Rolerecognition

Chinese investment in Africa gets its due appreciation

A line of sleek suede pumps in maroon displayed in American malls aren’t just high fashion for women. They are Ivanka Trump brand shoes, footwear launched by Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2011. While the political association of the products is evident, few know of the other wider significance which encompasses two different continents.

The bulk of Ivanka Trump’s footwear is being made by the Huajian Group, a Chinese manufacturer. In five years they have produced 100,000 pairs of Ivanka Trump and in August, after Donald Trump became the official presidential candidate of the Republican Party, they received an order for 20,000 more pairs, the group’s spokesperson Liu Shiyuan told AFP.

Back in 2011 Huajian became the first Chinese shoemaker to enter the African market, investing in factories in Ethiopia. The “Made in China” story subsequently has become a “Made in Africa” tale, with exports to Europe and the United States, bringing in foreign exchange worth $44.49 million, creating jobs for 3,600 Ethiopians and raising the profile of the Ethiopian shoe industry.

Today, says Liu, the group is building the Huajian International Light Industrial Zone in Ethiopia. The 320-million-yuan ($47.5 million) project will be completed in 2020 when it is estimated to provide jobs to 100,000 people, mostly locals. and Port of Dakar, Senegal.

Another consequence of the greater interconnectivity has been more Africans coming to China and vice versa. In 2015, 353,400 Africans came to China. Also, 658,600 people left for African destinations from Guangdong’s ports.

All this makes Guangzhou, the provincial capital, the perfect host for the annual Investing in Africa Forum. The second edition of the forum, held in September after the G20 Summit and the Forum on China-africa Cooperation Summit, is a reaffirmation by the Chinese leaders that they will continue to direct investors toward Africa.

“We will continue to encourage Chinese enterprises to expand their investments in Africa,” Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai said at the forum. “Chinese investment aims to help African countries increase job opportunities, protect the environment and improve people’s livelihoods.”

The forum highlights the change in the nature of Chinese investment in Africa. Though Africa’s biggest trade partner for seven consecutive years, business is no longer the Chinese focus. Instead, the thrust is on accelerating African development. “We will support sustainable development in Africa to reduce divergences and we will help African countries to improve their investment capacity,” said Ma. “In a word, we will forge a new model of South-south cooperation.”

The international community, once critical of China’s interest in Africa, is now acknowledging China’s role in the continent’s development, especially as true to its word, China has intensified efforts to work with multilateral partners. The second Investing in Africa Forum had the World Bank Group among the organizers, besides the central and Guangdong provincial governments and the China Development Bank with the support of African governments. South African President Jacob Zuma and his counterpart in Benin, Patrice Talon, also attended the Guangzhou forum.

Last year, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization was among the organizers when the Ethiopian Government hosted the meet in Addis Ababa.