China's Developmental Model Comes to Africa

Has anybody heard of Africa’s new special economic zones? China is going about carving out designated special economic zones (SEZ) across the continent that are set to become Africa’s new economic growth nodes. China’s commercial strategy toward Africa also involves linking these SEZ’s by building infrastructure corridors across the respective regions. Almost unprecedented in scale since the colonial period, Africa is set to receive a trans-national infrastructure network. Decisions made in Beijing and implemented by its stateowned firms in Africa will determine the growth trajectory of large parts of subSaharan Africa. It’s incredulous that the most significant infrastructure projects on the continent are almost unknown. The reason is that they are being planned in Beijing. Welcoming the Chinese African governments have been welcoming of Chinese investment with energyendowed economies having been the recipients of the largest inflows. The nature of their economies – commodity rich, pervasive state intervention in the economy, weak commercial law, and shaky public sector institutions – all lend themselves to rapid market entry. Chinese firms have rapidly been able to gain market traction in these economies. Chinese firms are trailblazing across the continent acquiring mineral assets. There are now over 800 Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) present in Africa mostly in the extractive industries – representatives of China’s foreign commercial policy toward the continent.