African Economic Integration Study

On the 21st century, economic globalization and regional economic integration has become an irresistible trend, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, the three major economic circles in the world economic pattern has been formed, African continent was increasingly marginalized because its economy can not get great benefits from the world development environment. Many countries in Africa are also aware that they can only through unity win in the international community's respect, so that they could seek greater economic benefits from the economic globalization. Given the uneven development of African countries, achieving economic integration in Africa as a whole can not be achieved in the short term. First, in order to strengthen regional integration and promote regional cooperation, going through economic integration in Africa as a whole has become the only way.With the deepening of economic globalization, the development of Africa in the political, economic, and social and other fields is facing enormous challenges; Africa needs a much higher authority to Organize African Unity. July 9, 2002, the African Union came into being, it's the birth of several generations of African leaders ideal, and unity has become reality for Africa.In the organizational structure, the "Charter of the African Union" has proposed towards African states the following:to enhance and protect human rights, consolidate democratic institutions and culture, to ensure good governance and the rule of law state, to achieve democracy and stability in Africa, for the purpose of promoting common development, the settings of the African Union's fourteen development goals,sixteen basic principles and nine organizational. Concerning economic development, the African Union has introduced the "New Partnership for Africa's Development", in order to eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable development objectives using specific development plan. This is a joint economic development plan of African countries, a strategic program to promote social progress, but also show that African countries hope to strengthen international cooperation on their own, into the international trend, and eventually proving a firm determination to achieve common development. However, the"New Partnership for Africa's Development" identified a number of high, not too realistic development objectives, coupled with the lack of strong financial support, so planning to fully achieve the goals will not be an easy task.In response to the challenges of globalization, African countries need to strengthen regional cooperation to promote African economic integration. From 1960, African countries have embarked on a path of regional cooperation, a number of regional economic organizations have been generated, but for various reasons, progress in economic integration in Africa is very slow. After 1990, the process of economic integration in Africa has speed up. At present, even though regional economic integration organizations in Africa have seen significant progress, but comparatively to other international economic integration organizations it's still in its beginning process. Even though there are still many internal and external constraints in Africa, the process of economic integration in Africa,and the joint efforts of African countries will make the continent's economy continue to move forward.The thesis is divided into 7 chapters.Chapter 1 is the introduction part of the topics, introducing the background of this research, the research background of this study is divided into the following two aspects: 1. Economic globalization and regional economic integration; 2. the importance of African economic integration to African countries. In this context, we also define the thesis research methods and put forward the innovation and weaknesses of it.Chapter 2 is the theory part. This chapter introduces the theory of regional economic integration. First discusses the development of regional economic integration, concepts and forms. Then analyzes the dependency theory and the relationship between sub-regional economic integrations, and then explores the developing countries sub-regional economic integration theory, and finally introduces the theory of economic integration in Africa. 3Chapter 3 is a historical process of economic integration in Africa with the status quo. This chapter first reviews the economic integration of Africa and trade development process of each historical period. It also traces the evolution process of thinking of AfricanUnity.Pan-Africanism ideology was first put forward in the 19th century. "Brotherhood of the black race" and the "African Personality" are linked to these concepts. The lawyer Henry Sylvester - Williams in 1900 in London organized a Pan-African Conference, after that,many conferences like this started being organized all over the world by African communities. After the Second World War, local leaders took over the pan-African banner of the African continent to promote the process of decolonization. Pan-Africanism movement is not only for the African continent to achieve national liberation, it also underlines the African unity, its ultimate goal is "to establish a federal or called the Pan-African organization called the United States of Africa." May 1963, 31 independent African nations leadership met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 25, they signed the "Charter of Organization of African Unity", they also declared that the Organization of African Unity was born. After the founding of the OAU, those leaders holded high the banner of unity, safeguarded independence and sovereignty of African countries and finally oppose to colonialism. After decades of unremitting efforts of OAU, with the support of world community, african people fought, and won independence. The OAU in the early 90s of last century had to struggle in order to achieve the goal of decolonization. The birth of the new South Africa in 1994, marking the end of colonial reign in Africa proved the entrance in a brand new historical era. This chapter also discusses the status of African economic integration and the main sub-regional Cooperation. After entering into the new century, speeding up the process of economic integration in Africa has become the revitalization of the 21st century based on the joint forces of Africa. Currently, African countries are taking some new substantial measures to promote the economic integration process and accelerate development. With economic globalization and the development trend of regional blocs, the African countries gradually realize that, the acceleration of regional economic integration is imperative for economic development in Africa. Currently, the 10 existing African regional economic integration organizations are stepping up to implemente the "African Economic Community Treaty", and strive to build in the 30 years of this century the African Common Market. In addition, after its establishment, the"African Union"will have bigger political impact so that it will create a favorable environment for the economic integration enhancement. In recent years, during the process of economic integration in Africa, the African sub-regional economic integration organizations development has made new improvements. In July 2004, Congo (Brazzaville) officially announced the launch of"Economic Community of Central African States"which is a free trade zone, during the free trade zone ?development; the relevant states will gradually reduce tariffs among member countries, their goal is that until January 1, 2008 to achieve zero tariffs. SADC in southern Africa has currently the biggest potential for development in Africa and also a relatively high level of regional cooperation among regional organizations.Chapter 4 analyzes the driving force in African economic integration. We believe that Africa's economic integration is led by the following three driving forces: the market, the system and the external factors. 1. The market factor: In December 1993, COMESA(common market for east and south Africa) was established, this regional organiation is Africa's largest and the world's fourth largest regional economic organization,its purpose is to strengthen economy and trade cooperation between Member States and the rational use of natural and human resources of the area, for the benefit of their people. At present, the Common Market has a total population of 380 millions, accounting for a little less than half of the total population of Africa. The GDP of the Common Market in 2009 reached 448 billion U.S. dollars, which is forecast to increase to US$ 512.6 billion in 2010, the growth rate is higher than 3% which is the average in Africa. 2. The system factor: African integration primarily represents system integration, so the level of institutionalization is an important reference to examine the development of African integration. Since the rise of African integration, African countries did a lot of efforts in building system's integration and the formation mechanism of these systems and rules, to some extent, regulate the behavior of nations, and promote the development of the integration process. With the establishment of regional organizations such as the"African Union", African countries "gradually formed a common position, join their actions and sometimes even the guidelines. And this is unthinkable in the past." 3. The external factors: the development of different international regional groups and their inter-linkages has made the African countries in the world economy's weak position even worse. For example, after the rise of the European union and its subsequent enlargement, the European countries have less interest and attention to Africa; the Free Trade Areas of the American continent,and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Framework rise and the emergence of capital in the newly industrialized countries of Asia and Latin America has gradually put Africa out of the world economy arena,putting Africa in a more difficult situation to access investments coming from developed countries.Chapter 5 talks about the obstacles that face the African economic integration. ?This chapter proposes several different aspects that block the process of regional economic integration in Africa. The first aspect is the political system; this refers to national sovereignty,the defects in government-led integration, the intervention of western powers in the process of African integration and the negative influence of political and ideological differences. Africa's economic integration also faces Macro economic and sustainable economic problems.Chapter 6 discusses the prospects of economic integration in Africa. This chapter analyzes the integration of economic cooperation. In particular cooperation, that includes trade liberalization and facilitation, monetary and financial cooperation and export of labor services and technical cooperation. This chapter also presented the regional economic integration choices in Africa; there is no doubt that African regional economic arrangements have indeed promoted the economic development of African countries. In this part we made comparisons between some African sub-regional organizations. The last part of this chapter discusses the direction and timetable of the African economic integration, and finally brought few suggestions in order to promote the African economic integration.Chapter 7 is the last chapter. It mainly analyzes the sino-african trade cooperation in the situation of economic integration in Africa. Trade between China and Africa has a long history and we first discussed the history and current situation of Sino-African trade. Later on, we discussed China's relations with the African economic integration organizations. China's assistance towards the"African Union"in its African integration task is remarkable. Finally, we suggested three points that could promote China-Africa trade development: 1. strengthen agricultural cooperation; 2. mineral resources development; 3. development of regional economic cooperation and strengthen exchanges.