MANY in Africa wrongly believe that the best, or only way, to benefit from China’s rapid high economic and technological development is to flood the primary and secondary sectors of our own economies with Chinese businesses.
On the contrary, the key to benefitting from China is for African countries to adopt similar economic policies as those implemented in China.
Although our situations vary in many ways, whatever could be of benefit to us should be made use of.
Most African countries recently came out of colonisation by the West.
After acquiring independence and freedom, we realised Westerners were still owning key sectors of the economy including land, coastal areas and so on, thus controlling the agriculture, mining and international trade of our countries.
Zimbabwe successfully re-acquired land from the former colonisers and returned it to her indigenous people.
This land is mostly used for cultivation.
We are yet to make a dent in the mining sector as most of the minerals are still extracted and sold by foreign companies.
With the Look East Policy, the Chinese have been invited to invest and participate in the ownership and running of mines.
The argument is indigenous people lack the financial and technological capacity to do so themselves.
Thus the only notable empowerment Zimbabweans have been given is a ruling that allows for locals to own at least 51 percent stockholdings while foreigners can own at most 49 percent.
These figures may seem empowering, but on the ground, it is hard to tell if an actual change in terms of revenue allocation has taken place.
For example, some influential individuals have simply seen to it that the paperwork conforms to the 51 percent indigenous and 49 percent foreign stockholding requirement, yet in reality, they own few or no shares.
They simply get a ‘cut’ from the foreign investors.
Even if blacks were to truly own 51 percent of stockholdings in the mining sector, as long as they do not participate in the actual running of the business, there is no way of knowing the true revenue and costs incurred.
This leaves room for organised deception.
The indigenous people of Africa will have to also participate in decision-making, risk-taking and technological transfer in order for them to truly be involved in the business.
The indigenes must not merely sit at home in ignorance and then wait to receive a ‘cut’ at the end of a financial year; trusting the figures that have been presented on financial reports that they can neither confirm nor dispute because they were not at all involved in the running of the business.
If such a stance continues, this will inevitably lead to the same situation we had when the mining sector was under Western ownership with only a few individuals benefitting only from receiving money.
Let us now look at how China conducts business with foreign investors in the agricultural, mining and industrial sectors.
This will expose measures we can emulate from them to ensure that dealing with foreign investors will benefit rather than exploit us.
First, in China, no foreigner can own Chinese land.
The land is held sacred in China and is Government-owned.
Though developed in some areas that are particularly east bound as a result of sea access, most of China is rural and depends on agriculture which is done on a subsistence and commercial level.
Food security depends on this primary sector and the Chinese by no means give way for non-Chinese to participate in owning their land.
Most African nations have no such land ownership policies regarding foreign investors. That is why we see local farms and mines being American, white South African or Chinese-owned.
Without imposing limits on land ownership on foreigners, our food and mineral security of the country is compromised.
China also has minerals.
The mines can only be run by Chinese companies in collaboration with the Government.
Beneficiation is done in the country and the minerals only leave the country in a finished state.
This adds value to the minerals and thus increases the revenue in the country.
Most African nations export their minerals.
This means the minerals would have been exported in their raw state and any added value after beneficiation will not be of benefit to us.
China’s rare earth minerals are often used for technological purposes such as phone and computer parts.
China thus processes the beneficiated minerals into these technical parts and this again adds value to the minerals.
When Africans buy jewellery from the West, does it not occur to them that those expensive rings and necklaces were made out of their gold or diamonds which were cheaply exported to Europe?
If we beneficiated the minerals, processing them into jewellery locally, all the added value would benefit us, not the West.
Foreigners can only partner with Chinese businesses beginning at the level of industry, which is a tertiary part of the economy.
The key word here is ‘partnership’.
Every foreign business in China is part Chinese in both stockholding and its day-to-day running.
In many places in Africa, we have seen the Chinese bringing their own labourers to undertake certain projects.
In China, it is unheard of for foreigners to become general labourers even in foreign-owned businesses.
Foreigners are only permitted to work in administrative positions and can in no way threaten the employment opportunities of the locals.
Some may argue the Chinese cannot communicate with us when in Africa and it is better for them to work with their own labourers.
This may be true, but humans have the capacity to learn languages besides their own.
In China, if a foreigner seeks employment, even in a foreign company, one must have basic understanding of the Chinese language and should attend language training courses.
The only occupation that may excuse this requirement is teaching foreign languages and also entertainment, but understanding Chinese is an added advantage.
Many Africans are learning the Chinese language in order to effectively communicate with them (the Chinese).
In our home ground, it should be the other way round.
If a Chinese national comes to Zimbabwe for work purposes, he ought to grasp the basics of the Shona or Ndebele language and culture in order to be able to communicate with locals.
In China, they even have a Chinese proficiency exam for foreigners called Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi ‘HSK’, which determines how well the foreigner speaks, writes and reads Chinese.
We ought to have the same requirements for foreigners in Africa so as to make sure they have no need to replace our labourers with their own because of linguistic differences.
This is not to discourage Africans from learning Chinese or other foreign languages, but we should at least meet half-way.
China has a very large population and if such measures are not implemented in Africa, employment opportunities for blacks will decrease in proportion to the increase in foreign investment and development.
Foreigners must realise that blacks, like any other humans on this planet have two hands, two legs and a mind not inferior to the other races.
We are capable of handling any task we are trained to undertake.
Ethiopia has what is presently the largest industrial park in Africa, which they built in collaboration with the Chinese.
The technical colleges have black teachers, some of whom were trained in China.
The factories also employ their own black labourers.
They first receive diplomas in their particular fields from the technical colleges that were strategically set up by the Ethiopian Government.
The machinery is mostly imported from China, but the raw materials and labour force are sourced locally.
This increases opportunities for the indigenes and productivity.
The unemployment rate of Ethiopia which holds the second largest population in Africa, after Nigeria, has since seen a notable decrease.