Why Africa must ensure beneficial ties with China, others, by experts

Experts have urged the continent’s governments to ensure they negotiate balanced and mutually-beneficial ties with China and other western countries.

They urged African leaders to harness the potential provided by Chinese equipment companies to ensure that they deepen technology transfer and integration.

They spoke during a historic webinar with the theme, “China-African Relations: The Myth, Lies and Truth”.

Most of the experts who dismissed alleged spying by China in governments’ buildings, said it was very difficult to make comments on those issues without enough details.

They noted that Africa could not rely completely and forever on Chinese technology.

“We must borrow from it and adapt to our system. We must remove our import dependence. China should be our partner in training and technology transfer,” Adesina said.

Judge Kunda said: “For me, having the Chinese in Africa is not a bad thing, but for any relationship, there are supposed to be terms and conditions.”

She also noted that Africa has an advantage in its ties with China, “because we have the manpower and we have the resources”.

Okechukwu, in his comments, noted: “Another thing that we must understand here is the fact that relationship with China is a historic opportunity.

“We have had to contend with a partner that is willing, but not able and a partner that is able but not willing. But, China is a partner that is able and willing. But, nobody is saying that.

“Like a former Chinese leader once said, when you open your window to get some fresh air, some mosquitoes will come in the process. But a wise man should not shut the window.”

Dosunmu, who dismissed the idea of China spying on Africa, said with the stage that the continent is today, African should thank Chinese technology.

“China has original equipment manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE. At the other end, we have Ericson, the Motorola of this world and other technology companies. We never had it so good. But today, with the incursion of Chinese technology companies, we have seen the penetration of the internet and telephoning services deepening in diverse areas of Africa,” he said.

Adesina, while addressing how best Nigerians and others can use technology and innovation to better negotiate, said: “Innovation or technology cannot be just for its sake. Like earlier speakers have said, Africa today is where China was in 40 years ago.

“So, one of the things we are going to learn from China is how they got out of the wood. How they got away with chronic underdevelopment and one of the models available is the Chinese model of Import substitution Industrialisation (ISI).

“They started with Chairman MAO coming in and saying China must eat only what it can produce. So, they start by getting food production under your control. So, you do away with everything that you import and you begin to make use of simpler technology to replace those items on the import substitution list. That is how you determine development at a micro-level. China already has a model for this. So, we have a lot to learn.”

Source: ournaijanews.com