10. Mai 2019, 10:00-12:30 - Alois Wagner-Saal im C3, Sensengasse 3, 1090 Wien

The role of China in Africa's industrialisation

Most African countries are highly reliant on primary commodity exports. China has made commitments to enhance Africa's industrialisation and economic diversification, e.g. through the China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation Fund. Industrialisation holds promise for a more inclusive and sustained pattern of development. At the same time, African countries have become the center of Chinese overseas investments in order to fuel its own economic strategies. In other words: China’s economic engagement on the continent is also driven by the appetite for Africa’s large reservoir of natural resources.

We will explore the following questions:

- Are there mutual benefits between Africa and China in carrying out industrial capacity cooperation? How can African countries make the best use of the relationship to China?
- Is the integration into global value chains the key to sustainable industrialisation and job creation? And if so, can China, based on its own experience, contribute to assisting African countries to move up value chains, in technological and social terms?

Or wouldn`t it be better to promote the regional before the global, i.e. a political and economic regional integration?

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Speakers:

Anzetse Were (Development economist and independent consultant, Nairobi, Kenya)

Jue Wang (Political economist and lecturer, Leiden University, NL)

Comment:

Cornelia Staritz (Development economist at the Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna)

Chair:

Karin Fischer, Mattersburg Circle/VIDC

Welcome & introduction:

Franz Schmidjell, VIDC

Officials, scholars, students and members of NGOs interested in global political economy and development are cordially invited to attend. The workshop will be held in English. For organizational reasons please register: Mr. Franz Schmidjell, schmidjell@vidc.org

Anzetse Were is a Nairobi-based development economist and independent consultant. She works on development, manufacturing and industrialisation, regional integration and investment impacts with a special focus on Sino-African Relations. She is a weekly columnist for Business Daily Africa; her work is disseminated by many media houses and television networks in Africa and beyond. Her articles can be accessed from her blog https://anzetsewere.wordpress.com/

Jue Wang is a political economist at the Institute for Area Studies at Leiden University Institute for Area Studies. Her research focuses on China’s political economy, its external economic relationships and its role in regional and global economic governance. She also has a wide range of research interests in international economic organizations, international cooperation, and the development of emerging economies. She is an associate fellow for the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Cornelia Staritz is an economist with a research focus on development economics and policy, international trade, global production networks, and commodity-based development. She is Tenure Track Professor in Development Economics at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna. Further, she is research associate at the Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE) and at Policy Research on International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM) at the University of Cape Town.

In cooperation with:

Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation

With support of the Austrian Development Agency:

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