How Africa
Information is provided by Sun Jiwen, the spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. Chinese investment in Africa reached $ 2.5 billion in the first ten months of 2016, a 31% increase over the same period in 2015. This figure echoes the announcement made China at the end of 2015, at the 6th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) held in Johannesburg. Beijing promised to inject 60 billion dollars into African economies between 2016 and 2018 in the form of investments, loans and grants.
A diversification effort
What is it, then? Beyond investments in infrastructure construction and extractive industries, it can be seen that 10% of these investments in 2016 were made in the manufacturing sector. This is an illustration of a special effort of China to discard the image of a country only wanting to use in African raw materials but also to take advantage of the potential of the African market to sell its products Manufactured goods, without the transfer of know-how, let alone the creation of jobs that Africa badly needs. A vision all the more anchored as the Chinese, while investing, do not hesitate to land with their equipment and their workforce.
A sign of confidence in the continent’s future
Having become one of the first trading partners since 2009, a trend that has only increased since then, China is trying to change its approach to Africa. It now seeks to invest in areas other than raw materials by making an effort in terms of its development assistance and its approach to bilateral cooperation. This gives another perception to the 150.4 billion dollars of investments in sub-Saharan Africa that it made between January 2006 and July 2014, according to the recent report issued by the American Enterprise Institute think tank and the Heritage Foundation.
