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China Becomes Africa's Largest Trading Partner
2012-12-22 07:00:26
2012-12-22 07:00:26
This year, China has surpassed the United States and Europe as Africa's largest trading partner. Bilateral trade was around eleven billion US dollars in 2000 and reached 160 billion dollars in 2011.
Chinese businesses are putting their investments into Africa with overseas direct investment going from 500 million dollars in 2002 to nearly 15 billion last year. To see the direction Chinese businesses will be taking in Africa we go to Autumn Szeliga.
The CEO of Johannesburg-based marketing firm Brand South Africa, Miller Matola, outlines the reasons behind China's investments in Africa.
"It has admittedly huge natural resources, and obviously to fuel its growth China does need those resources but also Africa is a very resilient and growing economy if you consider what's going on in the eurozone and those believe that Africa has a role to play in assisting with the current economic challenges."
Africa has approximately 40 percent of the world's chromite, 60 percent of the world's cobalt and 20 percent of the world's gold.
The opportunities in Africa have brought over two thousand Chinese companies to do business on the continent.
Some criticize this investment as "neo-colonialism" by China.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton brought public attention to this during the summer..
"The days of having outsiders come and extract the wealth of Africa for themselves, leaving nothing or very little behind, should be over in the 21st century."
The Vice President of the China Institute of International Studies, Ruan Zongze, argues Chinese investments in Africa are far more diverse than just natural resources.
"The accusation for example says China just focuses on mining or resources issues, but apart from those, China is also very much focuses on agriculture and also focused on personnel training and to provide expertise for those people from Africa. And also China's enterprises, they learn to play a bigger part in exercising their social responsibility".
