This thematic seminar taking place on June 27, 2019 gathered officials from African countries including Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Angola, Benin as well as officials of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and of the Hunan province. Participants discussed ways to attract more investment using platforms like economic and trade cooperation zones, which include special economic zones (SEZs), industrial parks, free trade zones and many other forms.
Economic and trade cooperation zones were proposed by the MOC back in 2006 as an important mechanism to facilitate Chinese investment in Africa and the two parties’ cooperation of production capacity. After 13 years of development, today there are 25 cooperation zones registered with MOC in Africa, which host over 430 enterprises with an accumulated investment of 6.6 billion dollars, who then employ 40,000 non-Chinese workers and have paid taxes and fees accumulating to one billion dollars. China is perceived by many as the most successful country in making use of economic zones to fuel its development, and the Chinese government and enterprises, are hoping to transfer their development experience to Africa while also gaining the advantages of policy incentives, infrastructure development and clustering effects.
Ruoyu Chen, NYU Business and Political Economy
China-Africa Stories Contributor
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Written from sources:
http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2019-07/09/content_5407514.htm
http://www.hunan.gov.cn/szf/zfld/wgy/hd5/201906/t20190628_5368038.html
