|
|
|
|
| Features |
| China in Africa |
|
by
Mzati Nkolokosa, 16 February 2007
-
10:16:35
|
President Hu Jintao of China finished his eight country African tour last week. The government of Malawi does not have formal ties with China despite calls by some local NGOs that China is better than Taiwan. Mzati Nkolokosa (MN) spoke with trade policy analyst Patrick Kanyimbo (PK), who is in Trinidad and Tobago on Commonwealth assignment. Excerpts:
MN: Trinidad and Tobago, six hours time difference with Malawi, what are you doing in this corner of the world?
PK: I am on an assignment with the Commonwealth Secretariat to work on an initiative called the Hub and Spokes Project whose objective is to assist Commonwealth Members in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific in the area of trade policy formulation, negotiation and implementation. My official designation is Trade Policy Analyst, and that should be self-explanatory.
MN: How does Malawi benefit from what you are doing there?
PK: Every country takes pride when its citizens are not doing ‘dead end’ jobs. I am accumulating a wealth of experience, which will benefit my country in some way. Countries such as India have developed because of the experience and investment brought in by their diaspora. I also think I am Malawi’s flag carrier in Trinidad and Tobago.
MN: You recently appeared in Trade Links newsletter, putting Malawi on the map, what else are you doing to market Malawi?
PK: I take every opportunity to put Malawi on the map and Trade Links was certainly a good platform to do that. Recently, I had a chat with members of a Pan-African group at a local college and they agreed to invite me to make a presentation on Malawi. That will be another opportunity to promote Malawi because there is a lot of ignorance and stereotyping about Africa. The international media has actually exacerbated these misguided perceptions.
I also try to flaunt everything Malawian in a typical Kaliati-style. Out of the office you are likely to see me in my Nzika attire, playing Malawian music and flying a miniature flag on my car and this creates curiosity and invites questions from on-lookers.
MN: Political parties here are naming their possible presidential candidates in 2009. They will soon be telling us what they will do for Malawi. But we haven't yet said what we want. What do you want for Malawi that the candidates should consider?
PK: What do I want for Malawi? I want Malawi to graduate into a middle-income country by 2020. Therefore, I want a leader who can be trusted with the responsibility of realising our shared vision. I want more Malawians to have access to employment, better health care, quality education, enough food and good infrastructure. Right now most Malawians barely exist in pathetic conditions: leaking houses, food insecurity and no access to health care. My prospective leader should be patriotic, selfless, corruption-free and well vested in developmental issues as opposed to a doltish figure, only wise in the traditional way. Not for a 21st Century president!
MN: President Hu Jintao of China was in Africa visiting eight countries including Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa and not Malawi because we are friends with Taiwan. Some quarters have called for partnership with China, but government is still with Taiwan. Do you think we really need to talk to China?
PK: First we have to ask ourselves what we want from China and what they would want from us. China is only courting African countries to exploit our natural resources and raw materials in much the same way the West did after World War II. There is talk of China-Africa trade increasing to almost $30 billion. But when you analyse that trade, it has two halves. African natural resources going to China and cheap manufactured goods heading to Africa.
In addition, China is investing substantially in Africa, but that’s mainly in infrastructure needed to extract these natural resources. Since Malawi does not have the natural resources that Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique have, I don’t expect much in terms of investment flows from China. Besides, Chinese investors have a track record of abusing their workers as evidenced by recent protests in Zambia. My expert advice is that Malawi should not simply jump on the bandwagon without a rigorous analysis of the costs and benefits.
MN: And let’s do a simple analysis of China and Taiwan in Malawi.
PK: Taiwan has done a lot for Malawi in Agriculture, health and technical education. I had the privilege of visiting that country in 2001 to study their industrialisation model and was impressed by their technological advancement. They have their own Silicon Valley at Hsinchu and I think Malawi would benefit more if we emphasised tapping Taiwanese technological capabilities in the cooperation package.
MN: But in terms of trade, perhaps China offers better opportunities than Taiwan.
PK: In trade matters, the devil is always in the detail. You need to critically analyse aggregates. China buys mostly raw materials from Africa, produced by low margin businesses that use unskilled labour. This is hardly the way to build a modern economy for us. Further, China may flood its cheap manufactured goods in our markets thereby delivering the knock-out blow for our domestic industry. The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy prioritises manufacturing in such sectors as textiles and agro-processing. Do you think we have any chance to export textiles or any processed product for that matter to China?
MN: China has been blamed for supporting dictators in Zimbabwe and Sudan, for example. China is also hindering the coming of UN forces in Darfur. But in history we find that all great powers have worked with dictators. Saddam Hussein was built by Americans, so too Osama bin Laden. There should be a way of working with China—if need be—without losing our path to mature democracy?
PK: The lure of China is that it does not tie its aid to domestic politics and human rights issues. And that is exactly why people like Omar-al Bashir and Robert Mugabe like China. I believe that with the kind of leaders we have in Africa, that is recipe for disaster. If you recall, it took Western donors withdrawing non-humanitarian aid to Malawi for Kamuzu to call for a referendum in 1993. I am not saying the West have reached a moral high ground. Look at what they are doing in the Middle East. But I still think they are the lesser evil.
MN: Do you think of any advanced diplomacy that can afford us the opportunity to be friends with both China and Taiwan?
PK: I doubt if such a possibility exists. China does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. You either cooperate with China and dump Taiwan or maintain the status quo. You cannot have both. You cannot eat your cake and have it, too.
MN: A recent world tourism report shows Southern Africa is the preferable destination of tourists from the West. This is an opportunity for us. With your experience there, what should we do to attract tourists?
PK: I have not seen that report, but if it’s true then that’s a positive development and we need to augment it. The Caribbean is a tourist haven and I’ll tell you where we in Malawi have failed: First, we have not got the basics right. We need to improve our infrastructure.
Imagine, if you may, a European tourist travelling from KIA to Salima. If she needs to rest, the only ‘rest stop’ for her is at one of the few bars on the way. Many of these have very untidy toilets. If the bar is not considered an option, Madam Tourist will have to do it against a tree, like many Malawians do. That’s no way to attract tourists.
Again, banks have opted to install ATMs at university campuses but not at the lakeside resorts. It is these basic things that matter and you can compile a long list of them. And then there are issues of access roads to tourist attractions and unavailability of direct flights into Malawi.
Another big thing is the marketing Malawi as a tourist destination. Today, if you search for Malawi in gooogle, just see the negative stories that come up. Tourists are not attracted by our level of poverty or how many Aids orphans we have. Tourists are consumers who want to get value for their money. They do not come for charity.
That’s the difference between Malawi and the Caribbean. In the Caribbean they have got the basics right and they have marketed their countries very well. And all this requires serious attention by government, because it costs money and good planning. The 2010 World Cup at our doorstep is a golden opportunity to showcase to the world what Malawi has to offer. We need to be pro-active.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
