Africa’s relationship with China must be more strategic in 2021
With the next edition of FOCAC coming up in 2021, African governments and businesses need to work hard to steer the continent’s relationship with China in the right direction, say Hannah Ryder and Ovigwe Eguegu The post Africa’s relationship with China must be more strategic in 2021 appeared first on African Business.
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With the next edition of FOCAC coming up in 2021, African governments and businesses need to work hard to steer the continent’s relationship with China in the right direction, say Hannah Ryder and Ovigwe Eguegu
The year 2020 was a difficult year for many if not most relationships – from the personal level to the country level. For the relationship between Africa and China, there were some challenges, in particular the racism experienced by Africans at the early stages of Covid-19 management in China, and the continued closure of China’s borders to most Africans thereafter.
Apart from this, however, the relationship appeared to strengthen – including relative to other development partners – on several very tangible levels. Figures for the first 11 months of 2020 suggest total Africa-China trade fell by just 10% on 2019 levels, compared with a 21% fall in Africa-US trade and a 20% fall in Africa-EU trade. African agricultural exports to China actually increased by 4.4%.
FDI from China grew marginally by 0.04% to $2.8bn, amid an overall projected 25-40% fall in global investment into Africa in 2020, according to UNCTAD.
The Chinese government claims to be the largest contributor to the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) – fairly easy to achieve given low levels of bilateral loans from others in recent years and the fact that the multilateral organizations did not participate in the initiative.
But what does 2021 have in store for relationships between African nations and China? Our expectation is mostly continued strengthening, rather than faltering, though this will bring its own specific challenges. Let’s focus on three specific areas: Covid-19, trade, and lending.
