CHINA: SINCE attaining their independence, African countries have tirelessly pursued industrialisation, seeking to overcome their economic dependent status in the global economic order.

In 1989, the Organisation of African Unity, now (AU) and the United Nations General Assembly declared 20 November to be Africa Industrialisation Day to enhance international awareness and cooperation on African industrialisation.

Regrettably, these aspirations have not yet been fully realised. In the 21st century, there have been important positive changes in the continent’s economic development. The relationships between Africa and China have developed rapidly, reshaping the continent’s strategic position in the globe.

A period of high growth rates between 2000 and 2015 led to the emergence of an ‘Africa rising’ narrative in Western media, as Africa’s image transformed from a ‘continent of despair’ to a ‘continent full of hope. In the 1960s, newly independent African states began to embark on the path of industrial development.

However, six decades later they have not yet been able to realise industrialisation. Popular explanations for the continent’s low level of development have often focused on internal factors such as poor governance/leadership, climate, geography, ethnic diversity, and culture. However, these explanations fail to account for the fact that such issues also existed in one form or another in all of today’s developed countries.

For instance, early colonial rulers created education systems that were focused on training clerks to assist in the management of the colonies, rather than training engineers and scientists. In recent decades, the failed prescriptions and models imposed by the West on Africa have also negatively impacted the continent’s development.

The West also forcibly imposed neoliberal policies on much of the world and often tested its neoliberal ideas on countries of the Global South, including Africa, impeding their pursuit of industrialisation. The imposition of Western economic ideology and theories has hampered African countries to formulate development strategies suited to their national conditions.

Economic and foreign exchange crises that afflicted most African countries during the 1980s forced African nations to turn to the Bretton Woods institutions and accept structural adjustment programmes. Few years later, the Western-led global wave of economic liberalisation, deregulation, and privatisation swept across Africa.

Under the guidance of neoliberal prescriptions, African countries were essentially de-industrialised, undoing much of the progress that had been made in the previous decades. Western aid promoted economic dependence in Africa, while the political, economic and ideological hegemony of the West reduced Africa’s policy space and autonomy.

Western neoliberal structural adjustment programmes that were aimed at improving the business and investment environment, did not assist Africa’s development. The problem with this model is that much of Africa’s developmental policies were always formulated outside the continent without incorporating any indigenous thoughts. Worse still, matters of economic development and industrialisation were handled by politicians and scholars with western thinking.

Independent African thinking and analysis were always marginalised. African states were discouraged from formulating industrialisation strategies based on their national conditions. Under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), established in 2000, China has committed to working with Africa to address the developmental bottlenecks, such as the infrastructure gap, training skilled workers, and funding shortfalls.

FOCAC initiatives have consistently focused on cooperation related to industrial capacity, including the ‘ten major China-Africa cooperation plans’ proposed at the Johannesburg Summit of 2015, the ‘eight major initiatives in collaboration with Africa’ proposed at the Beijing Summit of 2018 and the 10 point action plan for modernisation, proposed at Beijing Summit 2024.

ALSO READ: What China’s peaceful development means for the world

China’s contributions to African industrialisation is mainly focused on key important areas such as infrastructure construction; offering new developmental options by sharing its own experiences; and changing the paradigm of international cooperation and improving Africa’s global position through China-Africa cooperation. In cooperating with Africa in developing its industrial capacity, China is supporting African countries through infrastructure construction.

Through its infrastructure financing, African countries have been able to build crucial and strategic infrastructure which have enabled them to bridge their infrastructure gap and accelerate development in respective countries. Despite China’s contribution in facilitating access to finance for infrastructure construction, African countries are still facing a serious shortage of infrastructure.

The infrastructure gap in the energy sector has led to frequent power outages and expensive electricity and the fragile transportation network that hinders regional economic integration. Statistics shows that with a population of roughly 1.4 billion people, the continent has only 100 seaports.

To address this gap, China has been an important partner in building railways, roads, airports, seaports, and other transport infrastructure, as well as energy and water infrastructure. China is also committed to supporting the construction and expansion of African high-speed rail, highway, and aviation networks. In the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese foreign assistance followed a turnkey model that, in some instances, encountered operational difficulties after handover.

Following these experiences, China now pays a high level of attention to the subsequent maintenance and operation of foreign How China contributes to Africa’s industrial development infrastructure projects and increasingly strives to combine infrastructure construction in Africa with industrial capacity cooperation.

For example, Ethiopia’s Chinesebuilt industrial parks have synergised with the Chinese-built Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, helping the country establish an economic corridor and promote industrial development.

It is worth noting that, China’s developmental experiences have demonstrated alternative paths to industrialisation for African countries. As the Western powers imposed their neoliberal model on the Global South, leading to deindustrialisation in many developing countries, China followed a different path by adhering to its own characteristics.

China’s experiences in industrialisation offer lessons on numerous aspects of development that African countries can learn from, such as; the dialectical unity of reforms, development, stability, and innovation; the management of relations between the government and the respective country’s market, the government and the respective country’s society; the importance of leadership that is capable and has a strong political will and the need to define clear strategies. While cooperating with Africa in developing its industrial capacity and facilitating technology transfer, China has been sharing its own similar experiences in the aspects.

Though China has never imposed its own development model on others, African countries have expressed their own desire to learn from the larges developing economy’s experience. Three important tenets of China’s developmental experience include transcending dogmatic frameworks, paradigms, and models, starting from one’s own concrete conditions, and fine-tuning one’s actions based on experiences and lessons.

ALSO READ: China’s peaceful development pertinent issues of modernisation, civilisation

It is important to note that there is no ‘Chinese consensus’ or ‘Chinese model’ with respect to economic development. The relationship between China and Africa is one of mutual learning, rather than one-way instruction. At the 2016 Group of Twenty (G20) summit, China, for the first time, put forward a proposal to support industrialisation in Africa and the UN-designated group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

One of the development theories embraced by the West is that Africa can use aid to fight poverty. However, it has, at last, been agreed that aid alone cannot resolve poverty or promote industrialisation. China-Africa cooperation focuses on development that combines aid, trade, investment, and other means available to assist the continent’s independent.

Following China’s growing relations with Africa, the nature of the relationship between the West and Africa is also gradually changing and the Africa continent has been able to improve its global position, becoming a hotbed for investment. In recent years, for example, Western companies have invested and built factories and assembly plants in some African countries.

These developments could be promising for Africa’s industrialisation. Ultimately, the real engine for African industrialisation lies in the hands of African countries themselves. Capital, technology, and experience from China, can only support these efforts.

For instance, similar projects or forms of cooperation can have very different outcomes in different countries. For instance, by transferring technology and expertise, China is helping African countries develop their manufacturing capabilities, allowing production of goods for local market and export. Indeed, China is significantly contributing to Africa’s industrialization by heavily investing in infrastructure development across the continent which serves as a foundation for industrial growth.

Additionally, China’s built industrial park, and industrial capacity cooperation, has allowed African countries to develop manufacturing capabilities based on China’s own industrial model.

• The writer is a Dar es Salaam-based analyst on international politics and foreign relations. Email: cleophacegeorge@gmail.com)