by LUKE MONTGOMERY ZUNGA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – IN planning long term development – the entry point is to lay required infrastructure.
China was the biggest borrower from the World Bank for 30 years before 1994, laying down electricity grids, roads, railways, health and education.
Then China started growth by financing Chinese citizens into industrial programs. Those sudden activities lured foreign investors.
Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi and Vice Premier He Lifeng welcomed a group of leading United States of American business executives into Beijing on Monday for a week long visit to China.
The delegation, described as heavy weight, was there for the third plenum of the US-China Business Council, to improve relations and cooperation between USA and China, the two biggest economies in the world.
Led by the President of US-China Business Council Craig Allen, the group of US executives included FedEx Corporation President and CEO Raj Subramaniam, Boeing Global Corporation CEO Brendan Nelson and executives of Goldman Sachs, Micron, Quadcomm, among others.
The policy of China is to welcome world political and business leaders, to open and to continue deep reforms in modernizing the Chinese economy.
The Chinese foreign minister, Yi summarized, “China’s policy toward the United States has been consistent and stable. We always hope to handle affairs with the United States in accordance with the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.
“We have always been committed to strengthening cooperation with the United States, managing differences, strengthening and expanding dialogue and cooperation, and striving to make China-US relations stable, sound and move forward,” Yi said.
This is the articulation of leadership.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of China was $564 billion in 1994, but galloped over 30 years to S$19 trillion in 2024, to be the second biggest economy in the world, second to the US approaching US$28 trillion.
Speaking of Chinese-style modernization, Wang said, “We follow the right path chosen by the Chinese people. We will neither copy foreign models nor export Chinese models. We are ready to strengthen exchanges and integration with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect.”
Business leaders see beyond everybody else. They come to visit a country doing well and to recognize China. Their landing was a show of respect to China as a world leader.
Africa must learn. Scottish Adam Smith, the first known economist born in June 1723, said, “…the real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.”
Where your mind ends is where you end. African countries should set up research desks to call on African researchers to drop in suggested economic programs to boost the economies of each country.
Currently the economics of Africa has no trajectory, limited to the borrowed knowledge of the Director-Generals, Permanent Secretaries, economists and accountants who accept His Masters Voice that all financial institutions and governments should not finance to start factories or other business operations, cutting out large pools of black people.
If nurtured to start, these are the businesses which will boost the economies, form business councils and grow the GDP from which to modernize the economy.
These are the people who will produce business executives. Contrary to this the president of South Africa is defending a court case brought by startups on this question, suggesting that the South African President agrees that black startups should not be funded. A startup is a business closest to starting.
What is happening in Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Niger, etc is a repeat of the Spring revolution. China follows the right path chosen by Chinese people.
What is the right path chosen by Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and countries in West and East Africa? Why is Africa unable to generate enough electricity, provide water and build good roads, health facilities and education? What do we learn from China?
NB: Luke Montgomery Zunga is a socio-economic and political commentator.
– CAJ News