Chinafrik –Economic Model and Blueprint for African Development.

CHINAFRIK as a concept is defined as ”the process wherein developing states in Africa adopt economic measures from China and localize such measures for their respective development.

While the developed countries of the world worry over the management of technological breakthroughs and volatile economic landscapes, many developing and underdeveloped nations are cringing in poverty, hunger and starvation, woeful health conditions, high maternal and child mortality rates, energy crisis, and high incidences of corruption, among others.

Most Africa countries, unfortunately, find themselves in the latter categories. The failure of African  nations to develop and match such countries as the Asian Tigers, who started the race to nationhood with us, is essentially a leadership problem, a self-imposed crisis of underdeveloped psyche that makes our leaders enslaved to primordial instincts. They focus on power acquisition as a means to self-aggrandizement; undoing and sometimes, complete elimination of perceived enemies.

Consider a report by GOLDMAN SACHS: The rise of the BRICs(Brazil, Russia, India and China). Goldman Sachs had to say in its original report, ”Dreaming with BRICs: The path to 2050,” published in 2003; that: China’s economy will surpass Germany in the next few years, Japan by 2015 and the United States by 2041. India’s growth rate will be the highest – not China’s- and it will overtake Japan by 2032. Taken together, the BRICs could be larger than the United States and the developed economies of Europe within 40 years.

According to the Goldman Sach’s report, the economy of China overtook Germany’s a year earlier than expected, and has already overtaken Japan’s by July 2010. It is now believed that the Chinese economy will overtake the United States by 2027. And with India accounting for 10 of the 30 fastest growing urban areas in the world and 700 million people moving to cities by 2050, its influence on the world economy will be bigger and quicker than was implied in 2003 (source: Wikipedia).

Closely following the BRIC prediction is the 2004 Report on the NEXT ELEVEN (N-11), in which Nigeria is included among eleven nations also warming up to assert themselves in the global economic map. While China overtakes the United States as the greatest economic power in the world by 2047, Nigeria would become the 20th largest economy by 2025 and the 12th by 2050 ahead of G-7 giants, Italy and Canada.

Of interest to me is that the BRICs have gone through abject poverty, but armed with a strong demographic profile, vast natural resources and an adjusted purposeful leadership with vision, have asserted themselves in the new economic order where demography has become a major factor in a world of competitiveness. They planned for it, made it work and today are economically challenging the G-7 nations. The same story can be an economic reality for Africa if African leaders and the African people can show the same spirit of national interest, patriotism, and selfless devotion to the development of the continent.

The development of most western economies and the G-7 nations can be attributed to investments in science and technology. Nations such as the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Japan, Korea and China, among others, are economically developed today largely due to strong and dynamic technological-based system. Needless to say, science and technology are not the only basis for the attainment of economic growth and development around the world. There are economies that appear technologically disadvantaged but have been able to pride in their local resources or strength to achieve optimum development. In other words, they have learnt to globalize the local, and localize the global for their development. That is exactly what China did, and that is what needs be replicated locally by Africa nations. Today, the economies of China and India thrive, amongst others, on healthcare. Brazil has been able to develop soccer locally to a world-class level. Others have invested in the area of tourism for their economic development.

A call goes out in this respect to African leaders under the auspices of the African Union. As addressed in an earlier article titled ‘GLOCALISATION, in my view, African Union should positively challenge itself towards what China has been able to achieve today in economic terms. If nations such as Brazil, India and China who started the race to nationhood building with nations in Africa such as Nigeria, Ghana, and South-Africa can achieve this much economically, then the latter can do it with commitment and determination. To this end, the African Union should collaborate with sub-regional bodies such as ECOWAS, SADC in the actualization of CHINAFRIK locally. There is the need to locally identify what defines each region in terms of its resources and potentials. This should be followed by an integrated developmental framework, short or long-term, designed for each respective region out of the identified potentials therein. Such a framework or model needs to outlive any government in power in all the states concerned.

The end product we envisioned to see is an Africa with globally recognized in academic prowess and intellectual proficiency, an Africa with the North reckoned globally in sports and healthcare, the East recognized globally in tourism and athlete, and the South globally reckoned in international diplomacy and academics. Consolidating efforts by the AU and sub-regional bodies in this respect over a reasonable period of time will take the continent to her rightful position among the comity of nations. The common practice of employing the services of foreign expatriates in human and infrastructural projects needs to be discontinued henceforth by African leaders. Until we begin to believe and pride in ourselves as a people, much of our desired expectations will not begin to materialize. Juxtaposing and applying the principles inherent in both ‘Glocalization’ and CHINAFRIK will result in an African continent that the citizenry will be proud of. It is our individual and collective responsibility to make Africa a continent of global recognition in human and infrastructural development.

Let’s DO it NOW!

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