Chinese foreign capital and Africa's quest for development: Determining the real positive and negative impacts.
Keywords:
Afro-China, emerging, engagement, foreign capital, Sino-Africa relations, 21st CenturyAbstract
This study sought to investigate the real impacts of Chinese foreign capital on Africa’s economic development. The emergence of China as one of the most prominent 21st Century development partners of Africa has been aided by China’s non-ideological foreign affairs policy of non-interference. China has consistently provided the much-needed financial capital and technical knowhow to different African countries with glaring positive impacts with optimists citing the use of China’s Official Development Assistance in form of concessional loans, zero-interest loans and grants to enhance Africa’s transport, energy, industry and telecommunication sectors. On the contrary, pessimists cite neo-colonialism tendencies and insist that such development projects have generated little if any tangible benefits for African economies while adversely increasing the continent’s debt burden. The latter believe and are adamant that Africa has rich minerals and natural resources that can provide great economic development if well harnessed and the proceeds rightly invested. Using Zimbabwe and Ethiopia as case studies, this paper attempted to determine the real impacts of Chinese funding to different African countries from the perspective of positive and negative impacts.
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