The World Bank is working with China, including via jointly funded projects, to develop a manufacturing sector in Africa and potentially transform the economies of the poorest continent, its head said on Tuesday.
“If you look back at the growth of east Asia, starting with Japan and then Korea and Taiwan and southeast Asia and China, they’ve used the model of basic manufacturing to slowly move up the value-added chain,” Bank President Robert Zoellick said at the end of an African Union summit in Ethiopia.
“I’m not saying this is going to happen overnight but…”
The legacy of colonial rule means many sub-Saharan African countries — South Africa excluded — have economies structured round the export of raw materials such as oil, gold and cocoa, and have to import basic manufactured goods at higher prices.
Developing a domestic factory sector would go a long way towards cutting these costs, as well as creating jobs and accelerating industrialisation.
Chinese officials often talk of the potential for Chinese investment to bring about an African industrial revolution. Zoellick’s desire to see World Bank expertise and cash tied up with Chinese business and manufacturing knowhow supports that view.
It also marks a departure from World Bank criticism of some of the massive minerals-for-infrastructure deals that have typified much Chinese investment in the continent.
“In the case of China, we may sometimes look for opportunities to co-invest; sometimes we may try to help and work with the local government to build infrastructure — maybe it’s the electricity to power the plants, maybe it’s the roads,” Zoellick told journalists via teleconference from Addis Ababa.
Other examples included advising host countries on streamlining customs procedures — a vital step in establishing manufacturing-for-export zones, he said.
Zoellick said last year he had talked to senior Chinese officials about the feasibility of moving low-value factory work, such as making toys or shoes, from China to special economic zones in sub-Saharan African countries.
Such projects already exist in Zambia, Nigeria, Mauritius and Ethiopia, but are very much in their infancy.
Despite his praise for China’s investment in Africa, Zoellick said too many projects tended to rely on imported Chinese labour to the detriment of African skills development.
“We’ve wanted to work with both Africa and China so that people get the full benefits,” he said. “It doesn’t do Africa much good if China comes in and brings in Chinese workers.” (Editing by Tim Pearce)
[Source: Reuters]
Ya it is high time we reduced on these guys working too much in areas like our mines on the copperbelt at the expess of the local work force.
:-b I am glad the eyes are now opened!
Chinese cheap labourers including convicts from Chinese jails have invaded Zambeziland.
This explains why unemployment rate for local people of Zambeziland never drops.