By Jacinta Nwachukwu,
An economic analyst and researcher, Mr Djeri-wake Nabine, says that the impact of Chinese foreign investment and bilateral trade with Africa is massive.
Statistics shows that in 2009, China exceeded the United States as Africa’s largest trade partner, indicating Angola, South Africa, Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt, as China’s top five African trading partners.
In his contribution to a journal of Economic Commission for Africa, Nabine cites the Nigeria-China relationship example, noting that in short term, the bilateral trade doesn’t contribute to Nigeria economic growth but the long term relationship can enhance Nigeria economic growth.
Corroborating this view, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said Nigeria and China had enjoyed profound traditional friendship and China had always been a valuable partner.
In a meeting recently with Chinese Ambassador Gu Xiaojie in Abuja, the minister said that the Nigerian government attached great importance to agriculture and rural development.
He lauded Chinese companies’ investment and involvement in the development of the country, adding that the country would learn from China’s experience to reduce poverty.
Ogbeh insisted that there should be joint efforts to strengthen cooperation in the agricultural area and bring concrete benefits to peoples of the two countries.
In his response, Gu, said China would strengthen investment and cooperation in Nigeria’s agricultural areas to inject new impetus to the strategic partnership between the two countries.
In other areas of development, the China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd., had signed an agreement with Nigeria in 2014 to build a 12 billion-dollar railway project.
The company has also undertaken similar projects in Algerian, Tanzania and Zambia, among other African countries.
In the same vein, Chinese bus manufacturing company, Yutong Group, claims it has exported more than 33,000 buses worldwide, including Nigeria, since it began operations.
Similarly, the Startimes Group, a Chinese media firm, says its multi layer coverage transmission platform, has the capacity to cover 80 per cent of the African population.
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Unarguably, Startimes’ project in Africa has promoted the great leap-forward development of digital television in Africa by promoting cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa.
Reviewing China’s contribution to security issues in Africa, the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Cairo, attests that China has paid more attention to the security situation in Africa in recent years.
“Since the establishment of China-Africa Cooperation Forum in 2000, the Chinese African cooperation in the field of peace and security has become one of the most important fields of Chinese-African cooperation,’’ the centre writes in its in-depth report.
Recently, China also scheduled to send an infantry battalion -the largest combat troop contribution China has made to a UN Peacekeeping Mission – to South Sudan.
Assessing the impact of Africa-China cooperation on development, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, insists that Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), has been a good platform for strengthening relationship between African nations and China.
It says the forum is a platform established by China and friendly African countries for collective consultation, dialogue and a cooperation mechanism among the developing countries that falls into the category of South-South cooperation.
According to it, Africa needs to accurately assess the Chinese development agenda in order to approach the forum with strategies and priorities that will align with that the development of Africans.
The sixth edition of the forum will hold in South Africa from Dec. 4 to Dec. 5.
South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the summit of the forum would hold in Johannesburg with the theme: “Africa-China Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development’’.
According to her, the summit will elevate the Africa-China relationship to a new level that will have a beneficial impact and give impetus to Africa’s development agenda.
“The summit is expected to open new avenues of cooperation and open new opportunities for both China and Africa as the forum is historic, being the first to be held in Africa.
“It is expected to adopt the Johannesburg Declaration and Action Plan which will outline specific measures aimed at consolidating the growing mutual partnership between Africa and China.
“The FOCAC platform is based on the principles of South-South cooperation, mutual and equal benefit with a view to addressing various areas of concern for Africa’s socio-economic development and integration.
“These include deepening cooperation in the areas of infrastructure development, debt relief, industrialisation, investment promotion, market access expansion, agriculture, science, technology, health and education, among others,’’ she said.
She noted that the summit would ensure that future FOCAC declarations and action plans were effectively implemented in line with the African Union’s Agenda for Regional and Continental Integration and Development.
Nkoana-Mashabane also said that South Africa would ensure that the Africa’s development agenda was realised through the FOCAC partnership that supported relevant African programmes aimed at eradicating poverty.
Observers, however, opine that in recent FOCAC summits, China has dominated the agenda settings for the meetings.
According to them, African leaders need to carefully strategise and actively voice their demands for contribution to ensure collective bargaining through regional and sub-regional organisations.
All in all, analysts insist that African leaders should make policy priority for the continent to make sure that effective Foreign Direct Investment inflow from China.
They opine that with the importance of the forum, African countries should negotiate with China for more direct investment in all development areas.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
