The narrative of a rising Africa will remain a pipedream as longas there is no industrialization and manufacturing. To this effect on Aug 18 to19, the Africa Policy Institute (API)-Nairobi in partnership with the Embassyof the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Kenya co-hosted a virtualtwo-half day conference themed: Enhancing China-Africa Cooperation on FightingCOVID-19 and Promoting Manufacturing.
The conference discussions were organized around four mainthematic areas: China-Africa cooperation in infrastructural development and itsrole in boosting the manufacturing industry in Africa; the impact ofinfrastructure development on Africa's industri?alization under the Forum forChina-Africa Cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative; China-Africacooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on prospectsin the manufacturing sector; and lastly, opportunities available and measuresneeded to promote Sino-African cooperation in the post-COVID-19 world.
The participants were eminent scholars drawn from Africa andChina. Reflecting on the various submissions by the scholars, one school ofthought that was strongly echoed by all is that Africa and China have alwaysshared a spirit of mutual solidarity.
Since 2009, when China overtook the United States of America asAfrica's leading trading partner, Beijing has made efforts to promote Africa'sindustrialization and capacity for manufacturing.
In 2015, China launched efforts to help Africa develop industries,ushering in a new era of China-Africa cooperation in manufacturing. At theFOCAC summit in Johannesburg on December 2015, China announced a 10-pointcooperation plan to promote industrialization and agricultural modernization inAfrica, devoting $60 billion to back up the plan.
The forum also established the China Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperationfund (CAFIC) with $10 billion of capital to invest in promising manufacturingprojects.
Aligning with the African Union Strategic Framework - Agenda 2063,and the United Nations General Assembly Declaration of 2016 – 2025 as the"Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa", the virtualtwo-half day conference that brought together over 40 African Scholars and 15Chinese scholars emphasized China's contribution to the war on COVID-19 acrossAfrica and the efforts to revive the manufacturing sector after COVID.
Notably, African countries such as Kenya have sought to strengthenpartnership with China to promote and develop its manufacturing industry. Inthe 2018 FOCAC summit in Beijing, industrialization was highlighted as a toppriority for China-Africa cooperation.
By 2019, a number of major Chinese-assisted infrastructureprojects were completed, including the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway, Kenya'sMombasa-Nairobi-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway; and Cote d'Ivoire's Soubrehydropower plant. These projects have provided transport and energy to developlocal manufacturing needed to pay for their investment.
Further, China has supported the implementation of over 200infrastructure projects. Currently, Chinese companies have completed and arebuilding projects that are designed to "help add to or upgrade about 2,000km of railways, 30,000 km of highways, more than 30,000 km of transmission andtransformation lines, 85 million tons per year of port capacity, more than 9million tons per day of clean water treatment capacity, and about 20,000 MW ofpower generation capacity" in Africa.
However, Africa's industrialization and manufacturing sector hashad its fair share of challenges as articulated by the African scholars.
For instance, many African countries, due to the attributes ofglobalization, have restructured their economies and have incorporated tradepolicies and liberal economics to support development strategies. However,these reforms have come with their own challenges, including the influx of importedcommodities resulting in the closure of industries with consequential joblosses.
Also, with less technological advancement and digitalization inthe industrial sector, the ability of African countries to compete with otherhighly advanced economies is low. In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the challengeof inadequate and stable electricity power supply has affected the growth oftheir manufacturing sectors. Other countries like Kenya experience high powertariffs that have rendered the manufacturing market less attractive to manyinternational investors.
Moving forward, key policy recommendations on boostingmanufacturing in Africa were set forth.
First, we are living in a "new normal" imposed upon usby the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is not only a threat to the healthand medical sector but also an economic threat that if not properly handledwill wipe out all our economies, livelihoods and human survival. Thus, it is ofgreat importance to rethink how to improve the growth of Africa's manufacturingsector and other economies as we continue with the fight against COVID-19.
Second, we need to build on past cooperation. China and Africahave a long history of cooperation that has formed the largest market in theworld comprising of about 2.6 billion people. Both the two civilizations needto tap on this market to build their manufacturing sectors and as a whole theirrespective economies.
Third, both of the two civilizations need to focus on capacitybuilding. On this, Africa needs to have policy integration and institutionalcoherence; build technical capacity; and think about the financing mechanismsthat it needs in order to prioritize manufacturing and other sectors of theeconomy, and innovation. Technological transfers from China are necessary. Thiswill lead to sharing of skills between the two partners. Also, there is needfor political stability to avoid rising instability from undermining Africa'sdevelopment.
Fourth, we must engage in development centered on Africa andChina. This requires the empowerment of think tanks to provide a knowledge basefor Sino-African mutual cooperation.
Finally, Africa and China need to come out strongly as indicatingthat our future rests on supporting multilateralism, not unilateralism, orrogue diplomacy and weaponization of a disease to gain political mileage.Hence, the conference will have a declaration of universal principles onmultilateralism as the cornerstone of building a community of shared destinyfor humanity, that will be used to defeat COVID-19 and rebuild both China's andAfrica's industries and manufacturing sectors in the post-COVID era.
Professor Peter Kagwanja is the president and chief executive ofthe Africa Policy Institute and Dennis Munene is the executive director of theChina-Africa Center at the Africa Policy Institute.
Editor: Galia
