Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone ::The Africa-China opportunity: Africa set to awaken the roar of the dragon

[Bulls n Bears]

With South Africa hosting the forthcoming BRICS Summit, there has never
been a better time to champion the country and the broader continent’s
agenda. BRICS serves as a timely reminder that as emerging markets make a
greater contribution to the global economy than ever before, bilateral
relations are also being reset to optimise new opportunities – ones which
Africa must be part of if it is to realise its goal of achieving inclusive
growth.

BRICS offers a unique platform for these emerging nations to find common
economic and developmental challenges that can be best overcome
collaboratively. Examples include removing barriers to investment
opportunities, to the removal of obstacles to trade and the ability to
create greater regional skills mobility. South Africa can use its role as
chair of BRICS for 2018 to help forge greater cooperation and integration
across the continent and to help Africa to further its interconnectedness
into the global economy through trade opportunities, regulatory
harmonisation and capacity building to attract more capital investment.

The “Africa rising” label may be a little jaded at this point, but the
foundations of its macro-economic growth and stability in the last decade or
more must not be allowed to be diminished. The changing demographics of
Africa have helped its countries make great strides, aided by convergence of
the right economic policies with new technologies and improved external
trade links and greater regional integration. This is epitomised most
recently by the African Union’s Continental Free Trade Area signed by 44
countries earlier this year to fuel this sustainable development.

But while Africa looks to make its own inroads internally, through greater
regional integration and trade corridors, it is its outward strategy around
foreign direct investment, particularly through the long-standing
China-Africa connection that can help secure a sustainable future. Foreign
investment is critical to diversifying Africa’s economies by diverting flow
to those sectors of the economy with the greatest chance for export-led
growth. Additionally, economic growth can be enhanced through local capacity
building, fuelling the sustainability of local economies throughout the
Africa-China corridor by presenting the opportunity for both SMEs,
conglomerates and government-funded entities alike to tap into these
investment and capital flows.

Indeed, most African business and government leaders tell us that they
believe the Africa-China opportunity to be the largest opportunity presented
by any foreign partner. Moreover, it also means Africa can chart a course
that will be interconnected with other emerging markets and therefore
inextricably integrated into the drivers of the global economy. Africa-China
trade is undisputedly, the most important external economic dynamics for our
continent, and one that will only be enhanced through further Chinese
investment and a deepening connection.

Chinese aspirations into Africa are evolving as the relationship between
the two regions broaden and matures, giving rise to new investment trends.
The change is being driven by complementary shifts in strategic focus of
both China, as well as African nations away from acquisitive behaviour to
longer-term investment opportunities that can not only build crucial
infrastructure, but also provide expertise in their markets.

The One Belt One Road (OBOR) leverages the established trade routes to
create a new and more far-reaching one but is still true to the natural
extension of its historic ties with Africa. While China forges its trading
ties into more diverse regions, the OBOR initiative is a key development in
driving continued collaboration and diversifying opportunities between the
China-Africa corridor. The enhancement of two-way trading volumes between
Africa and China will be an important step rather than the more skewed
situation currently, more biased toward Africa as an importer than its role
as an exporter.

Yet the opportunities lie far beyond tapping into the investment and
capital flows of this vast project. Success will be measured not just in
terms of “concrete pouring”, but in the capacity-building created across the
value chain of the Africa-China corridor. These benefits extend to
industrial expansion, unparalleled investment, intellectual capital and
skills development between the two nations to create industrialisation on an
unprecedented and previously unfulfilled scale.

As the OBOR serves as the catalyst for a new dawn of collaboration between
Chinese partners, it is incumbent on Africa to leverage new opportunities to
extend its role as a key trading partner. Increased deployment of the
renminbi across Africa trade, both as a reserve and settlement currency will
also enhance trading opportunities and mitigate current liquidity
challenges.

In line with Africa’s demands, the global emerging market aims of the
Chinese government and the major sustainable business opportunities on the
world’s fastest-growing continent, many Chinese investors have already
shifted their Africa strategies towards a long-term capital investment and
partnership focus.

This is consistent with the evolution of the economic relationship between
China and Africa and the ever more long-term focus of most Chinese
investments on the continent. Today’s ties go beyond the facilitation of
capital flows and cross-border trade, to enable Chinese companies to be
embedded into African economies and its fortunes as the last emerging
frontier more than ever before.

Rather, the quest now is for far greater sustainability from Chinese
business and government alike, in order to become a long-term partner with
emerging markets. This public-private outlook is a unique opportunity for a
continent like Africa who can stake their relevance to initiatives such as
the One Belt One Road initiative but also leverage broader bilateral
alliances such as BRICS.

In many respects, China’s established success in Africa serves as a
guideline for OBOR. Chinese firms have a long track record of building
infrastructure in these countries, learning many important lessons along the
way. As we look to the second decade of the BRICS alliance during the
forthcoming BRICS Summit, its relevance inextricably lies to Africa’s own
success.

Africa must be part of the emerging markets’ growth story and ultimately
their developmental agendas. Isolated bilateral and or trade relations will
fail to yield the broader opportunities of new trade zones that the likes of
BRICS or the OBOR present. Africa’s potential lies in its ability to work
together through its own regional integration to fuel its broader global
economic ambitions.—Howwemadeitinafrica 



Sola David-Borha

 

Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

Telephone:    <tel:%2B263%204%202927658> +263 4 2927658

Cellphone:      <tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674> +263 77 344 1674

Alt. Email:    <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw  

Website:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AF
QjCNH8LYgdY55h-XKseuM8Kpr-JKdfhQ> www.bulls.co.zw 

Blog:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw%2Fblog&sa=D&sntz=1
&usg=AFQjCNFoIy6F9IXAiYnSoPSgWDYsr8Sqtw> www.bulls.co.zw/blog

Twitter:                  @bullsbears2010

LinkedIn:               Bulls n Bears Zimbabwe

Facebook:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBullsBearsZimba
bwe&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGhb_A5rp4biV1dGHbgiAhUxQqBXA>
www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe

Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 261161 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20180727/488ea41c/attachment-0001.bin>