Experts urge Africa to seize economic opportunties from Chinese industries

Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-18 01:27:02|Editor: yan
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KAMPALA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Economic experts have urged Africa to grab the opportunities presented by a new wave of industrialization, as manufacturers shift their attention from China to elsewhere in the world, where wages are lower and resources are abundant.

Experts who attended a one-day annual China-Uganda business summit on Thursday argued that the timing is right and some countries on the continent have seized the opportunity to attract the movement of industries.

Hai Yu, chief executive officer of Made in Africa Initiative Limited, told the business gathering that as China's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) increases, many labor intensive industries will shift from China.

Hai, who is also the goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, argued that in the process of movement, over 85 million jobs will be created, providing opportunity to millions of unemployed youth in Africa.

She argued that whereas some experts say the jobs may go to South East Asia, that part of Asia does not have the huge numbers of people to work in the factories.

"This is why Africa, I would say there is a golden opportunity. It is a continent with more than 1.2 billion people, most of them are young people desperate for jobs," she said.

The movement of labor intensive industries has caused a jump start to the economic transformation of countries that strategized, according to Hai. She sighted Japan and South Korea in the 1960s and 1980s.

Other experts argued that there is a general understanding in many African countries that industrialization will be critical in fast tracking their economic development.

Uganda, for instance, has set up over 20 industrial parks and some economic free zones to attract investors, according to Uganda Investment Authority, the state-run investment promotion agency.

The industrial park model in Ethiopia is already creating thousands of jobs, according to Hai.

Fred Muhumuza, an economist and also a lecturer at Makerere University, Uganda's top university, told Xinhua in an interview that as Africa positions itsself to benefit from the industrialization movement, it must focus on agriculture because that is where a bigger percentage of its population derives its livelihood.

Muhumuza also argued that while China has been critical in financing the infrastructure development in Africa, Africa needs to learn from China's style of governance that has catapulted its economic development.

"There is zero tolerance of corruption in China, their institutions are literally neat and coordinated, here one ministry does not talk to the other. It is time for us to begin engaging China on how to get an efficient government," he said.

The meeting, according to the organizers, laid a foundation for Uganda's participation in the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit to be held in Beijing next month.

The forum is also expected to give domestic investors an opportunity to partner with investors from China.

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