China’s new quality productive forces to spur growth in Africa

Published: March 22,2024

Peter Kagwanja

A view of Nairobi, capital of Kenya, July 8, 2023. /Xinhua

Africa closely followed China’s “Two Sessions” held in Beijing earlier this month because of the policy implications of the event for China-Africa cooperation.

Africa’s key takeaways from China’s annual political event are the pivot by the world’s second-largest economy to the paradigm of “new quality productive forces” to spur high-quality growth. This paradigm is about innovations in new technologies as a strategy to spur efficient and high-quality production in the domestic economy and to emphatically transform the global economy in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.

At its core, the new quality productive forces signal a major shift in China’s economic thought. It must be understood within the larger canvass of the Chinese dream of developing “China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.”

Cast on a global scale, the new quality productive forces signify a quest for a people-centered and balanced development that at once promotes inclusive human development and secures the planet. The new economic thinking highlights the role of research and innovation especially in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing as new drivers of growth and development.

Since its reform and opening-up more than 40 years ago, China has leveraged technological advances to become a major power, with the world’s second-largest economy and a huge diplomatic muscle – the first great power to achieve this feat without colonizing other countries.

Besides, China has used its scientific and technological progress to not only uplift its own poor from poverty but also provide global public goods to prevent the world from collapsing into depression and war. Africa is set to benefit from China’s pivot to new quality productive forces which has far-reaching implications for its relations with Africa.

This year, China and Africa will hold the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. Expectedly, the tri-annual summit will stridently shift China-Africa cooperation to the new quality productive forces to accelerate high-quality development in Africa. The turn to the new quality productive forces will enhance the existing model of China-Africa cooperation. For centuries, the bilateral partnership has been defined by mutual respect, equal partnership, win-win cooperation and solidarity and to realize a common China-Africa future of shared destiny and prosperity. 

A view of the Kribi Deep Sea Port in Kribi, Cameroon, March 15, 2022. /Xinhua

In recent decades, this partnership has revolved around FOCAC. Since its launch in 2000, the ensuing bilateral partnership has transformed Africa’s development landscape, changing its image from a “hopeless” to a “hopeful” continent and an “Africa rising.” Focus should now turn to sharing knowledge and skills in new quality productive forces as the surest way for Africa to escape the poverty trap and global marginalization.

Moreover, at least 52 African countries and the African Union Commission participating in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) stand to benefit from the focus on new quality productive forces. Partnering with Africa in energy and technology will help China deliver global public goods to the continent.

Moreover, the idea of new quality productive forces provides a new framework for the two sides to cooperate in charting independent paths to modernization. It also carries the promise of accelerating the high-quality implementation of African Agenda 2063, the continent’s development blue-print. The new paradigm will also be central to Africa’s efforts to land the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the single largest market bloc in the world today.

The rise of new quality productive forces is also poised to positively transform the current West-dominated world order, replacing the idea of hegemony with a more egalitarian and equal multipolar world. A pivot to new technologies will consolidate China’s position as the leading country in the global economy.

Today, China is the “world’s factory” and a main trading partner for over 140 countries and territories, contributing more than 30 percent to the global economy. By 2023, China was contributing more to global growth than all the G7 countries combined.

China is surging ahead and is in a leading position in scientific research and innovations in new technologies especially in the areas of new energy, hi-tech manufacturing, and artificial intelligence. For example, it is by far the world’s leader in the production and use of solar photovoltaic panels and other clean and green energy products.

The new concept will ride a solid architecture of global solidarity that Chinese leaders and partners have put together in the post-pandemic era. It is best represented by the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which President Xi Jinping unveiled to provide global public goods and help the global community and the United Nations achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Global security and harmony among human civilizations are required to move the new quality productive forces to greater heights and to realize high-quality growth. In this regard, China has mooted the Global Security Initiative (GSI) as a framework to promote global stability and address common security challenges. In the same vein, the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) will help humanity uphold the principles of multilateralism and international solidarity.

The paradigm of new quality productive forces to leverage high-quality growth and development will help meet the shared desire of all people to work together to overcome difficulties. It will help realize the dream of a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious world as a global community of shared future. 

Peter Kagwanja is the President and Chief Executive at the Africa Policy Institute (API) in Nairobi, Kenya. This article is an excerpt from a speech during the Seminar jointly hosted by the API and the China Media Group (CMG) on “Enhancing China-Africa Cooperation in New Quality Productive Forces to Realize High Quality Growth” on March 11, 2024.

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