Chinese Shoe Companies Start Looking For Investment Projects In Africa

Chinese enterprises have won widespread praise for their bold efforts to invest in the African market, fearless of risks and complexity.

Chinese enterprises are adopting new ways to invest in Africa.

If these changes are promoted, they will have a more positive impact on China's African development agenda and improve Africa's attitude towards Chinese enterprises.

In December 18th, the Brookings Institution website published the analysis article of Witney Schneidman, a visiting fellow of the Africa Growth Initiative global economic and development project group, and said that China has discovered new opportunities and new methods in Africa.

With the support of the government, China's state-owned enterprises have begun to find a market based alternative solution for their African investment projects, which may include financing methods such as western private equity funds.

An example of China's new thinking is that at the beginning of this year, the people's Bank of China and the African Development Bank jointly announced the establishment of a joint financing fund with a total value of 2 billion dollars.

The partnership between China and the African Development Bank has been accurately defined as "reshaping China's economic activities in Africa and improving its efficiency".

The pformation has created new opportunities for China to cooperate with the other African Development Bank donors, including the United States, in the three way cooperation.

In addition, China can take advantage of this new way of participation in international development institutions to better resolve business disputes.

China is also aware of the need for investment companies to integrate more actively into the local community in Africa.

In fact, although corporate social responsibility is still a new concept for many Chinese enterprises, in 2013, a report on Sino African Trade released by the international trade and Economic Cooperation Institute of China's Ministry of Commerce was concerned about this concept.

The report also said that 82% of PetroChina's employees in Africa (17600 people) were local.

China Minmetals Group employs 12500 locals in Zambia.

The decision to set up a shoe factory in Ethiopia also reflects China's new thinking of investing in Africa, making use of specific markets as a manufacturing platform and exporting products to the global market.

The rising labor cost is expected to enable the mainland to export 80 million manufacturing jobs abroad, and Chinese manufacturers and African governments see the opportunities that these jobs will bring to Africa.

Chinese enterprises have won widespread praise for their bold efforts to invest in the African market, fearless of risks and complexity.

But the failure of several big deals has made China realize that to win commercial success in Africa, it is not enough to rely solely on intergovernmental relations.

Lately,

The decision of the head office to withdraw from the Gabon iron ore project in Belinga (worth up to US $3 billion 500 million) is an example.

In order to achieve long-term business success in Africa, Chinese enterprises need to invest more in Africa, increase their substantive investment in Africa, abide by laws and regulations, and keep their business processes pparent.

Some officials of the Chinese government have recognized these realities, which may have a positive impact on China's investment activities in Africa.