Chinese, African thinkers unite in Mombasa

The Kenyan port is symbolic of what the Asian powerhouse and the giant continent can accomplish by joining forces

It was definitely not just luck or the lack of a better venue that led organizers of this year's China-Africa Media and Think Tank Symposium to choose Mombasa as the host city for the event.

Both scholars and media from China and Africa agree that it is difficult to overstate the importance of Mombasa not only to China-Kenya relations, but also Sino-African relations.

The coastal city has a lot of significance to the 10 Cooperation Plans envisioned by President Xi Jinping during the December 2015 Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Mombasa is also one of the main ports along the ancient maritime Silk Road that President Xi wants to revive by establishing a 21st-Century Silk Road.

Such a route would spur economic growth in the East Africa region as it would encourage exports and imports of goods between China and Africa. The maritime route also would promote Sino-African people-to-people exchanges and encourage tourism while at the same time dealing a blow to Sinophobia.

Mombasa has become an example of what can be done. Significant work in the city has already achieved initial results from Xi's cooperation plans in the areas that include industrialization, infrastructure, modernization of agriculture and poverty reduction.

The port city is the starting point of the $3.6 billion standard gauge railway project, which is 90 percent financed by China Exim Bank and will see the port of Mombasa connected with the capital, Nairobi, a distance of 472 kilometers. The master plan is to eventually connect the port of Mombasa via a modern railroad with Kenya's neighboring countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

Chinese infrastructure conglomerate China Road and Bridge Corp is the contractor working on the rail project as well as on the Mombasa Special Economic Zone.

The plan is to transform Mombasa into an economic zone similar to those in Shenzen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen in China. Such zones typically offer economic and other incentives for manufacturers and traders. As East Africa's largest and busiest port, Mombasa has the potential to reach higher levels of growth as a special economic zone, especially one linked by rail to such major regional urban centers as Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Kigali and Bujumbura.

With China now set to open a China-Africa Development Fund office in Nairobi, more Chinese enterprises and companies will be encouraged to open offices in East Africa to target the 42 million Kenyans, 140 million East Africans and the 400 million people within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.

During the Mombasa symposium, Shi Jiyang, president and CEO of the CAD Fund, said the Nairobi office is meant to spur China-Africa trade ties. This development is in line with the pledge Xi made during the FOCAC summit in Johannesburg to double China's cumulative direct investment in Africa.

The fund should encourage Chinese companies in areas of pharmaceuticals, steel and cement production, construction, telecommunications, textiles and fish processing to set up enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. These sectors are largely underdeveloped and therefore need to be exploited.

The CAD Fund has already helped Chinese companies invest in industrial parks in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The initiative should be replicated in other African countries such as Rwanda, Zambia and Uganda to help them achieve maximum economic growth. The fund also helped to finance the building of a port and an airport in Nigeria, as well as textile factories in Malawi, Zambia and Kenya.

The increase in investment in Africa would automatically improve ailing sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, security and industrialization, all vital areas for economic growth and development of African countries and the continent as a whole.

Chinese investment overshadows that of other Asian countries in Africa by a big margin. Sino-Africa cooperation, especially in trade, has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last decade. African countries have realized they have a true friend in China as the relationship has not only withstood the test of time, but also is not motivated by politics or resources.

The relationship, rather, hinges on common destiny, shared goals and mutual trust. China is also not a member of the G7 and is therefore not influenced by Western countries on matters to do with aid and loans to Africa. China advocates win-win cooperation with Africa and it believes investment is an important factor for Africa's development.

The media and think tank symposium was a huge success for a number of reasons. One, the convention enhanced exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African think tanks. Two, it afforded a chance to both scholars and media to give suggestions and advice on how best to implement the outcomes of the FOCAC Johannesburg summit.

The author is a PhD student at Kenyatta University in Nairobi and a contributor to China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/26/2016 page13)