policy must conform to the people’s interests, and if mistakes occur, they must be corrected. That is what being responsible to the people means.”
Whatever we do, discuss and plan within the spirit of achieving our cherished goal of creating and fostering a win-win cooperation framework, people’s interests should be at the core.
