The South-South Cooperation Impact On The Economic Development In Africa

The increasing role of large developing countries in global trade,finance,investment and governance,coupled with their rapid economic growth,has rekindledinterest in South-South cooperation and stimulated debate on its implications forAfrica's development．It has also'opened up opportunities for economic cooperationbetweenf Africa and other developing eountries,The share of developing countries inAfrica's total merchandise trade increased from 8 percent in 1980 to 29 per cent in 2008andlttheir share in inward foreign direct investment(FDI)flows to the region rosefrom anaverage of 12 per cent over the period 1995-1999 to 16 per cent over the period 2000-2008。ln recent years,African governments have scaled up efforts to seize theopportunities created by the increasing economic power and influence of largedeveloping counities through strengthening South -South cooperation．South-Southcooperation is not a new phenomenon in the region．Since the late l 950s．Africa has hadrelations with Southern countries focusing mostly 0n political issnes．More recemly,"thefocus of its engagement has shifted ti-om political to economic issues.and more countriesin the region are showing keen interest in furthering relations with the South；as amechanism for enhancing growth．reducing poverty and integraling into the globaleeonomyThis text argues that South-South cooperation has the potential to enhance Affica'scapacity to deal with the challenges of poverty,poor infrastructure:development ofproduclive capacity and emerging threats associated with climate change as well as thefood,energy,finandal and economic crises,These Po!entia!benefits of Cooperation arehoover not automatic．They are alSO jeopardizing efforts by African countries toachieve the Millennium Development Goals(MDGS),In this context,Afri-Southcooperation is seen asan impoortant elemem of a strategy to addtess the challenges andemerging threats facing the region．It also provides an opportunity for African countries to induce technological changes transform the stmcture of their eeonomies and lay thefounation for high and sustained growth．They accrue to countries thaf have takenadequate and proactive steps to exploit them．Against this background,the paperexamines Afriea's cooperation with the South with ia view to identifying how the regioncould make better use of these parthersNps tO further is long-run deVelOpment Objectives．Hower,we concentrate on the Asian drivers and did not consider other developingcoumry parthers。and we especially focus to the cooperation between China and Africaas an example.Neverheiess,the implications 0f the financial criscs on Africa-Southcoopmtion are excluded from:our seope of research．The friendly cooperation between China and Africa has a history of more than 2000years．The economic and trade relation between China and Africa has been importantcmponents of:Sino-African relations all the time．The estabiishment 0f the People'sRepublic of China has opened up a new era of Sino．African economic and trade feintion．In order to develop:the Sino,Affiean cooperation more deeply in 21st century,China andAfrica create a new 0f cooperation the forum on China—Africa Cooperat on(JFOCAC)．China's interests in Africa are motivated primarily by economics anddiplomacy．In other words,Africa is important to China as a vast Source of resources tofeed its growing manufacturing base,as well as a Source of energy security in addition:China sees Africa as an important destination for its affordable manufactured goods。China's interests in Africa．however,are not only confined to economics but extend tOdiplomacy as well China is attempting to position itself as an important power in theinternational system and,in so doing,promote its own views and policies withinintemafional multilateral organisations,After an in-depth examination of the evidence.China's engagement with Africa is based on strategic political and reconomicconsiderations and fits within a realist explanatory framework,It is therefore contendedthat China's presence Dn the Africa continent presents both opportunities as well asthreats,although African governments need tO be pro-active in order tO exptoill thepotential opportunities．Looking forward to the future,the Skino-African cooperation ineconomy and trade will have bright prospects in the new century． The full text is divided into five chapters and organized as follows:The introduetory chapter outlines the research question and the research methodology,The second chapter presents the main theories of international trade where Africa's cooperation with Southern partners is involved．The third chapter bases on the economic and commercial developmem of Africa's cooperation with develop ng coumries partners,giving a brief historical．perspective andthe main characteristics of this kind of partnerships．The fourth chapter analyses the trends of Africa's developing trade and economywith developing countries parther Furthermore．We"ll examine in detail the Sino-African economic and mtrade cooperalion noting that the bilateral trade grows rapidly．the structure unceasingly optimizes．the Sino-African trade has gradually developed fromthe general trade to mutual union way such as foreign investment．contract project.official development assistance．zero-interest loans and concessional loans for poor African countries．medical missions．etc．At the same time We'll also point out some problenls as:the economical and political riSk in Africa．the unbalance of Sino-Africantrade not real transfer of wealth．technology or skills to African coantries．Finally,the last chapter presencsm the main policy recommendations／future prospectstbr consideration by the Sino-African cooperation African coantries and Southernpartners for the dcvelopment in the region.